Biomimetic Design of Dynamic and Self-Healing Polymers
Zhibin Guan, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine
Abstract:
One research goal of my group is attempting to merge supramolecular chemistry and material chemistry for the design of advanced polymeric materials with dynamic properties. Many natural biopolymers not only have advanced mechanical properties such as high modulus, toughness, and elasticity, but also exhibit dynamic properties. Inspired by Nature, we have designed a series of biomimetic modular polymers with folded nano-domains as the repeat units. These new material manifest an exciting combination of key mechanical, as well as adaptive, properties that have until now proven difficult to achieve in man-made systems. Single molecule force was used to correlate the exceptional mechanical properties with their molecular structures. Recently, we developed a biomimetic multiphase design of stiff and spontaneous self-healing polymers. In contrast to previous designs, our system spontaneously self-heals as a single-component solid at ambient conditions without the need of any external stimulus, healing agent, plasticizer, or solvent. Most recently, we reported self-healing polymer design by dynamic covalent bond exchange via olefin metathesis. In this presentation, I will discuss the design, synthesis, and single molecule and macroscopic property studies of our biomimetic dynamic polymers, including stiff and autonomic self-healing systems.
Biosketch:
Zhibin Guan finished his B.S. and M.S. education at Peking University, China. He then went to the United States in 1991 for graduate study and was awarded his Ph.D. degree in 1994 at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Following a postdoctoral stint at Caltech, he joined in 1995 the Central Research Laboratory of DuPont as a Research Chemist and then promoted to Senior Research Chemist. In 2000 he joined the chemistry faculty with the University of California, Irvine, as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 2004 and to full professor in 2006. He has received a number of awards including the Beckman Young Investigator Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Humboldt Bessel Research Award. Recently, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). His research interest spans the broadly defined organic, biological, and macromolecular materials chemistry.