News

We have a new paper out in J. Am. Chem. Soc.! In this work, Chamoni, Corvo, and co-workers explore polymer network hydrogels that can be temporarily mechanically reinforced on treatment with a carbodiimide through the formation of anhydride cross-links. Because these materials undergo gel–gel transitions, they exhibit new and unusual behavior. For example, two pieces can be temporarily and repeatedly adhered, with the time of adhesion dependent on the amount of carbodiimide used. Films can also be reversibly patterned with different mechanical properties. This work is part of our long-running collaboration with the Konkolewicz group.

We have another new paper out in J. Org. Chem.! In this work, Govinda and Will study the effect of different amides installed at the ends of ortho-phenylene oligomers on the conformation. The behavior can be quite complicated, with the amides affecting multiple degrees of freedom along the oligomers. This can be resolved using our recently developed ¹⁹F labeling strategy.

We have a new paper out in J. Org. Chem.! Suma, Juliana, and Gopi show that it is possible to control the twist sense of o-phenylenes by including chiral phthalimides in the middle of the oligomer. Importantly, it is necessary to include substituents farther along the helix to interact with the chiral groups; otherwise, chiral induction is very poor.

We have a new paper out in ChemSystemsChem! Mosharraf, Isuru, and Renu report on the transient formation of crown-ether-based cages, uncovering some interesting templation effects and evidence of cation binding.

A new paper has just come out in Chem. Commun.! This work is a collaboration with the Konkolewicz group. Andrew, Obed (from the Konkolewicz group), Govinda, Viraj, and Kate show that using ortho-phenylenes as crosslinkers in polymer networks gives unusual mechanical properties, namely enhanced energy dissipation, because of the (un)winding of their folding.