We are broadly interested in synthesizing, studying, and applying unique organic and organometallic polymeric materials. Often this requires the discovery and development of new fundamental reactions. As such, our research is highly multidisciplinary: students are educated in a wide range of different chemistries and exposed to a variety of techniques. Brief summations of current projects are listed below: A Modular Approach to Conjugated Organic and Organometallic Polymers: We have recently discovered that difunctional N-heterocyclic carbenes and their presursors are versatile and useful building blocks in the construction of conjugated polymeric materials: they can be homopolymerized or copolymerized with electrophiles including various transition metals to form the respective organic and organometallic polymers. We are currently exploring their use in electronic devices, as new drug delivery systems, and as the foundation for self-healing materials.

Reaction Development: “Clicking" Together Carbenes and Azides: Click chemistry - where a spontaneous reaction between complementary partners is used to rapidly construct molecular complexity - has found utility in a multitude of medicinal, biological, materials, and pharmaceutical applications. In an effort to help expand this powerful synthetic repertoire, we have discovered that N-heterocyclic carbenes react rapidly and quantitatively with azides to form triazenes. We believe this reaction has great potential in the synthesis of valuable nitrogen-rich substrates such as aziridines and guanidines and in electroactive azo polymers.

Metal-Mediated Synthesis of Functionalized Polyolefins: Securing the next generation of high-performance polymers is limited by incompatibilities of contemporary polymerization techniques with polar functional groups. We are developing a new series of metal catalysts to prepare well-defined and densely functionalized polyolefins.