PhD student Jordan Brito’s review article was recently accepted to ACS Applied Bio Materials!

The review, titled “Factors Controlling Degradation of Biologically Relevant Synthetic Polymers in Solution and Solid State“, is now available to read online. This article describes the influence of chemical reactivity, microenvironment, and physical form factor on the degradation behavior of a polymer material. It also reviews recent advances in tailoring the degradation profiles of materials and offers perspectives on the future of degradable polymers.

Congratulations, Jordan!

PhD students Kartik and Xiuzhu’s paper titled “Strong, thermo-reversible salogels with boronate ester bonds as thermal energy storage materials” was accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

In this work, Kartik and Xiuzhu compare boronate ester salogels with well-known hydrogels. They show that the highly ionic environment of salt hydrates allow the formation of strong gels compared to water with small amounts of polymer and crosslinker (~3.3 wt%). They also demonstrate the first use of dynamic covalent crosslinks, with repeatable on-demand thermo-reversibility, as a shape stabilizing matrix for inorganic salt hydrate phase change materials in thermal energy storage applications. The article is  now available to read online.

Congratulations, Kartik and Xiuzhu!