Polymeric Halogen Bond Donors: Catalysis, Drug Delivery, Self-assembly

Halogen bonding (X-bonding) is a non-covalent interaction that is rapidly emerging as a powerful tool for directing self-assembly processes. X-bonding shares many similarities with, but is also orthogonal to, hydrogen bonding and is highly directional and tunable, in terms of bond strength. X-bonds form between a halogen electron acceptor site (the X-bond donor) and an electron-rich donor site (the X-bond acceptor). The halogen X-bond donor can consequently be considered a Lewis acid site. Integrating X-bond donor sites, such as iodoperfluorocarbon groups (e.g. 4-iodotetrafluorophenyl), into polymeric systems creates a number of interesting opportunities in the areas of catalysis, drug delivery and polymer self-assembly. Modern controlled radical polymerization methods (ATRP, RAFT) will be used to prepare new polymers functionalised with X-bond donors and their ability to interact with X-bond acceptors will studied. The polymers and their adducts will be characterized using techniques such as NMR, GPC, DLS, thermal analysis, vibrational spectroscopy etc. Projects with a focus on applications in a) Drug Delivery and b) Catalysis and c) Polymer self assembly are being offered. Responsible scientist:Idriss Blakey