"Polymer conformation, Dynamics, and Morphology"

我的研究重点是发展新的基础科学知识，聚合物作为材料的领域，一个人可以对现代技术产生影响。我们的大部分努力都致力于创造和研究聚合物物体，这些物体在溶液中形成稳定的胶体，具有明确的形状和纳米或微米尺寸。在这个建议中，我描述了这类的两个非常不同的项目。1)嵌段共聚物胶束。自2007年以来，我们发表了5篇具有开创性的论文（包括1 . Manners），描述了纳米线胶束在溶液中的形成，并对胶束尺寸进行了前所未有的控制。这项工作改变了我们目前对嵌段共聚物胶束形成机制的理解，特别是当成芯聚合物是结晶的时候。在这些研究中，聚二茂铁硅烷（PFS）是形成核的嵌段共聚物，仍然是唯一一种可以形成均匀可控长度的纳米线胶束的嵌段共聚物。在这里，我描述了新的实验，以提供更深入的机制理解为什么以及如何控制这种自组装是可能的。这一知识将用于推广这种行为到其他嵌段聚合物，其中晶体嵌段是共轭聚合物。这些分子应该能够形成导电的纳米线胶束，并有可能将它们作为半导体器件的互连。2)在第二个项目中，我们将开发一类新的材料，耐热微凝胶，作为DNA扩增（滚动圈或聚合酶链反应热循环）的支持框架。微凝胶是溶剂膨胀的交联聚合物颗粒。许多小组，包括我的小组，在25-40℃的温度范围内研究生物和其他应用的水微凝胶，但只有极少数例子表明微凝胶在高温（60-100℃）下在水中稳定，我们的微凝胶将具有用于连接生物分子（如DNA引物）的官能团。与YF李（麦克马斯特），我们将探索使用这些微凝胶进行高温DNA扩增和DNA测序。

My research is focused on developing new fundamental scientific knowledge about polymers as materials in areas where one can have an impact on modern technology. Much of our effort is devoted to the creation and study of polymer objects that form stable colloids in solution, with a well-defined shape and with nanometer or micrometer dimensions. In this proposal I describe two very different projects of this type. 1) Block copolymer micelles. Since 2007, we have published 5 seminal papers (with I. Manners) describing the formation of nanowire micelles in solution with unprecedented control of micelle dimensions. This work has changed our current understanding of the mechanism of block copolymer micelle formation, particularly when the core-forming polymer is crystalline. In these studies, polyferrocenylsilane (PFS) was the core-forming block, still the only type of block copolymer that can form nanowire micelles with a uniform and controllable length. Here I describe new experiments to provide a deeper mechanistic understanding of why and how such control of self-assembly is possible. This knowledge will be used to generalize this behavior to other block polymers in which the crystalline block is a conjugated polymer. These molecules should be able to form conducting nanowire micelles, with the possibility of incorporating them as interconnects in semiconductor devices. 2) In a second project, we will develop a new class of materials, thermostable microgels, as a supporting framework for DNA amplification (rolling circle or polymerase chain reaction thermocycling). Microgels are solvent-swollen crosslinked polymer particles. Many groups, including mine, study aqueous microgels for biological and other applications in the temperature range of 25-40 C, but there are only rare examples of microgels stable in water at high temperatures (60-100 C), and our microgels will have functional groups for attaching biological molecules such as DNA primers. With YF Li (McMaster) we will explore the use of these microgels for high temperature DNA amplification and DNA sequencing.