Student Hosted Colloquium: Professor Paula Diaconescu, University of California, Los Angeles
About the Seminar
Redox switchable ring opening polymerization
Switchable polymerization processes have received increased attention because they hold the promise of mimicking the selectivity exhibited by natural systems. We are studying a chemical method to shuttle between two catalyst states, by switching the oxidation state of iron in ligands containing a ferrocene backbone. This idea is applied to the ring opening polymerization of cyclic esters and ethers catalyzed by transition metal complexes with the goal of forming biodegradable copolymers.
About the Speaker
Paula Diaconescu joined the UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry department in 2005 after spending two-years as a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Robert Grubbs at California Institute of Technology. She obtained her Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Cummins at Massachusetts Institute of Technology working on arene-bridged complexes of uranium. Her earlier education was completed in Romania, where she obtained her B.S. from University of Bucharest and worked on coordination complexes of transition metals and lanthanides at University Politehnica of Bucharest. Her current research efforts focus on the design of reactive metal complexes with applications to small molecule activation, organic synthesis, and polymer formation.