December 2016 New group member:Sara Salimi joins the group working on responsive nanocomposite adhesives
November2016 Invited talk: BWG talks at the European Polymer Technology Forum about the group's work on responsive polymers. This conference brings together academics with industry. The talk was streamed live and translated in real time into Chinese!
September 2016 New Paper: Our continued collaboration with Mike Shaver in Edinburgh results in a second paper (our previous work can be found here). This paper shows how to use cross metathesis to post-functionalise degradable polyesters. Well done Long Chen who carried out all the thermal analysis on this new class of materials. The paper can be found here.
July 2016 New Paper: Further investigations in to the influence of endgroups on the self assembly and mechanical properties of PUs: the full paper can be found here.
June 2016 New Paper: In collaboration with the Hayes group we show the design and synthesis of a series of non-toxic, low molecular weight hydrogels. These multifunctional materials gel on demand and can either strip impurities from water or even deliver anti-cancer drugs - Well done Ben Baker. The full paper can be found here.
April 2016: Long Chen to Hull: As part of an EPRSC Directed Assembly Network pump-priming grant, Long Chen goes to Hull for 3 weeks to work with Olga Efremova, Jean-Sebastian Bouillard and Ali Adawi looking at the electronic and photophysical properties of his oligo(viologen) based materials.
March 2016 New Group Member: Kate Lim joins the group as a PDRA funded by AWE working on improving the properties of poly(phosphazene)s.
November 2015 New Paper: Long Chen's first paper has just been accepted in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. He used the Zincke reaction to produce a series of conjugated viologen containing oligomers with interesting electrochemical properties. The paper can be found here.
September 2015 RAPS conference: BWG spoke at the RAPS conference 2015 in Birmingham. This year the conference included speakers from across the UK and beyond. The full report can be found here. The 2016 meeting will be organised by Helen Willcock at Loughborough.
August 2015 New Paper: The latest paper concerning inkjet printing of supramolecular polymers with Wayne Hayes, Howard Colquhoun and Lewis Hart comes out online in Polymer Chemistry: Molecular design of a discrete chain-folding polyimide for controlled inkjet deposition of supramolecular polymers. Click here for the paper
August 2015: BWG speaks at the ACS conference in Boston about Long Chen's Poly(viologen) work
July 2015: Tahkur Babra from the group helps out at the Royal Society exhibition, explaining to the public the science behind supramolecular healable polymeric materials.
14th Jan 2015: The Pharmacy Bus outreach project with Parastou Donyai, Catherine Langran and supported by the Earley Charity is launched. At our first event, ten students provided 45 members of the public with a comprehensive health check including: Blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol monitoring, body mass index and waste and hip measurements resulting in a personal lifestyle assessment from the students.
Jan 2015 New paper: A very successful visit from Jarret MacDonald as part of a collaboration with Mike Shaver in Edinburgh has resulted in the first paper of 2015 with Matt Parker from the Greenland Lab: Tuning thermal and microphase separation in aliphatic polyester ABA copolymers Polymer Chemistry. Click here to read the full paper.
Sept 2014 New Group Member: Tahkur Babra joins the group, funded by AWE and the University of Reading. He will be investigating depolymerisable systems for adhesives and sutures
July 2014 New Paper: Hyperbranched Polymers Containing Oxazoline Monomers and Succinic Anhydride: Applications in Fast Drying, Low Solvent Coatings and Formulations, click here for the paper
June 2014 New Paper: Multivalency in Healable Supramolecular Polymers: The Effect of Supramolecular Cross-Link Density on the Mechanical Properties and Healing of Non-Covalent Polymer Networks, click here for the paper
May 2014 New Paper: Robust and Operationally simple Synthesis of Poly(bis(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)phosphazene) with Controlled Molecular Weight, Low PDI and High Conversion. ACS Macro Letters, 2014, 3, 548-551. Well done Matt Parker, click here for the paper.
April 2014: Matthew Parker Joins the group as a PDRA working on highly functionalised dendrimers funded by AWE.
February 2018 New paper: In a project led by Wayne Hayes, wepublish investigations on the self assembly of aromatic and aliphatic bis-ureas. This paper will help the future design of responsive hydrogen bonded polymeric systems. Well done Kelly Melia from the Hayes group!
December 2017 New paper: In our new paper in Crystal Growth and Design we present the crystal structure of the pi-pi stacking interactions that underpinned the healing material work. This crystal structure confirms the formation of the tweezer/tweezer complex we predicted in my first paper as a post doc back in 2008!
December 2017 PhD advert: We currently have a fully funded PhD place available to start in September 2018 working on supramolecular systems containing oligoviogens (for papers see: here, here and here). Informal enquiries can be made to BWG by email.
December 2017 New paper: Tahkur Babra's first paper with the group comes out in Polymer Chemistry. He has developed a new class of adhesive that reversibly glues multiple substrates together, and also completely breaks down to a non-adhesive material on contact with fluoride ions. The paper can be found here - Well Done Tahkur!
September 2017 New paper: Our paper reporting the unique packing of radical cationic viologen macrocycles comes out in Supramolecular Chemistry. The paper can be seen here.
September 2017 New group member: After an extremely successful year completing an MSc in responsive nano-composite adhesives, Sara Salimi joins the group working towards a PhD designing and making composites for 3D printing.
September 2017 Group Moves: BWG moves to the Univerisity of Sussex.
April 2017 New paper: Long Chen's third paper with the group about the synthesis and properties of rod-like oligo viologens is accepted in Tet Lett. Well done Long!
April 2017 Goodbye to Kate: Kate Lim moves on after a great year working with AWE making new phosphazene-based materials. Our group's earlier work in this area can be found here. Good luck Kate!
March 2017 New Book Chapter: We publish a large chapter in the new RSC book 'Naphthalene Diimide and its Congeners: From Molecules to Materials' edited byDan Pantos. Well done Dr Lewis Hart from the Hayes group who put in the bulk of the effort putting it together.
Jan 2017 - 1st GreenlandLab PhD: Congratulations to Dr Long Chen who successfully defended his thesis on the 12th Jan. He becomes the first Dr from the Greenland group. His first paper on the synthesis of conjugated viologen species can be found here, and his paper with the Shaver group concerning the functionalisation of polymers using cross metathesis can be found here.
June 2018 New paper:Long Chen's final paper with the group (5th in total!) is accepted in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. He synthesised a novel class of completely conjugated viologen-containing macrocyclic receptor molecule using the chemistry he developed throughout his PhD (see the publications pages for more of his work). Well done Long and also Tahkur and Kate from the group who contributed significantly to the work.
April 2018 New paper: In collaboration Olga Efremova, Jean-Sebastien Bouillard and Ali Adawi from Hull, our latest paper concerning the synthesis and properties of conjugated oligomeric viologens comes out in Synthetic Metals. We show that the conductivity of the materials increases significantly with degree of oligomerisation, and that the longest oligomer is photoconductive across a broad range of the visible spectrum. Well done Long Chen and Tahkur Babra!
March 2018 New paper: In a long term project led by Howard Colquhoun, we report the observation of fractal information within copolymer sequences. The mathematics underlying this so called 4th Cantor Set were originally described in the 1870s and then turned up in the 1H NMR spectrum of a supramolecular complex 140 years later! The paper, in Chemical Science (cover image below) provides another small step towards storing, then retrieving information from the structure of polymers.
April 2015 New Paper: 'A Supramolecular Approach to Inkjet Printing' has just been accepted in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. This paper shows how our work on healing systems can be exploited for high speed printing applications. Click here for the paper.
April 2015 (small!) Lecture Tour: BWG gives invited talks at Loughborough, Sheffield and Imperial College
April 2015 New Paper:'Donor-Acceptor Interactions: From Small Molecule Complexes to Healable Polymer Networks' has just come out in Advances in Polymer Science.Click Here for the review paper.
March 2015: The final two Pharmacy bus outreach days took place this month resulting in a total of more than 120 members of the public completing a student lead health check this year. See our outreach pages more information.
20th Jan 2015: The second Pharmacy bus outreach event took place with over 20 members of the public completing our student led health checks on Wednesday afternoon. See our outreach pages and the press release for more information.
April 2015 New Paper: 'A Supramolecular Approach to Inkjet Printing' has just been accepted in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. This paper shows how our work on healing systems can be exploited for high speed printing applications. Click here for the paper.
April 2015 (small!) Lecture Tour: BWG gives invited talks at Loughborough, Sheffield and Imperial College
April 2015 New Paper:'Donor-Acceptor Interactions: From Small Molecule Complexes to Healable Polymer Networks' has just come out in Advances in Polymer Science.Click Here for the review paper.
March 2015: The final two Pharmacy bus outreach days took place this month resulting in a total of more than 120 members of the public completing a student lead health check this year. See our outreach pages more information.
20th Jan 2015: The second Pharmacy bus outreach event took place with over 20 members of the public completing our student led health checks on Wednesday afternoon. See our outreach pages and the press release for more information.