Fors Group

Maddy, Maeve, and Izzy passed their A exams today and are officially PhD candidates!!

19.06.2025 22:02 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Out last week in @natchem.nature.com is
@paigejacky.bsky.social’s first work on CO2-mediated anionic polymerization! Congrats Paige!!!

23.05.2025 20:30 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1

Controlled anionic polymerization mediated by carbon dioxide - Nature Chemistry Dangerous initiators and low reaction temperatures required for controlled anionic polymerization limit its widespread implementation. Now it has been shown that safe-to-handle, solid, CO2-protected i...

We’ve given you easy radical methods….we’ve given you easy cationic methods…drumroll for our first super simplified, solid initiated, dare we say heated ANIONIC polymerization method!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

23.05.2025 20:29 — 👍 6    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 1

Radical Deamination of Primary Amines for Initiation of Controlled Polymerization Selectively initiating controlled polymerizations using common functional groups is a powerful route to synthesizing advanced polymer architectures. Amines are one of the most common functional groups in small molecules, pharmaceuticals, and biomolecules, and thus are valuable substituents to use for initiating controlled polymerizations. In this study, we present the facile initiation of a controlled radical polymerization from the α-carbon of a primary amine via an electron donor–acceptor (EDA) complex-triggered radical deamination. Through this method, polymers were successfully grafted from a variety of amino acid derivatives. The resulting polymers had good matching between theoretical and experimental molar masses, narrow molar mass distributions (Đ ∼ 1.1–1.2), and exceptional α-chain end fidelities. This method was trialed on a model dipeptide, demonstrating the viability of EDA-RAFT in the synthesis of peptide–polymer conjugates.

We come in peace ☮️ 🕊️ Amine you no harm ✋🤚--only selective and controlled polymerization!

Using EDA complexes to trigger deamination, 1st author Megan Driscoll initiates photocontrolled polymerization from the α-C of primary amines! (Peptides hate to see Megan coming)

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

05.05.2025 18:30 — 👍 7    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

…and an ENORMOUS encore for 2nd year Maddy Neukirch, who received honorable mentions from the NSF GRFP ‼️🏆 Maddy is our ROMP role model and nitrogen nonpareil, and we are so lucky to have her! 🎉

09.04.2025 19:11 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

HUGE round of applause to our 2nd year Isobel McClements, who was awarded the NSF GRFP yesterday! Three cheers for Izzy, our GPC guru and ATRP authority 🥂🍻🍾 We are so proud of you!!

09.04.2025 19:07 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0

Designing Polymers with Molecular Weight Distribution-Based Machine Learning Commodity plastics such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) have become integral to society. However, the potentially long-lasting ecological impacts of these plastics have spurred researchers to search for more sustainable solutions. One such solution is to develop a method for designing plastics with tunable and improved properties, thus decreasing the amount of material needed for various applications. In this work, we report a machine learning approach that maps the relationship between polymer molecular weight distributions (MWDs) and the physical properties (tensile and rheological) of HDPE. Using this approach, we design and generate HDPE materials with user-specified properties and valorize degraded postconsumer polyethylene waste. Implementation and development of this approach will facilitate the design of next-generation commodity materials and enable more efficient polymer recycling, thereby lowering the overall impact of HDPE on the environment.

Read about PEPPr here! Congrats Jenny!

pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10....

18.03.2025 17:31 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Spice up your plastic waste with PEPPr, the PolyEthylene Property Predictor!!

Teaming up with the DiStasio group, 5th year Jenny Hu made and tested **THOUSANDS** of PE blends—teaching a machine learning model to relate MW distributions and physical properties for better and smarter PE recycling.

18.03.2025 17:31 — 👍 12    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Happy Valentine’s Day from us to you <3

14.02.2025 15:32 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

a man in a leather jacket is standing in front of a building with a sign that says opening on it . ALT: a man in a leather jacket is standing in front of a building with a sign that says opening on it .

Every day is International Day of Women and Girls in Science when all your grad students are female 😉

11.02.2025 20:00 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Thank you Jeremy! Our social media manager is out sick for the week and has too much time on their hands

29.01.2025 18:41 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Degradable thermosets via orthogonal polymerizations of a single monomer - Nature Degradable thermoset multimaterials can be synthesized from a commercially accessible, biosourced monomer using orthogonal polymerizations in a single pot; after selective degredation, the resulting s...

Oh my 2,3-dihydrofuran,
I don’t know know any monomer cooler than
Thee.

Your cyclic vinyl ether,
Makes thermosetting so much easier
For me:

You ROMP in the dark, Crosslink in the light,
Recycle to monomer under vacuum overnight.
Degrade in acid or with a lot of O2,
Oh DHF this is an ode to you.

29.01.2025 17:09 — 👍 30    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 1

Walking by Megan’s hood and asked what the numbers were.

She said “Oh, I was trying to see how many digits of pi I could remember….I wasn’t very cool in middle school.”

We think you’re pretty cool Megan 😎

15.01.2025 20:56 — 👍 6    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

D-d-d-d-drop the Brett 🍾🎈🎉

12.12.2024 18:23 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

What’s up #chemsky ?! Seems fitting for our first post to be an announcement of the new PhD students in the lab - Lydia Goedert and Nadia Crawford!! Lydia joins us from Stanford U., while Nadia comes from Trinity U. Wish them high yields and low dispersities for their next 5 years! 🥂🎓

15.11.2024 17:14 — 👍 17    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0