About us

Affiliation

University of Silesia
Institute of Physics
75 Pułku Piechoty 1 Street
41-500 Chorzów
Poland

Silesian Center of Education and Interdisciplinary Research
University of Silesia
75 Pulku Piechoty 1A Street
41-500 Chorzow
Poland

Contact us

If You have any questions or are interested in collaboration, feel free to contact us.

We are an interdisciplinary research group involved in a wide range of macromolecular chemistry and applied materials chemistry.

We investigate several areas of polymer chemistry, soft and condensed matter physics/chemistry with particular focus on the following tasks:

• Polymerization under high-pressure conditions – The implementation of elevated pressure to thermally- or photo-induced polymerization processes enables fabrication of polymeric materials with strictly defined macromolecular properties (topology, functionality, monodisperse chains) in a wide range of molecular weight (up to ultra-high molecular weight products) not achievable under atmospheric pressure conditions. Also, the catalytic effect of the high-pressure allows elimination/reduction of organometallic catalysts and toxic solvents and consequently provides to the production of ultra-pure materials. Up to now, we employed the synthetic strategies of one of the most interesting and versatile polymers in pharmaceutical/biomedical industries: poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP), and poly(γ-butyrolactone) (PGBL). Producing by our group PCLs, PVPs and PGBL are characterized by ultra-high purity and excellent chain-end fidelity of much better structural parameters compared to manufactured products. A single batch of fabricated product is quantitatively 2-3 grams.
• Polymerization under 2D confinement – The use of different hard confinement systems as nanoreactors (AAO, SiO2 templates) for ‘in-situ’ classical and controlled processes (ATRP, RAFT, organocatalyzed ROP) allowed us to produce tailored ionic and non-ionic polymers of unique morphology and architecture in much shorter time and more controllable way compared to classical batch systems.
• Synthesis of tailored polyelectrolytes in a wide range of molecular weight and studies of its conductivity changes with respect to molecular weight and glass transition temperature.
• Study of molecular dynamics of various glass-forming materials under various thermodynamic conditions and geometrical spatial restriction.
• Study of the influence of topology, molecular weight and molecular interactions on the behavior of polymers under spatial geometrical restriction (e.g., polymeric ionic liquids, associating polymers).
• Study the physical stabilization and crystallization kinetics of active pharmaceutical ingredients in spatially limited systems, searching for new drug delivery systems.