Polymers

Very large molecules, or macromolecules or polymers, are of incredible importance in nature as well as in technology and society. To most people they are probably connected primarily to plastics, but in fact the cellulose of plants, the proteins carrying out so many vital functions in our bodies as well as the DNA carrying our hereditary information are polymers as well. In our research we work with synthetic polymers in the theme dealing with electrospinning, and the biopolymer cellulose is explored in nanocrystalline form in our bilateral Swedish-Korean project on self-assembly of nanocrystalline cellulose whiskers. Moreover, together with the macromolecular chemistry group of Prof. Rudolf Zentel, Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, we are fabricating and investigating novel liquid crystalline elastomer particles of very interesting and responsive type. Also, with the polymer chemistry group of Prof. Patrick Theato, University of Hamburg, Germany, we will be investigating a variety of fascinating self-assembly and self-organization issues in which polymers (often tailor-designed) play a key role.


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