GOALI: CAS: Organocatalytic Reactions and Processes for Polymer Chemistry

化学系的大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目获得这一奖项，资助斯坦福大学化学系的Robert Way茅斯教授和IBM Almaden实验室的James Hedrick博士开发和探索新的催化剂和催化方法，以生成可生物降解的、功能性的和响应性聚合物。这些聚合物(包含许多通过化学键连接在一起的单体单元的大分子)被用作石化衍生塑料的替代品，并被用作生物医学应用的新的生物可降解材料家族。中心的重点是设计和表征环境友好、不含金属的催化剂，使其能够在大规模工业条件下最佳地生产聚合物。还研究了使用这些方法生成的聚合物的功能性质，如可降解性和生物相容性。该项目有效地促进了学术和产业在科学研究和学生培训方面的合作。这种合作改善了学术和产业的互动，这可以对学生和年轻研究人员产生非常积极的教育影响，他们很少接受关于如何将实验室产生的知识有效地转移到工业领域的教育。该项目有可能推进聚合物合成的新战略，并为下一代可再生塑料创造新技术。韦茅斯和海德里克的学术-工业团队开发了新的自动化连续流动反应器，旨在各种聚合条件下最佳运行。他们设计了基于方酰胺和吲哚羧胺及其相关结构的新催化剂家族。该团队依靠与质子转移相关的速率差异发明了“催化剂开关”策略，以实现聚酯和聚碳酸酯开环聚合中可扩展和可重复生成的嵌段共聚物库。它们还集成了合成功能单体和由其包裹产生的大分子的催化策略。重点是详细的机理和理论研究，以阐明有机催化聚合反应的机理细节。此外，还研究了仿生聚(α-氨基酯)在水介质中的降解途径。与该奖项相关的有机催化平台正在催生产生生物活性聚合物和低聚物的创新技术，这些技术可用作抗微生物制剂、药物输送的细胞转染剂、荧光和发光探针和遗传剂。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With this award, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry is funding Professor Robert Waymouth of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University and Dr. James Hedrick of IBM Almaden Laboratories to develop and explore new catalysts and catalytic methods for the generation of biodegradable, functional, and responsive polymers. These polymers (large molecules containing many monomer units linked together with chemical bonds) are targeted as alternatives to petrochemically-derived plastics and as new families of biodegradable materials for biomedical applications. The central focus is on the design and characterization of environmentally-benign, metal-free catalysts that enable optimum polymer production under large scale industrial conditions. Functional properties such as degradability and biocompatibility of the polymers generated using these methods are also investigated. The project effectively fosters academic and industrial collaboration on both scientific research and training of students. The collaboration improves academic-industrial interactions, which can have a very positive educational impact on students and young researchers who are rarely educated about the ways to efficiently transfer laboratory-generated knowledge into the industrial realm. This project has the potential to advance new strategies in polymer synthesis and create new technologies for the next generation of renewable plastics. The academic-industrial team of Waymouth and Hedrick develops new automated continuous flow reactors designed to function optimally under a variety of polymerization conditions. They design new catalyst families based on squaramides and indole carboxamides and related structures. The team invents “catalyst switch” strategies relying on rate differences associated with proton transfer to enable the scalable and reproducible generation of block copolymer libraries in ring-opening polymerization of polyesters and polycarbonates. They also integrate catalytic strategies for both the synthesis of functional monomers and the macromolecules resulting from their enchainment. Emphasis is placed on detailed mechanistic and theoretical investigations to illuminate the mechanistic details of organocatalytic polymerization reactions. Degradation pathways associated with bio-mimicking poly(alpha-amino esters) in aqueous media are also investigated. The organocatalytic platform associated with this award is spawning innovative technologies for the generation of bio-active polymers and oligomers that can be applied as anti-microbial agents, cell-transfection agents for the delivery of drugs, fluorescent and luminescent probes and genetic agents.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.