Highlights and Press Releases

Scenes from the ACS Spring 2024 hybrid meeting in New Orleans (Chemical & Engineering News, March 25, 2024)

Tear-resistant rubbery materials could pave the way for tougher tires (Science News, July 7, 2023)

Weaker polymer bonds produce stronger materials, researchers claim (Plastics Today, June 27, 2023)

Chemists significantly boost material’s tear resistance by incorporating weak linkers into polymer network (Verve Times, June 22, 2023)

Surprise! Weaker bonds can make polymers tougher (Science DailyMIT News, June 22, 2023)

How to make rubbery materials that can take a beating without losing their bounce (Duke Today, June 22, 2023)

Pathways to tough yet soft materials (Science, Oct. 8, 2021)

NSF Announces MONET as Official Phase II CCI (Duke Today, Sept. 1, 2021)

Editor’s Choice – PolyDAT: A generic schema for polymer characterization (ACS Editor’s Choice, Feb. 22, 2021)

Nature Communications “Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology” highlights (Nature Commun., Jan. 26, 2021).

Editor’s focus highlight: Enhanced polymer mechanical degradation through mechanochemically unveiled lactonization (Nature Commun., Oct. 5, 2020)

‘A one and a two’: Orchestrating polymer backbone breakdown (Synfacts 2020; 16(04): 0407)

New “mechanoacid” polymer releases acid when stretched (Spotlights on Recent JACS Publications, Jan. 21, 2020)

Mechanoacid polymer signals a smash hit (Chemical & Engineering News, Jan. 20, 2020)

BigSMILES all around for polymer chemists at Duke, MIT, and Northwestern (Duke Research Blog, Sept. 19, 2019)

A force to be reckoned with: Chemical reactions through mechanical methodologies (Spotlights on Recent JACS Publications, Oct. 26, 2018)

Duke researchers develop color-changing wires that tell you when they are overstretched (Duke Chronicle, Oct. 16, 2018)

Stretchable, color-changing wires warn of stress on materials (NSF Science360 News, September 26, 2018)

Stretchy wires for the future (Printed Electronics World, September 11, 2018)

Mechanochromic stretchable electronics (Duke Media, August 31, 2018)

New Center for Chemical Innovation funded (Duke Today, August 7, 2018)

Single-molecule observation of a mechanically activated reaction sequence (Spotlights on Recent JACS Publications, Sept. 6, 2016)

Vivian’s apprenticeship highlighted (ARL.ARMY.MIL, Sept. 8, 2016)

Greg gives highlight talk at ACS (ACS Science Video Lab, March 13, 2016)

Soft robot changes color as it grips and walks (ACS News Service, Oct. 14, 2015)

Mechanochemically active soft robots highlighted (Duke Media, October, 2015)

Mechanochemical strengthening paper among Most Read (ACS Macro Lett, August, 2015)

Stressed ligands switch catalyst selectivity (Chemistry World, Nov. 7, 2014)

Camouflage that changes color and texture instantly thanks to squid skin (Washington Post, Sept. 16, 2014)

This synthetic material changes color and texture like octopus skin (Gizmodo India, Sept. 16, 2014)

How to hide like an octopus (MIT News, Sept. 16, 2014) and if you want, in Italian (Le Scienze, Sept. 17, 2014)

Polymer mechanochemistry: Flex, release and repeat (Nature Chemistry News and Views, April 22, 2014)

New plastic becomes stronger when stressed, drop-proof smartphones incoming (ExtremeTech, Sept. 2, 2013)

Stretching makes material stronger (Inside ScienceAug. 29, 2013)

New synthetic polymer responds to destructive forces with mechanochemical strengthening (Materials360Online, Aug. 19, 2013)

Materials break, then re-make, bonds to build strength (Phys.org, Aug. 4, 2013)

Molecular levers may make materials better (Phys.org, Dec. 23, 2012)

Mechanochemistry: Demonstrated leverage (Nature Chemistry News & Views, Dec. 23, 2012)

Polymer linkers play an important part in mechanochemical reactions (Chem. & Eng. News, Dec. 24, 2012)

Mechanochemistry lets scientists tug on molecules (Chem. & Eng. News, Oct. 1, 2012)

Journal cover art/feature article (POLYMER, 2012)

Course materials feature in Apple product launch (Engadget, Jan. 19, 2012)

OpenChem and the iTunes U launch (Duke Today, Jan. 20, 2012)

The no-lecture chem class (Duke Chronicle, Oct. 26, 2011)

Intro chem without the lecture (Duke Today, Oct. 19, 2011)

Molecular tug-of-war could lead to new materials (Duke Research Blogsite, March 4, 2011)

JACS Cover Art Podcast for “molecular stress relief” (JACS-beta; Cover Art Podcast #23)

Journal cover art for “molecular stress relief” (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, issue 50)

A force-induced reaction makes polymers mechanically tougher (ACS Noteworthy Chemistry, Dec. 13, 2010)

Transition state captured by force (Chem. & Eng. News, 2010, 88, 36, pp. 65-66)

Stretched polymer snaps back smaller (Jeremy’s YouTube video, 2010).

Stretched polymer snaps back smaller (Futurity article, 2010).

Journal cover art/feature article (Langmuir 2007, 23(4)).

Feeling the force of supramolecular bonds in polymers (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007).

Pulled but not distorted (Editor’s Choice in Science, 2006, 311, 1523).  PDF