In a collaboration with the Supramolecular Chemistry group at Ghent University it has been demonstrated in Nature Communications (SCI-IF 2018: 11.88) that combining experimental and modeling techniques allows to visualize the monomer distribution over chains. Upon subsequent design of the chemical structures and reaction conditions highly functional copolymers can be obtained for both low and high target degrees of polymerization.

The title of the work is “Visualization and design of the functional group distribution during statistical copolymerization”

Amines are commonly used intermediaries used to make pharmaceuticals, chemicals for the agricultural and food industries, polymers, and dyes. The current standard methods produce a lot of harmful and unusable waste products. Therefore, a direct catalytic method for the of amines from renewable alcohols, with water as only side product, would environmentally be much more beneficial. LCT members Maarten Sabbe and Javier Ibáñez (formerly University of Lille) contributed to the theory-experiment combined development of a selective catalyst for this process.

Two FWO postdoc scholarships were awarded to LCT researchers.