Alex Adronov

Fellowship 2015

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Alex Adronov is a professor of chemistry at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.  He specializes in the synthesis of conjugated polymers and novel polymer architectures, and is interested in the interactions between conjugated polymers and carbon nanotubes.  He received his Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001, under the supervision of Professor Jean M. J. Fréchet.  During his graduate studies, he developed a strong interest in polymer synthesis and the preparation of dendritic polymer architectures specifically decorated with chromophores.  In 2001, he began his independent career as an Assistant Professor at McMaster University.  He was promoted to Associate professor in 2007, and Full Professor in 2013.  He is also the Associate Chair of Graduate Studies in the Department of Chemistry at McMaster.  Over the past 10 years, he has focused on the synthesis and characterization of conjugated polymers and is investigating the selective interactions of conjugated polymers with single-walled carbon nanotubes, in an effort to purify and extract specific nanotube types out of commercial mixtures.  In addition, he focuses on new methods for modifying the structure and properties of conjugated polymers post-polymerization to create libraries of polymers having identical length but different properties.  

Cyclooctyne-bearing Conjugated Polymers for Connection of Nanotubes and Fullerenes

This project will focus on the preparation of fundamentally new materials linking molecular, polymeric, and nanoscale carbon-based structures using covalent and supramolecular interactions. We will produce a conjugated polymer, bearing cyclooctyne structures in its backbone, that can be efficiently modified, post polymerization, using a very efficient chemical reaction called strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition.  This reaction allows us to transform every single triple-bond within our polymer backbone (a chain of 30-50 repeating units) upon reaction with an azide functionality, producing a cyclic structure that serves as a linkage to any molecular entity we wish to introduce.  In the proposed work, we will study the reaction between our polymer and azide derivatives of fullerenes, which have been developed in the Nierengarten research group.  We will investigate the efficiency of the chemistry, and the properties of the final, grafted polymers, to determine their ability to interact with one another and with the surface of carbon nanotubes.  In addition, we will investigate a variety of fullerene derivatives, and will determine if these polymeric nanostructures can enhance the efficiency of organic solar cells, amongst a number of other potential applications.