Our Research

OVERVIEW

CSP researchers work to discover new, efficient, non-toxic, and catalytically mediated chemical transformations of biomass and other natural product-based feedstocks into both established and new polymer ingredients.

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

Organic, inorganic, and biosynthetic chemistry

FOCUS: Scalable, catalytic conversions of relevant and readily available small molecules; “Rewiring” industrially tractable microbial hosts to create a diverse array of polymer precursors by processes amenable to scale-up for industrial bioreactors.

FEATURE PUBLICATIONS

• Abdelrahman, O. A.; Park, D. S.; Vinter, K. P.; Spanjers, C. S.; Ren, L.; Cho, H. J.; Zhang, K.; Fan, W.; Tsapatsis, M.; Dauenhauer, P. J. Renewable isoprene by sequential hydrogenation of itaconic acid and dehydra-decyclization of 3-methyl-tetrahydrofuran. ACS Catal. 2017, 7, 1428–1431.
• Xiong, M.; Schneiderman, D. K.; Bates, F. S.; Hillmyer, M. A., Zhang, K. Scalable production of mechanically tunable block polymers from sugar. PNAS 2014, 111, 8357–8362.
• Tai, Y.; Xiong, M.; Jambunathan, P.; Wang, J.; Wang, J.; Stapleton, C.; Zhang, K. Engineering nonphosphorylative metabolism to generate lignocellulose-derived products. Nat. Chem. Bio. 2016, 12, 247–253.
• Zhang, C.; Schneiderman, D. K.; Cai, T.; Tai, Y. S.; Fox, K.; Zhang, K. Optically active β-methyl-δ-valerolactone: biosynthesis and polymerization. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2016, 4, 4396–4402.

INVESTIGATORS

OVERVIEW

CSP researchers work to discover new sustainable polymers with precisely controlled molecular structures and to establish crucial relationships between chemical structure, morphology, and performance properties.

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

Catalysis, high-throughput experimentation, theoretical studies, mechanistic studies of polymerization processes, polymer properties, polymer morphology

FOCUS: Broaden the scope of existing polymerization strategies and develop entirely new methods to discover new sustainable polymers with advanced properties that are better than their petroleum-based counterparts.

FEATURE PUBLICATIONS

• Lillie, L.M.; Tolman, W.B.; Reineke, T.M. Structure/property relationships in copolymers comprising renewable isosorbide, glucarodilactone, and 2,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)furan subunits. Polym. Chem. 2017, 8, 3746–3754.
• Watts, A.; Kurokawa, N.; Hillmyer, M. A. Strong, resilient, and sustainable aliphatic polyester thermoplastic elastomers. Biomacromolecules 2017, 18, 1845–1854.
• Van Zee, N. J.; Sanford, M. J.; Coates, G. W. Electronic effects of aluminum complexes in the copolymerization of propylene oxide with tricyclic anhydrides: Access to well-defined, functionalizable aliphatic polyesters. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138 (8), 2755–2761.
• Pehere, A.D.; Xu, S.; Thompson, S.K.; Hillmyer, M.A.; Hoye, T.R. Diels–Alder reactions of furans with itaconic anhydride: Overcoming unfavorable thermodynamics.  Org. Lett. 2016, 18, 2584–2587.
• Zhang, J.; Li, T.; Mannion, A. M.; Schneiderman, D. K.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Bates, F. S. Tough and sustainable graft block copolymer thermoplastics. ACS MacroLett. 2016, 5, 407–412.

INVESTIGATORS

OVERVIEW

CSP researchers work to discover and establish polymeric architectures that provide superior performance while in use and have innocuous end-lives including controlled degradation, chemical and traditional recycling pathways.

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

Polymer architecture, degradation, chemical recycling, recycling

FOCUS: Study and improve the performance properties of polymers, in particular as generated by the first two Grand Challenge Project Areas.

FEATURE PUBLICATIONS

• Eagan, J. M; Xu, J.; Di Girolamo, R.; Thurber, C. M.; Macosko, C. W.; LaPointe, A. M.; Bates, F. S.; Coates, G.W. Combining polyethylene and polypropylene: Enhanced performance with PE/iPP multiblock polymers. Science 2017, 355, 814–816.
• Alsbaiee, A.; Smith, B. J.; Xiao, L.; Ling, Y.; Helbling, D. E.; Dichtel, W. R. Rapid removal of organic micropollutants from water by a porous β-cyclodextrin polymer. Nature 2016. 529, 190–194.
• Fortman, D. J.; Brutman, J. P.; Cramer, C. J.; Hillmyer, M. A.; Dichtel, W. R. Mechanically activated, catalyst-free polyhydroxyurethane vitrimers. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137 (44), 14019–14022. 
• Schneiderman, D. K.; Vanderlaan, M. E.; Mannion, A. M.; Panthani, T. R.; Batiste, D. C.; Wang, J. Z.; Bates, F. S.; Macosko, C. W.; Hillmyer, M. A. Chemically recyclable biobased polyurethanes. ACS MacroLett. 2016, 5, 515−518.

INVESTIGATORS