Scripps Research chemists develop new sustainable reaction for creating unique molecular building blocks The building blocks can be used to create polymers with previously unexplored structures and fine-tunable properties, with applications across energy storage and more.
August 08, 2024
LA JOLLA, CA Polymers can be thought of like trains: Just as a train is composed of multiple cars, polymers are made up of multiple monomers, and the couplings between the train cars are similar to the chemical bonds that link monomers together. While polymers have myriad applications from drug delivery to construction materials their structures and functions are restricted by the chemically similar monomer building blocks they're composed of.
Now, Scripps Research chemists and additional collaborators have developed a new reaction to create unique monomers in a controlled way. This reaction, which uses nickel as a catalyst, ultimately enables scientists to create polymers with unique and modifiable properties for drug delivery, energy storage, microelectronics and more. The study was published in Nature Synthesis on August 8, 2024.
This study shows how earth-abundant metal catalysts can unlock the path toward previously unknown materials with unparalleled structural and functional diversity, says senior author Keary Engle, PhD, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Scripps Research.
The Engle lab at Scripps Research focuses on developing new chemical reactions to build a wide and diverse array of small molecules, typically with applications in drug discovery. In this study, the Scripps Research team collaborated with polymer researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Pittsburgh to test whether their methods could be scaled up to create unique polymers.
The properties of polymers are very much dependent on what type of chemistry is on the backbone, so if you can modify the chemistry of the building blocks, then you can easily apply it to the macromolecular structure that youre building, says Anne Ravn, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Engle lab at Scripps Research and co-first author on the paper. With this project we wanted to test whether our strategy for developing small molecules could be applied to a bigger picture to provide new building blocks for polymer synthesis.
The paper's other first authors are Van Tran, PhD, who worked on the project as a graduate student in the Engle lab; Camille Rubel, a current graduate student in the Engle lab; Mizhi Xu, PhD, a former graduate student in the Gutekunst lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Yue Fu, PhD, a former graduate student in the Liu lab at the University of Pittsburgh.
To create the new monomers, the Scripps Research team developed a chemical reaction that alters the structure of a starting molecule by using nickel as a catalyst. The nickel-catalyzed reaction added two new functional groups to the molecule small side chains that confer different chemical and physical properties on the ensuing polymer, for example, how flexible, elastic or soluble it is.
Then, the team's collaborators at Georgia Institute of Technology used another chemical reaction to link the monomers together via polymerization, resulting in polymers with a unique structure.
Most commercial polymers have two carbons in between each functional group that are not decorated with any side chains, but in this case, the functional groups are much closer in space, which creates a material with different properties, says Ravn.
In the future, the team plans to explore the impact of substituting different functional groups onto the monomers.
Our strategy allows us to decorate' the molecule with much more flexibility than other methods, which gives us more freedom to explore different types of functionalities in the building blocks, says Ravn. Were now working to expand the method to explore how introducing other types of functional groups changes the properties of the material.
Because nickel is more abundant than many other metal catalysts used in this type of chemical reaction, the researchers say that their method holds promise as an environmentally sustainable method for polymer production. They're also exploring ways to make the products even more sustainable.
From an environmental perspective, we want to find a method to degrade these long polymers so that we can get back to the original building blocks, which would allow us to reuse them, says Ravn. This is a tool that we hope to fine-tune in the future to ultimately create new technologies that are useful for society.
Ni-catalysed dicarbofunctionalization for the synthesis of sequence-encoded cyclooctene monomers was co-authored by Ethan Wagner, Steven R. Wisniewski, Peng Liu, and Will Gutekunst of Scripps Research.
Support for the research was provided by the Department of Energy (DESC0023205), the National Science Foundation (CHE-2102550), the Independent Research Fund Denmark (grant ID: 10.46540/3102-00009B), and the Schimmel Family Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Molecular Medicine Engle, Keary
North America Stories
23/07/2026
Illusionfx is finally coming!
Alex Perea July 23, 2026
0 Comments
The new website is now live to mark the occasion.
Since the last update, feedback h...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
21/07/2026
In a time of disarray in regional sports broadcasting, the league will provide c...
21/07/2026
When NEP designed one of its largest recurring mobile production unit fleets for PGA TOUR
coverage, the leading media services provider faced a familiar challe...
21/07/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery's unbroken lead is interrupted as sports and live mus...
21/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/07/2026
Across the TV and streaming ecosystem, industry players face mounting pressure to do more with less. They must simplify operations, protect premium content and ...
21/07/2026
Tuxera, a leading prover of quality-assured file systems and networking technologies, is bringing its latest advances in connectivity performance to the media w...
21/07/2026
COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...
21/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...
Scripps Research chemists develop new sustainable reaction for creating unique molecular building blocks The building blocks can be used to create polymers with previously unexplored structures and fine-tunable properties, with applications across energy storage and more. 
