"Polymer conformation, Dynamics, and Morphology"

我的研究重点是在可以对现代技术产生影响的领域发展关于聚合物作为材料的新的基础科学知识。我们致力于创造和研究在溶液中形成稳定胶体的聚合物对象，这些对象具有明确的形状和纳米或微米尺寸。在这份提案中，我描述了这类两个截然不同的项目。1)嵌段共聚胶束。自2007年以来，我们已经发表了5篇开创性的论文(与I.Manners一起)，描述了在前所未有的对胶束尺寸的控制下，纳米线胶束在溶液中的形成。这项工作改变了我们目前对嵌段共聚聚合物胶束形成机理的理解，特别是当成核聚合物是结晶的时候。在这些研究中，聚二茂铁基硅烷(PFS)是成核嵌段，仍然是唯一可以形成长度均匀且可控的纳米线胶束的嵌段共聚物。在这里，我描述新的实验，以提供更深层次的机械理解，为什么以及如何控制自我组装是可能的。这一知识将被用来将这一行为推广到其他嵌段聚合物，其中晶段是共轭聚合物。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互连纳入半导体设备中。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(滚环或聚合酶链式反应热循环)的支撑框架。微凝胶是溶胀的交联型聚合物颗粒。包括我的在内的许多团体都在研究在25-40摄氏度的温度范围内用于生物和其他应用的水性微凝胶，但只有极少数的微凝胶在高温(60-100摄氏度)的水中稳定，我们的微凝胶将具有用于附着生物分子(如DNA引物)的官能团。我们将与YF Li(麦克马斯特)一起探索这些微凝胶在高温DNA扩增和DNA测序中的应用。

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.