"Polymer conformation, Dynamics, and Morphology"

我的研究重点是开发新的基础科学知识，聚合物作为材料的领域，其中一个可以对现代技术产生影响。我们的大部分努力都致力于创造和研究在溶液中形成稳定胶体的聚合物物体，具有明确的形状和纳米或微米尺寸。在这个建议中，我描述了两个非常不同的项目。1)嵌段共聚物胶束。自2007年以来，我们已经发表了5篇开创性的论文（与I。描述了纳米线胶束在溶液中的形成，具有前所未有的胶束尺寸控制。这项工作改变了我们目前对嵌段共聚物胶束形成机制的理解，特别是当成核聚合物是结晶时。在这些研究中，聚二茂铁基硅烷（PFS）是成核嵌段，仍然是唯一类型的嵌段共聚物，可以形成纳米线胶束具有均匀和可控的长度。在这里，我描述了新的实验，以提供更深层次的机械理解为什么以及如何控制自组装是可能的。这一知识将用于将这种行为推广到结晶嵌段是共轭聚合物的其他嵌段聚合物。这些分子应该能够形成导电纳米线胶束，并有可能将它们作为半导体器件中的互连。2)在第二个项目中，我们将开发一类新的材料，热稳定微凝胶，作为DNA扩增（滚环或聚合酶链反应热循环）的支持框架。微凝胶是溶剂溶胀的交联聚合物颗粒。许多小组，包括我的小组，研究了在25-40 ℃温度范围内用于生物和其他应用的水性微凝胶，但只有很少的微凝胶在高温（60-100 ℃）下在水中稳定的例子，我们的微凝胶将具有用于附着生物分子（如DNA引物）的功能基团。与YF Li（McMaster）一起，我们将探索这些微凝胶在高温DNA扩增和DNA测序中的应用。

My research is focused on developing new fundamental scientific knowledge about polymers as materials in areas where one can have an impact on modern technology. Much of our effort is devoted to the creation and study of polymer objects that form stable colloids in solution, with a well-defined shape and with nanometer or micrometer dimensions. In this proposal I describe two very different projects of this type. 1) Block copolymer micelles. Since 2007, we have published 5 seminal papers (with I. Manners) describing the formation of nanowire micelles in solution with unprecedented control of micelle dimensions. This work has changed our current understanding of the mechanism of block copolymer micelle formation, particularly when the core-forming polymer is crystalline. In these studies, polyferrocenylsilane (PFS) was the core-forming block, still the only type of block copolymer that can form nanowire micelles with a uniform and controllable length. Here I describe new experiments to provide a deeper mechanistic understanding of why and how such control of self-assembly is possible. This knowledge will be used to generalize this behavior to other block polymers in which the crystalline block is a conjugated polymer. These molecules should be able to form conducting nanowire micelles, with the possibility of incorporating them as interconnects in semiconductor devices. 2) In a second project, we will develop a new class of materials, thermostable microgels, as a supporting framework for DNA amplification (rolling circle or polymerase chain reaction thermocycling). Microgels are solvent-swollen crosslinked polymer particles. Many groups, including mine, study aqueous microgels for biological and other applications in the temperature range of 25-40 C, but there are only rare examples of microgels stable in water at high temperatures (60-100 C), and our microgels will have functional groups for attaching biological molecules such as DNA primers. With YF Li (McMaster) we will explore the use of these microgels for high temperature DNA amplification and DNA sequencing.