Organic Chemistry Seminar: Professor Zachariah Page, The University of Texas at Austin
About the Seminar
Light as a Chemical Tool to Access Next Generation Soft Materials
Light as an energy source has enabled transformative technologies in imaging, lithography, adhesives, and 3D printing. Its broad utility arises from the unparalleled spatiotemporal control over chemical transformations that it offers. However, contemporary methods rely on high energy UV light (<400 nm), which limits material compatibility due to pervasive degradation and attenuation that occurs upon non-selective absorption and/or scattering. Excitingly, the recent commercialization of inexpensive light emitting diodes has opened an avenue to examine mild visible-to-near infrared induced reactions in materials chemistry. This presentation will focus on how the Page Research Group has developed and leveraged low energy light driven polymerizations to generate a versatile array of soft materials with unprecedented speed and spatiotemporal precision. Specifically, catalyst design principles to enable rapid solidification of photopolymer resins using visible-to-near infrared light will be discussed, along with their utility and optimization in high resolution additive manufacturing towards all-polymer multimaterial composites.
About the Speaker
Zachariah A. Page is an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin, where his research program develops light-driven approaches to make and manipulate plastics for applications in soft robotics and wearable electronics. Dr. Page earned a B.S. in Chemistry at Juniata College, and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with Prof. Todd Emrick. There he studied novel pi-conjugated polymers as charge transporters for organic solar cells. Dr. Page then went on to train as a postdoctoral scholar with Prof. Craig Hawker at the University of California Santa Barbara, studying photochemical transformations in the areas of organic electronics and 3D printing. He then joined UT Austin in 2018 where he has directed an active research program centered around fundamental science in photoredox catalysis, novel polymer synthesis via radical, ionic, and metathetic chemistries, and additive manufacturing. Dr. Page is an active member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in both the Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) Division and Division of Polymer Chemistry. He has been recognized by several awards, including the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2023), ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award (2022), Cottrell Scholar Award (2022), DoD AFOSR Young Investigator Award (2021), and NSF CAREER Award (2021).
Host: Yan Xia