Professor Aleksandr V. Zhukhovitskiy

Professor Aleksandr (Alex) V. Zhukhovitskiy
William R. Kenan Jr. Faculty Fellow
Department of Chemistry
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Abstract

Advancing the logic of polymer synthesis, modification, and degradation

The polymer backbone is fundamental to the polymer’s identity and properties. My seminar will focus on the development of metathesis mechanisms to access heteroatom-rich polymer backbones, new editing tools to transform existing polymer backbones into different ones, and both strategies and tactics to depolymerize commodity polymeric materials into valuable small molecules. Specifically, I will discuss iridium-guanidinate catalyzed ring-opening metathesis of cyclic carbodiimides and the current directions toward diazene metathesis, as well as an array of rearrangement transformations—including Ireland-Claisen and aza-Cope—applied to edit the backbones of polymers. Besides the focus on polymer backbones, retrosynthetic logic applied to polymeric materials will be another common thread woven throughout this seminar, as it is a central element of the research in the Zhukhovitskiy group.

Alex Zhukhovitskiy

The Zhukhovitskiy Group at the University of North Carolina is focused on fundamental methods development as related to polymer chemistry. They blend polymer science, organometallic chemistry, and mechanistic studies to uncover new strategies for the synthesis of polymers such as carbodiimide ring-opening metathesis polymerization sigmatropic rearrangements as a strategy for polymer skeletal editing.

Hosted by Professor Ian Tonks