{"id":47,"date":"2015-09-05T02:37:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T02:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/?page_id=47"},"modified":"2025-01-06T20:33:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T20:33:05","slug":"our-research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/our-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our research is in the area of organic\/polymer synthesis. \u00a0We aim to develop synthetic pathways leading to architecturally interesting macromolecules, such as monocyclic and bicyclic polymers, star polymers, and other structures. \u00a0To accomplish this, we rely on post-polymerization reactions that join polymer chains together. \u00a0Much of our focus is the mechanistic study and optimization of these reactions, which might be done by radical-radical coupling, trapping chain ends with radicals, “click” chemistry, or nickel-catalyzed reductive coupling. \u00a0Below is a sequence leading to C-C bond formation between two polymer chains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The scheme above illustrates the combination of traditional organic synthesis applied into our polymer chemistry research agenda.\u00a0 We have recently published papers describing this new system, and hope to expand its utility into new polymeric types and structures, and also into polymer synthesis.<\/p>\n

Research students in my group must learn how to make a linear polymer and characterize it. \u00a0We most often use reactions known as “atom transfer” reactions, specifically applied to polymer chemistry. \u00a0This is called “atom transfer radical polymerization”, and is summarized below, along with the closely related “atom transfer radical coupling”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Note that the atom being transferred is bromine, and a ligand-bond copper catalyst allows for this transfer. \u00a0This is a redox reaction, with the copper being oxidized and the alkyl bromide end group of the polymer being reduced. \u00a0As a consequence of this mechanism, the polymer ends up with a bromo end group which is essential to our group’s post-polymerization manipulations.<\/p>\n

This is just a basic overview of our research, and we are interested in other topics as well.\u00a0 Please reach out for more details.<\/p>\n

\"scu_image_2\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our research is in the area of organic\/polymer synthesis. \u00a0We aim to develop synthetic pathways leading to architecturally interesting macromolecules, such as monocyclic and bicyclic polymers, star polymers, and other structures. \u00a0To accomplish this, we rely on post-polymerization reactions that join polymer chains together. \u00a0Much of our focus is the mechanistic study and optimization of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1334,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-47","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/47\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/etillman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}