Functionalised Organic Polymers: Material Design, Synthesis and Exploitation

该项目旨在开发新的合成聚合物化学方法，用于制备和功能化下一代有机聚合物，特别是多孔有机聚合物，使用简单，通用和具有成本效益的合成路线。将特别关注以实际有用的物理格式（如珠状格式）制备的功能化有机聚合物的生产，新型格式变体（例如，带或不带嵌入磁性成分的核-壳聚合物微球），以及具有离子交换特性的材料（可能包括具有悬垂两性残留物的材料）。开发核壳聚合物微球结构的愿望是由于需要充分利用下一代化学分离介质中的短扩散路径长度。此外，微调孔隙结构和功能的能力至关重要，因为这是控制气体、液相分析物或生物分子/细胞吸附到多孔聚合物上的强度和/或选择性的一种方法。超交联策略将被评估为进入高多孔材料的途径；超交联聚合物是一种非凡的聚合物，具有超高的比表面积（约1000平方米g-1）和非常不寻常的吸收大量水的能力，尽管它们具有明显的疏水性（“两亲性，聚合物微海绵”）。新材料的潜在应用是多方面的，包括环境分析、环境修复、基于生物标志物检测（生物流体和食品）的疾病诊断，这将为其他研究计划和网络提供支持。通过一项雄心勃勃的工作计划，将解决基础和应用研究问题，关键目标将是：1)开发控制聚合物形式和孔隙度的新方法，其中聚合物最好是无限聚合物网络（WP1）；2)开发将化学功能嵌入材料的合成策略，通过共聚策略或聚合物类似反应（从而允许功能化聚合物以可控和可预测的方式与周围环境相互作用）（WP2）；3)评估在实际应用中最有前途的材料（WP3）。

This project aims to develop new synthetic polymer chemistry methods for the preparation and functionalisation of the next generation of organic polymers, especially porous organic polymers, using facile, versatile and cost-effective synthetic routes. There will be a special focus on the production of functionalised organic polymers prepared in practically useful physical formats (such as beaded formats), novel format variants (e.g., core-shell polymer microspheres with or without embedded magnetic components), and materials with ion-exchange character (potentially including materials with pendent amphoteric residues).The desire to develop core-shell polymer microsphere constructs is driven by the need to take full advantage of short diffusion path lengths in next-generation chemical separation media. Furthermore, the ability to fine-tune pore structure and functionality is critical because this is one way in which the strength and/or selectivity of sorption of gases, or analytes from liquid phases, or biomolecules/cells, onto porous polymers can be controlled. Hypercrosslinking strategies will be evaluated as a route into highly porous materials; hypercrosslinked polymers are remarkable species that possess ultra-high specific surface areas (> 1,000 m2 g-1) and a very unusual ability to sorb significant amounts of water, in spite of their apparently hydrophobic nature ("amphipathic, polymer micro-sponges"). The potential applications of the novel materials are manifold, and includes environmental analysis, environmental remediation, disease diagnosis based upon biomarker detection (biofluids and foodstuffs), which will feed into other research programmes and networks.Through an ambitious work programme, which will tackle both fundamental and applied research problems, the key objectives will be to: 1) Develop new approaches for the control of polymer format and porosity, where the polymers are preferably infinite polymer networks (WP1); 2) Develop synthetic strategies for the embedding of chemical functionality into the materials, through either copolymerisation strategies or polymer-analogous reactions (thereby allowing the functionalised polymers to interact with their surroundings in a controlled and predictable fashion) (WP2); 3) Evaluation of the most promising materials in real-world applications (WP3).