Shape and Dimensional Precision in Polymeric Nanostructures

非技术概述：该项目的目标是开发新型聚合物基材料，这些材料在半个多世纪以来的技术水平上表现出独特的性能。塑料、橡胶、胶粘剂和轻质复合材料等软聚合物材料在消费品、交通运输、生物医学技术、制造和国家安全等领域对社会非常有用。在这个项目中，提出了一种新的聚合物材料，它结合了目前使用的软材料的有用特性，以及通过提供有益的化学分子、根据需要改变物理性质甚至自我修复来响应环境的能力。这些新型聚合物将被合成，并通过各种技术来研究它们的性能。该项目需要材料科学、合成化学、物理和计算科学的整合。因此，该研究项目是一个跨学科的平台，不仅可以促进许多技术的发展，还可以培养研究生和博士后研究员。它将帮助他们未来在工业、学术界或政府进行综合研究，以便开发在许多部门实施有价值的技术所需的新材料。此外，所有参与者将有机会与高中生和更广泛的社区进行接触。技术摘要：该项目的目标是开发基于超分子组分和共价大分子模板的单体之间的强烈和定向相互作用来控制聚合物的大小、形状和功能的策略。假设共价模板和超分子聚合物的同时形成可以产生具有大分子和超分子隔间的动态杂化结构。关键的策略是设计具有多种和强非共价相互作用潜力的单体。建议的化学包括以芳香族折叠剂或含氟甲基丙烯酸酯为模板，以及包含氨基酸序列的超分子聚合物。杂交物的一个潜在的新功能是将超分子组分输送到环境中，然后用额外的单体轻松地重建杂化结构。在另一种策略中，通过超分子聚合形成复杂结构的种子将由球形或圆柱形杂化材料播种。为了研究杂化化合物潜在的新功能，该项目还将研究将电子供体和电子受体结合在一起的系统。具有挑战性的合成工作将由博士后研究员进行，结构、功能和任何必要的计算工作将由研究生进行。这位博士后研究员将通过与研究生团队合作获得指导经验，两人都将参与与高中生和更广泛的社区的外联活动。与此同时，这项研究的高度跨学科性质将对所有参与者都有很大帮助。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The goal of this project is to develop novel polymer-based materials that exhibit unique properties above and beyond what has been available to technology at large for over half a century. Soft polymeric materials such as plastics, rubbers, adhesives, and lightweight composites have been extremely useful to society in consumer goods, transportation, biomedical technology, manufacturing, and national security, among other areas. In this project new polymeric materials are proposed that combine the useful characteristics of currently used soft materials with ability to respond to their environment by delivering beneficial chemical molecules, changing physical properties as needed, or even repairing themselves. These novel polymers will be synthesized and their properities studied by a variety of techniques. The project requires the integration of materials science, synthetic chemistry, physics, and computational sciences. The research project is therefore an interdisciplinary platform not only to advance many technologies, but also to train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. It will help them for future integrated research in industry, academia, or government in order to develop the new materials needed to implement technologies of value in many sectors. Furthermore, all participants will have opportunities to engage in outreach with high school students and with the broader community.TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The goal of this project is to develop strategies to control the size, shape, and functionality of polymers based on strong and directional interactions between monomers of a supramolecular component and of a covalent macromolecular template. It is hypothesized that the simultaneous formation of the covalent template and of the supramolecular polymer could yield dynamic hybrid structures with macromolecular and supramolecular compartments. The key strategy is to design monomers that have the potential for multiple and strong non-covalent interactions. The proposed chemistry involves aromatic foldamers or fluorinated methacrylates as templates and supramolecular polymers containing amino acid sequences. One potential novel function of the hybrids is delivery of the supramolecular component into an environment followed by the facile reconstitution of the hybrid structure with additional monomer. In another strategy, the formation of complex structures through supramolecular polymerizations will be seeded by spherical or cylindrical hybrids. In order to investigate the potential novel functionality of the hybrids, the project will also investigate systems that incorporate electron donors and electron acceptors. The challenging synthetic work will be carried by a postdoctoral fellow and the structural, functional, and any necessary computational work by a graduate student. The postdoctoral fellow will gain mentoring experience by working with a graduate student as a team, and both will participate in outreach activities with high school students and the broader community. At the same time, the highly interdisciplinary nature of the research will contribute greatly to all involved.