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Researchers in the Laboratory of Polymeric Materials have developed a straightforward and versatile batch method to tailor the molecular weight distributions for any material that can be synthesized via controlled radical polymerization. The approach creates many opportunities to tune polymer dispersity in a diverse range of applications. The experimental findings of the group were supported by kinetic modelling conducted by a group at Monash University and the work was published in Chem.

Dr. Alexandra Bayles, currently an ETH fellow in the Soft Materials group will join the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the he University of Delaware as an assistant professor in 2021.

Researchers in the Soft Materials group have designed and modeled self-propelled microswimmers that can instantaneously reverse their propulsion direction. The use of directionally controlled particles could enable new strategies to design materials, as fussion and fisson event can now be controlled. The work in collaboration with a group at Cambridge University was published in Nature communications.