Polystyrene Upcycling: Turning styrofoam boxes into organic batteries

Pleased to see our latest Research Article on commodity polystyrene upcycling out in ChemSusChem! In this joint effort between my team and my long-time collaborators in Spain (the groups of Prof. David Mecerreyes and Prof. Haritz Sardon), we show that styrofoam food containers can be chemically upcycled into redox polymer electrode materials for metal-free organic batteries.

Article link: https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202500092

Polymer electrets for organic nonvolatile memory devices

Our joint review article with Prof. Cheng-Liang Liu (National Taiwan University) on polymer electrets is now out in Materials Today Chemistry. Polymer electrets are organic materials that are capable of trapping electronic charge; this property is key to their application in information storage. Find out how they work and learn about their chemistry! 

Share link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1k5BA8nHhtOvC1

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtchem.2024.102380

Turning waste polystyrene into antimicrobial materials

Our research work on transforming used Styrofoam food boxes into antimicrobial polymers is now out in ACS Applied Polymer Materials:

 

 
A big shout-out to the project team: Algin and Michelle for their synthetic skills and perseverance, Wenguang's prowess with instruments and characterization, Li Ning's biomedical expertise and figure-making artistry, and He-Kuan's practical creativity.

Read our article here.

Our article on Antifouling Polymers is out in Nanoscale!

Antifouling polymers are hydrophilic materials that are indispensable for both drug delivery and surface modification applications. In nanomedicine, they help prolong drug circulation lifetime by conferring stealth against the immune system, while in surface science, they help prevent molecules and biological matter from sticking to surfaces. How are antifouling polymers able to do this? We discuss this and more in our Review article, now published in Nanoscale!

 

 Link to article: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3NR03164K

Review Article is out in Angewandte Chemie!

Our review on the use of organocatalysis in polymer chemistry is now out in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. It was a pleasure working with my long-time collaborator & friend Prof. Haritz Sardon. Just like old times (2012-2014) when we were at IBM Almaden!

Link to article:  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202203043

Polymer upcycling research -- Project kickoff!

Polymer upcycling research is underway! Had a great project kickoff discussion today at our Neuros site (left). Nice change of scenery from Jurong Island (right). 

Grateful for the funding via my 2021 A*STAR Career Development Award ($182K USD). We will be investigating polymer upcycling via selective C-H functionalizations.

Pentafluorosulfanylated Polymer Electrets in OFET Memory Devices

Our paper on the use of SF5-functionalized polymers as electrets in nonvolatile OFET memory devices is now out in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C.  [Read it here]

Bismuth Thiolate Coordination Polymers with CT Contrast Properties

Congratulations to my Ph.D. student, Guoxian, who published his second paper as first author, this time in ACS Applied Bio Materials. This new work discusses the synthesis of bismuth thiolate network polymers with computed tomography (CT) contrast properties. [Link to article]

Reversible thermochromism in metal-organic frameworks

Congratulations to Guoxian on publishing his research on bismuth-based metal-organic frameworks in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C.  [Link to article]

Citation:  J. Mater. Chem. C 2017, 5, 10005-10015

Favorite Past Projects - Top 3

The Top-Three:

1)  J-aggregated π-Conjugated Macrocycles. A series of organic macrocycles were synthesized and self-assembled into high PL quantum yield (92%) J-aggregates. These materials exhibited strong light-matter coupling and robust ambient stability. This work was conducted at MIT. (Chan et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 5659-5666)

Article link:  http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja900382r

2)  Metal-Catalyzed Depolymerization of Lignin. We reported a non-oxidative vanadium-catalyzed depolymerization of natural lignin. This research was done at UC Berkeley. (Chan et al. ACS Catal. 2013, 3, 1369-1377)

Article link:  http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cs400333q

3)  Degradable Zwitterionic Polymers. A series of biodegradable water-soluble polycarbonates bearing zwitterionic sidechains were designed and shown to possess multifunctional properties for nanomedicine applications. This work was conducted at IBM Almaden. (Chan et al. Chem. Sci. 2014, 5, 3294-3300)

Article link:  http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2014/SC/c4sc00789a

Polymeric Mixed-Micelles for Nanomedicine Applications

Some work I performed as a scientist at IBM Almaden Research Center: A degradable polymeric mixed-micelle system based on amphiphilic mPEG-b-polycarbonate diblock copolymers was developed. This mussel-inspired polymer design features catechol side chains to which the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) can be covalently conjugated as pH-sensitive p-quinoneimines via a mechanism that mimics the Raper–Mason pathway of mammalian melanogenesis.

  

Article link:  http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.macromol.5b02784

Metal-Free MRI Contrast Agents - a Radical Solution!

My paper on organic radical-functionalized polymers has just been published in ACS Macro Letters. This was work that was done 2 years ago at IBM Almaden Research Center. The idea behind this research was to employ a metal-free spin-active system that is also biodegradable. Our work on these radical-functionalized diblock copolymers can be accessed here: ACS Macro Lett. 2017, 6, 176-180.

Accompanying patent application: Chan, et al. “Biodegradable Organic Radical-Functionalized Polycarbonates for Medical Applications”, U.S. Patent App. 14/609,778, 2015.

New faces for the new year

At the beginning of 2017, the Chan Research Group welcomed Dr. Prabhat Gautam (postdoctoral fellow) from India and Ms. Janire Matas (visiting researcher) from Spain. It has been two weeks now, and the both of them are adjusting very nicely. Prabhat is working on donor-acceptor π-conjugated systems, and Janire is researching redox-active polymers for battery applications. [Link]

Chan Research Group - University of Ottawa (Chemistry)

I am an Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa. I am also the principal investigator of a research group that is working to develop novel functional organic materials. Specifically, we are designing and synthesizing π-conjugated organic molecules and polymers with unique optoelectronic, magnetic, and/or biological properties. Learn more about us at our research website.