Chemical Determinants of Complexation in Polyelectrolyte Complexes and Coacervates

在这个由化学系大分子，超分子和纳米化学项目资助的项目中，匹兹堡大学的Jennifer Laaser教授的研究小组将研究带电聚合物的特定化学特征的变化，例如包含不想与水混合的疏水化学成分，影响这些材料的性能。然后，她的团队将开发快速识别化学特征组合的方法，这些化学特征组合将产生任何特定应用所需的物理特性。这项研究将为不同的化学相互作用如何影响带电聚合物混合物的行为提供新的基本见解，并为新功能材料的开发提供信息。在水中混合带正电荷和负电荷的聚合物可形成在医药和消费品中具有广泛用途的材料。这些材料可以是液体状或固体状。了解如何控制它们的溶解度和物理性质对于制造能够满足新应用需求的材料非常重要。该项目将为研究生和本科生提供培训机会，并作为聚合物科学大学课程新教材和当地社区推广活动的基础。这些教学材料将包括面向应用的活动，学生将应用基本的化学和物理知识来预测现实世界的问题。Laaser博士的团队将研究特定的化学相互作用，如疏水和阳离子-π相互作用，通过使用聚合后官能化来合成具有良好-定义和系统变化的组合物。该团队将使用这些库来研究疏水性和芳香族官能团的存在如何影响带相反电荷的聚合物复合物的相行为，热力学和粘弹性。 然后，研究小组将研究化学成分在自凝聚两性聚电解质中的作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Prof. Jennifer Laaser's research team at the University of Pittsburgh will investigate how changes in specific chemical features of charged polymers, such as inclusion of hydrophobic chemical components that do not want to mix with water, affect the properties of these materials. Her team will then develop methods for rapidly identifying the combination of chemical features that will generate the physical properties needed for any given application. This research will provide new fundamental insight into how different chemical interactions affect the behavior of charged polymer mixtures and inform development of new functional materials. Mixing positively and negatively charged polymers in water leads to formation of materials with a wide range of uses in medicine and consumer products. These materials can be either liquid-like or solid-like. Understanding how to control their solubility and physical properties is important for making materials that can meet the needs of new applications. This project will provide training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and serve as the foundation for both new teaching materials for college courses in polymer science and outreach activities in the local community. These teaching materials will incorporate application-oriented activities in which students will apply fundamental chemistry and physics knowledge to make predictions about real-world problems.Dr. Laaser's team will investigate how specific chemical interactions, such as hydrophobic and cation-pi interactions, affect the properties of polyelectrolyte complexes and coacervates by using post-polymerization functionalization to synthesize polymer libraries with well-defined and systematically-varied compositions. The team will use these libraries to investigate how the presence of hydrophobic and aromatic functional groups affects the phase behavior, thermodynamics, and viscoelasticity of complexes of oppositely-charged polymers. The team will then investigate the role of chemical composition in self-coacervating polyampholytes. The new fundamental knowledge developed here is expect to enable precisely targeted properties by of charged-polymer mixtures tailoring the polymer chemistry, rather than solution conditions.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.