Mechanochemistry harnesses mechanical force to facilitate chemical reactions. Traditionally, the field of polymer mechanochemistry has used methods to activate chemical bonds, which use forces that are larger than those that are required to break a covalen ...
Polymers play a central role in shaping our world across various fields, but their heavy reliance on petrochemicals poses climate change, environmental and health risks. To address and alleviate these issues, transitioning to sustainable polymers, sourced ...
Chemiresistive gas sensors composed of a thermoplastic polymer matrix and conductive fillers offer various advantages for detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including low power consumption due to near-room-temperature operation, high sensitivity, ...
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) are elastic capacitors composed of a pair of compliant electrodes and a soft dielectric elastomer film sandwiched in between. This kind of stretchable capacitors can be actuated when charged, can generate electricity fr ...
Polymer brushes, which are polymers anchored to a solid substrate by one chainend, have the ability to modify the properties of an underlying substrate, offering
intriguing features such as enhanced lubrication, reduced friction, colloidal stability, and a ...
Seeded emulsion polymerization is one of the best-known methods for preparing polymer particles with a controlled size, composition, and shape. It first requires the preparation of seed particles, which are then swollen with additional monomer (the same as ...
Recent advancements in miniature devices with higher computational capabilities and ultralow power consumption have accelerated the development of wearable sensors, actuators, and energy harvesters everywhere. The ultimate aim of such a technological revol ...
Polymer brushes are densely grafted, chain end-tethered assemblies of polymers that can be produced via surface-initiated polymerization. Typically, this is accomplished using initiators or chain transfer agents that are covalently attached to the substrat ...
Alkynes are found in a multitude of natural or synthetic bioactive compounds. In addition to the capacity of these chemical motifs to impact the physicochemical properties of a molecule of interest, the well-established reactivity of alkynes makes them ide ...
Thermoset rubbers give rise to elastomers with tunable stiffness and high resilience but are not recyclable. Thermoplastic elastomers can address this problem but their broad applicability is impeded by either limited operating temperatures or inferior ela ...
The first chapter of this thesis describe the development of a general synthesis of ynimines, an under-exploited motif in organic chemistry. In the presence of an inexpensive copper catalyst and 2,2'-biquinoline, reaction of easily accessible O-acyloximes ...
To address the rising demand for plastics, it is essential to create new types of polymers that are both highly recyclable and emit minimal amounts of greenhouse gases. These plastics should be derived from readily available, renewable feedstocks. Such eff ...
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kits have been used as common diagnosing tools during the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, with daily worldwide usage in the millions. It is well known that at the beginn ...
Thin polymer coatings present a method to modify the surface properties of underlying substrates. Polymer-coated surfaces have been used as anticorrosive materials, surfaces with special wetting properties, antifriction materials, and as materials for biom ...
Superoxide radicals (O-2(center dot-)) have been suggested as an important chain carrier in the radical chain reaction that promotes ozone (O-3) decomposition to hydroxyl radicals ((OH)-O-center dot) during ozonation. However, due to the difficulty in meas ...
The current reliance on limited petrochemical resources and the resulting ecological outcomes have made the exploration of alternative chemical and energy feedstocks invaluable. As such, the development of sustainable processes with a less harmful total en ...
Lignin is a renewable aromatic polymer that due to its abundance and unique chemical structure is a promising candidate to replace aromatic materials that are currently sourced from fossil oil. The same structure of lignin poses however drawbacks for its v ...
In this paper the loaded polymer transport and its escape via a nanometer size aperture, virtually by nanomembrane, the polymer being moved by an exterior electrostatic field, has been studied. Assuming a linear dependency of the friction coefficient on th ...
Nitrogen-containing compounds are an important class of molecules in medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, biochemistry, material sciences or environmental sciences. Organic nitrogen occurs in many forms, ranging from small building blocks such as urea, a ...
Examples for applications of nitrous oxide in organic synthesis remain rare up until today. First mayor contributions of our group were published in 2012, when nitrous oxide was successfully captured by N-heterocyclic carbenes. Subsequent studies investiga ...
