Charles Diesendruck

Mechanochemistry is the use of mechanical force to drive chemical reactions. In polymeric materials, mechanical stress can lead to scission of covalent bonds, affecting the molecular weight of the chains and therefore the properties of the material. Our group studies several topics related to polymer science including:

1. New mechanically driven chemical transformations – we design and test molecules that, when incorporated into polymers, undergo productive chemical transformations when mechanical stress is applied.
2. Design of materials which withstand mechanochemistry and maintain their mechanical properties unders stress.
3. Design of new mechanoresponsive materials.
4. Anion-exchange membranes for fuel cells.

In order to carry out this research, our team consists of a combination of synthetic chemists and engineers, who conduct organic and polymer synthesis, mechanical testing, theoretical modeling and kinetic measurements.

1. Levy, A.; Feinstein, R.; Diesendruck, C.E. “Mechanical Unfolding and Thermal Refolding of Single-Chain Nanoparticles Using Ligand-Metal Bonds”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 7256-7260. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.9b01960
2. Levy, A.; Wang, F.; Lang, A.; Galant, O.; Diesendruck, C.E. “Intramolecular cross-linking: Addressing mechanochemistry with a bioinspired approach”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2017, 56, 6431–6434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201612242
3. Lee, C.K.; Diesendruck, C.E.; Lu, E.; Picket, A.; May, P.A.; Moore, J.S.; Braun, P.V. "Solvent swelling activation of a mechanophore in a polymer network", Macromolecules, 2014, 47, 2690-2694. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ma500195h
4. Diesendruck, C.E.; Peterson, G.I.; Kulik, H.J.; Kaitz, J.A.; Mar, B.D.; May, P.A.; White, S.R.; Martínez, T.J.; Boydston, A.J.; Moore, J.S. “Mechanically-triggered heterolytic unzipping of a low ceiling temperature polymer”, Nat. Chem., 2014, 6, 623-628. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1938
5. Diesendruck, C.E.; Steinberg, B.D.; Sugai, N.; Silberstein, M.N.; Sottos, N.R.; White, S.R.; Braun, P.V.; Moore, J.S. "Proton-coupled mechanochemical transduction: A mechanogenerated acid", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 12446-12449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja305645x

1. Galant, O.; Bae, S.; Silberstein, M.N.; Diesendruck, C.E. “Highly Stretchable Polymers: Mechanical Properties Improvement by Balancing Intra- and Intermolecular Interactions”, Adv. Funct. Mater., 2019,
2. 1901806. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201901806
   Dekel, D.; Amar, M.; Willdorf, S.; Kosa, M.; Dhara, S.; Diesendruck, C.E. “The effect of water on the stability of quaternary ammonium groups for anion exchange membrane fuel cell applications”, Chem. Mater., 2017, 29, 4425–4431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.7b00958
3. Patrick, J.F.; Hart, K.R.; Krull, B.P.; Diesendruck, C.E.; Moore, J.S.; Sottos, N.R.; White, S.R. “Continuous self-healing life cycle in vascularized structural composites”, Adv. Mat., 2014, 26, 4189-4396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.201400248
4. Kaitz, J.A.; Diesendruck, C.E.; Moore, J.S. “End group characterization of poly(phthalaldehyde): Surprising discovery of a reversible, cationic macrocyclization mechanism”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, 12755-12761. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja405628g
5. Sudheendran, M.; Diesendruck, C.E.; Amir, L.; Linde, S.; Shikler, R.; Lemcoff, N.G. “Synthesis and properties of organometallic nanoparticles of rhodium (I)”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2013, 52, 5767-5770. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201300362

Orcid ID: 0000-0001-5576-1366
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dpuDLN4AAAAJ&hl=en
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