A novel N-sulfonyl aziridine, N-((2-(trimethylsilyl)ethyl)sulfonyl)-2-methyl-aziridine (SES-MeAz) was synthesized, and its controlled anionic ring-opening polymerization to form poly(SES-MeAz) studied. The desulfonylation of poly(SES-MeAz)s can be achieved under mild conditions, with tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) polypropylene imine (PPI), although purification the PPI not completely succe...

Responsive polymer-based materials have found numerous applications due to their ease of synthesis and the variety of stimuli that they can be made responsive to. In this review, we highlight the group's efforts utilizing thermoresponsive poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm) microgel-based optical devices for various sensing and biosensing applications.

Both water and methanol are good solvents for poly( N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) at room temperature, but strangely not a mixture of them. Using narrowly distributed linear PNIPAM chains (M(w) = 2.6x10(7) g/mol and M(w)/M(n)<1.1), we have, for the first time, observed a coil-to-globule-to-coil transition of a single PNIPAM chain when methanol was gradually added into water. This novel reentr...