GOALI: SusChem: Organocatalysis: A Platform for Sustainable Polymer Chemistry

聚合物是非常有用的现代材料，用于服装、家具、电子设备、家用产品和电器、食品包装和药品。聚合物的性能是由其组成部分的化学结构控制的。制备具有新性能或改进性能的聚合物需要使用新的嵌段，而这些聚合物的经济制造需要开发有效的合成方法将新的构建块连接在一起。在这个项目中，斯坦福大学的Robert Waymouth教授和IBM阿尔马登实验室的James Hedrick博士正在开发一个广泛而通用的方法平台，以合成具有新结构、特性和功能的新构建模块和定义良好的可生物降解聚合物。该项目提供了斯坦福大学和IBM阿尔马登实验室在NSF的GOALI计划（与工业界学术联络的资助机会）的支持下的学术/工业合作的模型。它吸引研究生和博士后学者在一个高度跨学科和协作的努力。不同寻常的教育环境包含了将基础科学转化为技术的学术和工业观点。该项目由化学学部大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目资助，重点关注新科学技术的同步发展。具体来说，该项目旨在开发1)具有活性和选择性的开环聚合的新型有机催化剂；2)合成新单体（功能化内酯和环状碳酸盐）的新策略，这些新单体可以通过链结引起大分子材料的新性质和功能；3)新的解聚反应；4)新型的“智能”水溶性共聚物，其结构和性能可以通过外部环境的变化来调节。科学方法的核心是强调机理和理论研究，以阐明有机催化聚合反应的机理细节，既可以测试关于有机催化策略的不断发展的假设，又可以为这些合成策略的优点和局限性提供明确的科学依据。

Polymers are highly useful modern materials for clothes, furniture, electronic devices, household products and appliances, food packages, and medicine. Polymer properties are controlled by the chemical structures of its building blocks. The preparation of polymers with new or improved properties requires the use of new blocking blocks, and the economical manufacturing of these polymers requires the development of efficient synthetic approaches to link the new building blocks together. In this project, Professor Robert Waymouth of Stanford University and Dr. James Hedrick of IBM Almaden Laboratories are developing a broad and versatile platform of methods to enable the synthesis of new building blocks and well-defined biodegradable polymers with novel structures, properties and function. This project provides a model academic / industrial collaboration between Stanford and IBM Almaden Laboratories under the auspices of NSF's GOALI program (Grant Opportunities for Academic Liason with Industry). It engages graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in a highly interdisciplinary and collaborative effort. The unusual educational environment embraces both academic and industrial perspectives on the translation of basic science into technology. This project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry program of the Chemistry Division focuses on the simultaneous development of new science and technologies. Specifically, this project aims to develop 1) new organocatalysts that are active and selective for ring-opening polymerization, 2) new strategies for the synthesis of new monomers (functionalized lactones and cyclic carbonates) that can be enchained to elicit novel properties and function for macromolecular materials, 3) a novel depolymerization reaction; and 4) new classes of "smart" water-soluble copolymers whose structures and properties can be modulated by changes in external environment. Central to the scientific approach is an emphasis on mechanistic and theoretical investigations to illuminate the mechanistic details of organocatalytic polymerization reactions, both to test evolving hypotheses on organocatalytic strategies and to provide clear scientific rationales for both the advantages and limitations of these synthetic strategies.