Research interest 

I started experiencing chemistry by blending conductive polymers with elastomeric polymers with the dream of synthesizing flexible electrochromic polymers. These polymers were supposed to be applied on imitiation leather or tshirts that will be changing color by applying small voltages. However, this was just an undergraduate  thesis and could not end up in a commercial product. In the meantime, other scientists discovered flexible and foldable screens and they also commercialized tshirts with downloadable design both using the electrochromism property of conductive polymers. 

With this motivation, I started my M.Sc. in Polymer Science and Technology in ITU. I synthesized 12 different ligands that allows to conduct homogeneous atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). These ligands were the derivatives of PMDETA and all exhibited better performance than PMDETA for the polymerization of styrene and methyl methacrylate. However, they could not replace PMDETA since it was already commercially available for many years. I performed  more than 250 polymerization for optimization of these ligands and most of those reactions were performed in parallel over long nights in ITU, Chemistry department. That experience pushed me to find out a more advanced and better equipped lab.

I found out Chemspeed automated synthesis robots in Eindhoven, Schubert lab. Those toys were great to conduct parallel optimization reactions and also preparation of libraries of polymers. I performed all three main controlled radical polymerization techniques during my PhD. We reported a new ligand for ATRP that works both in solution and on surface polymerization. We introduced a new class of initiator for cationic ring opening polymerization (CROP) of oxazolines and also a heterofunctional initiator to combine ATRP and CROP. We have synthesized several thermo and pH responsive polymer libraries using RAFT and NMP, all performed in the synthesis robots. I have experienced several microwave reactors, Biotage, Anton Paar, CEM, Milestone, to perform RAFT or CROP polymerization. We did not see any acceleration using these reactors. Moreover, I was also interested in the characterization of polymers for special applications such as water uptake. Up to here, most of the studies were fundemental research focusing on discovering new catalystys, initiators or preparatio of sytematic libraries to understand the structure-property relationships. At the end of my second year, we moved to Jena, Germany to setup the new labs of Schubert and to transfer the knowledge on high-throughput experimentation and controlled radical polymerizations. In the mean time I found an opportunity to learn about sugar chemistry and biomaterials. We discovered a new type of click reaction which allows synthesizing glycopolymers in a very easy way. We setup a collaboration with Schnabelrauch's biomaterials group to test our glycopolymers on cells. We hope to obtaion cell-specific adhesion with these polymers, which may end up as a coating material for body implants. Another application we are investigating is to encapsulate iron nanoparticles with our glycopolymers. These particles have been used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and administered to patients. We are hoping to reduce the side effects of iron nanoparticles to patients by covering them with our inert polymers. These diverse projects have been performed in 4 years from 2005 to 2009 by help of many colleagues. Last but not least I had a chance to supervise many master projects and also gained some teaching experience in the practical labs. I joined more than 30 conferences in the 4 years and presented at least one poster or lecture in each of them. Dutch Polymer Institute sponsored most of this research but the contiribution of Eindhoven University of Technology and Friedrich-Schiller Univeristy of Jena should also be acknowledged. In one of these conferences, Gordon Research Conference Polymers East, I have met with Dave Haddleton who I have been following his research since my M.Sc. studies.

We applied for a Marie-Curie fellowship from European Union and got granted in 2008. The project is focusing on the preparation of polymer bioconjugates and improving the existing synthesis techniques. Besides this project I got involved in many other prejects varying from catalytic chain transfer polymerization to star shaped polymers. I aim to broaden my research experience and to setup new collaborations in the next two years.