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、家用产品和家用电器、食品包装和医药。聚合物的性能由其组成成分的化学结构控制。制备具有新的或改进的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来将新的构建块连接在一起。在这个项目中，斯坦福大学的Robert Waymore教授和IBM Almaden实验室的James Hedrick博士正在开发一个广泛而通用的方法平台，以合成具有新的结构、性能和功能的新的构建块和定义明确的可生物降解聚合物。该项目提供了斯坦福大学和IBM Almaden实验室在NSF的GOALI计划(GRANT Opportunities for学术Liason with Industry)赞助下的学术/产业合作模式。它吸引了研究生和博士后学者参与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行业视角。该项目由化学部高分子、超分子和纳米化学项目资助，专注于新科学和技术的同步发展。具体地说，该项目的目标是开发1)对开环聚合具有活性和选择性的新型有机催化剂，2)合成新的单体(官能化内酯和环状碳酸酯)的新策略，以引发高分子材料的新性质和功能，3)新的解聚反应，以及4)可通过改变外部环境来调节结构和性能的新型“智能”水溶性共聚物。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，测试关于有机催化策略的不断演变的假说，并为这些合成策略的优点和局限性提供明确的科学理由。

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.