News

25.09.2023 - Group excursion to Rüdesheim at the river Rhein.

Our annual group excursion took us to Rüdesheim at the river Rhein. We had an extremely nice and sunny September day and hiked up to the Niederwald monument enjoying tasty Federweißer (new wine) on the way.

 

15.09.2023 - 17 Group members enjoyed a perfect day on the annual company run in Mainz.

Yesterday 17 group members including Prof. Frey participated in the company run in Mainz. Everyone has given their best and achieved excellent results. The weather was perfect on our side, so we all had a wonderful evening running through the lovely old time of Mainz.

 

07.07.2023 - Elements - rPEG lipids: Risk-free delivery (Evonik)

Elements, the innovation magazine by Evonik, recently featured an article on rPEG lipids. These non-immunogenic alternatives to commonly used PEG lipids have been developed based on the novel rPEG technology in a close and fruitful collaboration of Evonik and Dr. Rebecca Matthes, Dr. Philip Dreier and Prof. Holger Frey.

Read more about the potential of rPEGs in mRNA delivery systems following this link:

ELEMENTS - rPEG lipids: Risk-free delivery (evonik.com)

German Version:

ELEMENTS - rPEG-Lipide: Transport ohne Risiken (evonik.de)

 

01.06.2023 - Frontiers in Polymer Science (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Last week’s Frontiers in Polymer Science 2023 conference in Gothenburg (Sweden) was another great experience for members of the AK Frey to share our work with others and gather inspiration from many eminent speakers. Several group members presented their work during the two poster sessions and enjoyed the opportunity to discuss emerging trends in polymer science. In addition, we contributed two talks to the conference program. Prof. Frey introduced the hot topic of rPEGs – structural isomers of polyethylene glycol as one example to tackle the immunogenicity and crystallization challenges of pharmaceutical PEG. Moritz Meier-Merziger presented his work on a one-step synthesis route to fully bio-based thermoplastic elastomers during his first talk at an international conference. The conference #FrontiersPoly2023 gave us valuable insights, and we are grateful for new connections and collaborations. Proud to be part of this dynamic academic community, and we can’t wait to invite many of them to our IP’24 conference on ionic polymerization in Mainz next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

31.05.2023 - Publication on tailoring thermoresponsiveness of biocompatible copolymers of linear glycerol and ethyl glycidyl ether highlighted on the cover of Polymer Chemistry

LCST behavior of biocompatible polyether copolymers of linear glycerol and ethyl glycidyl ether was adjusted by variation of the comonomer compositions. This work by Verena Müller is highlighted on the cover of the RSC journal Polymer Chemistry.

 

30.01.2023 - Kleinwalsertal group symposium 2023 in the alps

Our group met again this January for the annual seminar in Kleinwalsertal, Austria. The topic this year was "Agriculture and raw materials of the future". Here we learned a lot about perspectives in food production, as well as the importance of raw material extraction and the consequences for our industrial society. In the free time there was also time for hiking through the Breitachklamm, tobogganing and also skiing.

 

 

 

16.09.2022 - 14th International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization 2022 (IP´22)

Our research group was happy to attend the IP'22 in Ghent, Belgium, with 13 members including Prof. Holger Frey as well as Prof. Axel Müller in person to present their latest results. Four oral talks (Prof. Holger Frey, Prof. Axel Müller, Ramona B. and Christoph H.) and nine poster presentations (Dominik F., Dominik S., Gregor L., Maximilian K., Moritz. M.-M., Moritz R., Sandra S., Thi D. and Verena M.) were given. All of us enjoyed the interesting talks of other leading researchers about their recent works as well as having vivid discussions and interactions with all the attendees. Our group also enjoyed the extraordinary banquet dinner at the historic “Monasterium PoortAckere” Hotel and the city excursion - “Ghent Discovery Tour”, where we learned a lot about the history of Ghent. We like to thank the organizers, Prof. Richard Hoogenboom and Prof. Filip Du Prez, for this great conference. 

We can't wait to welcome all the participants at the next IP'24 here in our City Mainz, Germany!

 

21.06.2022 - Bordeaux Polymer Conference BPC 2022

Eleven group-members attended the Bordeaux Polymer Conference where researchers from all over the world presented their newest research. Besides listening to these very exciting talks the group enjoyed the interaction with all the participants. For instance, nine posters represented the current research of our group members (Ramona, Verena, Thi, Shivani, Dominik F., Philipp H., Christoph, Moritz M.-M. and Moritz R) and were open for discussion. Everyone enjoyed having a real conference in person again and mostly the fantastic Gala Dinner. 

 

24.05.2022 - KU Leuven Research Council Award 2022 in Science, Technology and Engineering

Dr.-Ing. Rhea Verbeke, a visiting postdoctoral researcher at our group, was awarded the "KU Leuven Research Council Award 2022 in Science, Technology and Engineering" as a token of recognition and encouragement for her promising and valuable scientific work on ‘Chemically robust epoxide-based membranes for sustainable water purification’.


 

 

26.04.2022 - ERC Advanced Grant

The prestigious ERC Advanced Grant was awarded to Prof. Holger Frey for the project "RandoPEGmed". For more details follow the link to the announcement of the University of Mainz: https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/15456_ENG_HTML.php

 

04.2022 -

In a recent survey by the academic platform Research.com, Holger Frey was rated among the leading 1000 materials scientists worldwide according to citations and H-index (rank 948; https://research.com/scientists-rankings/materials-science).

11.2021 - Brightlands Polymer Days 2021

Several members of the group attended the Brightlands Rolduc Polymer Days 2021 (https://polymerdays.brightlands.com) in Eindhoven.

As the conference focused on “Innovative polymer materials for a sustainable future”, Sandra, Moritz R.,  Christoph and Moritz M. presented posters on their research regarding bio-derived polymeric materials. Further, Shivani gave a lecture about her latest research results on the challenging monomer ocimene (title: "Living Anionic Polymerization Studies of β-Ocimene: An Unexplored Promising Bio-based Terpene Monomer").

It was a real pleasure to be present at a real conference again rather than just participating online and use the opportunity to exchange with researchers from industry and academia.

We had an interesting time in the Netherlands as we learned more about circularity and sustainability in the field of polymer chemistry.

 

10.2021 - Kleinwalsertal group symposium 2021 in the alps

Early October, our group finally continued the tradition of a seminar week in the Kleinwalsertal, Austria. As the lectures were focusing on the topic “Sustainable polymer materials – towards a greener future”, we learned a lot about sustainability and circular economy. Additionally, our stay was filled with beautiful hikes to the Schwarzwasserhütte and in the impressive Breitachklamm as well as some fun at the “Sommerrodelbahn” (summer toboggan-run).

 

06.2021 - Dies Academicus award

On the occasion of the “Dies Academicus” on June 30, Dr. Philipp von Tiedemann received an award for his PhD thesis with the title “Star-Shaped Multiblock Copolymers: Engineered Materials, Order, and Mechanics”. In his thesis he developed new protected functional monomers for star polymers and also presented the first example of tapered star copolymers. The approach relied on a new coupling agent with extremely high coupling efficiency. The research award was donated by the Association of the Friends of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Congratulations to Philipp! He is now working for BASF.

Key results of his research have been reported here:

"Rapid One-Pot Synthesis of Tapered Star Copolymers via Ultra-fast Coupling of Polystyryllithium Chain Ends."
P. von Tiedemann, K. Maciol, J. Preis, P. Sajkiewicz, H. Frey, Polym Chem.2019, 10, 1762-1768. DOI:
10.1039/C8PY01656A

"Copolymerization of Isoprene with p-Alkylstyrene Monomers: Disparate Reactivity Ratios and the Shape of the Gradient"
P. von Tiedemann, J. Blankenburg, K. Maciol, T. Johann, A. H.E. Müller, H. Frey, Macromolecules201944, 5327–5338.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.8b02280.

Link: Preisverleihung 2021 | Gutenberg Nachwuchskolleg (GNK)

https://www.gnk.uni-mainz.de/files/2018/12/GNK_Header3.jpg

05.2021 - Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)

Holger Frey was awarded the distinction “Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry” (FRSC).

 

01.2021 - Building briges by blending?

Mechanical properties of diblock copolymers are rather lousy. However, simple blending with multiblocks makes a dramatic difference! Here is a report that relates the toughening effect to domain size and block number of the multiblocks.

 

09.2020 - Best poster award for Shivani Wadgaonkar at twitter #macroposter20 conference

Shivani Wadgaonkar won the best poster award for the best poster at the twitter poster conference of the German “Fachgruppe Makro” (Fachgruppe Makromolekulare Chemie) of the German Chemical Society. She presented her work on the anionic copolymerization of trimethylsilyl-substituted styrene with styrene, showing a strong gradient in the resulting copolymers. Link: https://twitter.com/FgMakro

 

06.2020 - Lab work continues

Finally we are back to work after the shutdown of the departement due to the corona virus pandemic. According to the safety measures we currently work in shifts so everyone will stay healthy while continuing our research.

 

28.02.2020 - Poster Award for Tobias Kaiser

Tobias Kaiser received a poster award by Wiley-VCH at the “Makromolekulares Kolloquium Freiburg 2020” for his poster titled “Variation of the Degree of Branching of Hyperbranched Polyether Polyols by Copolymerization of Glycidol with Substituted Analogues”

 

21.01.2020 - Winter Seminar in the Kleinwalsertal

In January our group had a pleasent stay in the Kleinwalsertal with interesting lectures and best weather for hiking in the snowy mountains as well as an impressive excursion into the Breitachklamm, one of the deepest, naturally created canyons in Central Europe.

 

19.09.2019 - Group Tour to the Monastery Eberbach

The yearly group tour to the Cistercian Monastery Eberbach (built in the 12th century) included a tour of the rooms were the monks lived for centuries and also the famous movie “The Name of the Rose” with Sean Connery was staged.

 

12.09.2019 - Poster Award for Rebecca Mohr

Rebecca Mohr received a poster award at IP´19 in Beijing for her poster titled “The Unique Versatility of the Double Metal Cyanide (DMC) Catalyst: Copolymers of Siloxanes and Epoxides by Ring-Opening Copolymerization”  She presented the first case of a copolymerization of D3 cyclosiloxane monomer with propylene oxide.

Left Picture: Rebecca at the poster presentation.
Right Picture: Rebecca (second from left) with the organizer, Prof. Junpo He as well as the other poster awardees.

 

08.09.2019 - Members of the research group were present at the Ip 2019 in Beijing, China

12 members of the group including profs. Holger Frey as well Axel Müller were present at the ip´19 conference on Ionic Polymerization in Beijing. 3 oral presentations were given as well as 11 poster presentations. All of us enjoyed a wonderful symposium with many vivid discussions and a great final banquet dinner. A great thanks to the organizers, Profs. Yixian Wu and Junpo He.

The group members also enjoyed a fascinating day in the Forbidden City, the former center of the Chinese empire.

 

19.08.2019 - Nylon as a building block for transparent electronic devices?

A fruitful collaboration with the MPI-P and the Lodz University of Technology enabled the use of ferroelectric Nylon-11 for thin film processing. More information can be found in the publication or the official JGU press release.

 

06.05.2019 - Publication on a new strategy for α‐amino‐ω‐hydroxyl heterobifunctional polyether highlighted on the cover of Macromolecular Rapid Communication

Convenient access to α‐amino‐ω‐hydroxyl heterobifunctional polyether was achieved by a synthesis route via “sacrificial” hexahydro‐triazine containing star polymer precursors. This work by Jan Blankenburg is highlighted on the cover of Macromolecular Rapid Communication.

 

22.02.2019 - Members of the research group were present at the Macromolecular Colloquium in Freiburg, Germany

The research group attended the Makromolekulares Kolloquium in Freiburg with 15 visitors. Tobias Johann presented his latest results and was honored with a poster award by Wiley-VCH for his work on Hydroxamic acids.

 

14.11.2018 - Publication on noncovalent micellar hydrogels featured on the cover of Polymer Chemistry

Supramolecular, micellar hydrogels based on triblock polyether copolymers with apolar poly(alkyl glycidylether) blocks can be tailored with respect to their gel melting points. This is now shown in a publication by Patrick Verkoyen, Tobias Johann and other group members. The publication is featured on the cover of the RSC journal Polymer Chemistry.

 

10.10.2018 - We enjoyed a sunny day on our annual field trip in Mainz.

 

24.09.2018 - Members of the research group were present at the Biennial Meeting of the GDCh-Division of Macromolecular Chemistry in Karlsruhe, Germany

Tobias Kaiser, Jennifer Keth and Marvin Steube attended the Biennial Meeting of the GDCh-Division of Macromolecular Chemistry in Karlsruhe and presented their latest results. Marvin Steube was honored with a poster award by Wiley-VCH for his work on "(AB)n Multiblock Copolymers: Tapered Systems up to 10 Blocks based on Styrene and Isoprene".

 

06.09.2018 - Members of the research group attended the Mainzer Firmenlauf 2018

Philipp von Tiedemann, Jennifer Keth, Christina Gardiner, Philip Dreier, Erik KerstenTobias Kaiser, Christian Wahlen as also Holger Frey went for a 5 km run at the Mainzer Firmenlauf 2018.

 

18.07.2018 - Members of the research group were present at the MACRO 2018 conference in Cairns, Australia

Tatjana Dänzer and Tobias Johann attended the World Polymer Congress MACRO 2018 in Australia and presented their latest results. Tobias Johann was honored with a poster award by IUPAC for his work on "Hydroxamic acid bearing polyethers".

 

25.06.2018 - Members of the research group were present at the 82nd Prague Meeting on Macromolecules and 24th Polymer Networks Group Meeting in Prague, Czech Republic

Kamil Maciol  presented a lecture on his results. Olga Linker and Johannes Ewald presented posters with their latest results.

 

25.06.2018 - Polyether-review in "Chemical Reviews" among the 10 most downloaded publications.

The comprehensive review-article  on polyether chemistry authored by several members of the group has been downloaded 28,500 times in total since its appearance in December 2015. The article was among the 10 most downloaded reviews in this leading ACS journal (IF 47.9) in the last 12 months. (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00441)

 

28.05.2018 - Several members of the research group were present at the Bordeaux Polymer Conference in France.

Eyleen Becker, Jan Blankenburg, Johannes Ewald, Tobias Johann, Tobias Kaiser, Jennifer Keth, Lena Kunze, Olga Linker, Marvin Steube and Patrick Verkoyen presented posters with their latest results.

The successfull work of  Tobias Kaiser on controlling the molar mass of hyperbranched poly(ethylene oxide) was honored with a poster award provided by ACS Macro Letters.

 

05.03.2018 - Arthur Ziegler successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Strategies for the Synthesis of Novel Polycations

 

18.12.2017 - Andreas Friedel successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Polymerization of Propylene Oxide and Cyclic Ester Monomers with the DMC Catalyst

 

24.09.2017 - Members of the research group were present at International Symposium on Ionic Polymerization (IP 2017) in Durham, England

Tatjana Dänzer, Eduard Grune, Tobias Kaiser, Olga Linker, Kamil Maciol, Marvin Steube and Christian Wahlen presented posters with their latest results. Additionally, Tobias Johann presented his work in a short lecture.

 

03.07.2017 - Markus Scharfenberg successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Polycarbonate Architectures Based on Carbon Dioxide and Tailored Epoxides

 

01.04.2017 - Several members of the research group were present at the Spring ACS Meeting in San Francisco in April 2017.

Ann-Kathrin Danner and Eduard Grune presented short lectures on their results, and Jan Blankenburg, Markus Scharfenberg, Tobias Johann and Olga Linker presented posters with their latest results.

 

17.02.2017 - Macromolecular Colloquium in Freiburg

On the occasion of the Macromolecular Colloquium in Freiburg in February, Holger Frey and several other leading researchers gave their ideas regarding current challenges in Polymer Science and the future of the area. Please see the respective website of Wiley: http://www.advancedsciencenews.com/challenges-future-polymer-science/

 

19.01.2017 - Interview of Prof. Holger Frey on his new paper presenting 'pH-degradable polyethylene glycol' (ACS Macro Lett., 2016, 5 (12), 1357-1363.)

Highlighted in the ACS Podcast Series, edt. Nov. 2016.: http://pubs.acs.org/page/polymer/audio/index.html

 

20.12.2016 - Kerstin Niederer successfully defended here Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Multi-Catechol Functional Polyethers Synthesis, Properties and Applications

 

19.12.2016 - Matthias Worm successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: pH-Cleavable and Hyperbranched Polyether Architectures: From Novel Synthesis Strategies to Applications in Nanotechnology and Biomedicine

 

15.12.2016 - Jana Herzberger successfully defended here Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Stimuli-Responsive Multifunctional Poly(ethylene glycol) Copolymers

 

12.12.2016 - Daniel Leibig successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Functional Copolymers: In-Situ Kinetics of Anionic Copolymerizations

 

01.12.2016 - Hannah Pohlit successfully defended here Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Degradable Poly(ethylene glycol) Nanocarriers for Encapsulation of Therapeutic Proteins, Directed Transport and Controlled Release

 

29.06.2016 - Jan Seiwert successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Synthesis, Characterization and Modification of Hyperbranched Polyether Polyol Copolymers

 

01.11.2016 - Prof. Holger Frey was invited as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the ACS Journal Biomacromolecules

14.09.2016 - Poster award for Lena Kunze at the "14th International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (ICCDU)" in Sheffield (GB)

Lena Kunze received the Green Chemistry Award for her poster presentation at the International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilisation in Sheffield (GB) on thermo-responsive polycarbonate elastomers. The aliphatic polycarbonates which are based on functional epoxides and CO2 can be reversibly cross-linked.

 

07.09.2016 - Poster award for Markus Scharfenberg at APA 2016 in Flic en Flac, Mauritius

Markus Scharfenberg received an award for his poster presentation at the APA International Conference on Advanced Polymers, Biomaterials, Bioengineering & Nano Drug Delivery (APA 2016, Mauritius) on blockcopolymers based on aliphatic polycarbonates. This surfactants are prepared by immortal polymerization of carbon dioxide and tailored epoxides.

 

29.06.2016 - Jan Seiwert successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Synthesis, Characterization and Modification of Hyperbranched Polyether Polyol Copolymers

 

23.06.2016 - Eva Christ successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Functional Aliphatic Polyethers via Cationic Ring-Opening (Co)polymerization of Cyclic Ether Monomers

 

02.06.2016 - Jan Morsbach successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future.

Title: Living Carbanionic Polymerization: Ferrocene Containing Polymers and Synthesis in Continuous Flow Reactors

 

18.12.2015 - Poster award for Markus Scharfenberg at "2015 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies" in Honolulu

Markus Scharfenberg received an award for his poster presentation at the 2015 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (PACIFICHEM 2015, USA) on aliphatic multifunctional polycarbonates. The CO2 based polymers are versatile platforms for many other functional groups and for reversible cross-linking.

 

13.10.2014 - Poster award for Hannah Köhring at "9. Deutscher Allergiekongress" in Wiesbaden

Hannah Köhring received the "Junior Member Award of DGAKI" for her poster presentation at the Allergiekongress of the "German Society for Allergology and Clinical Immunology" on degradable PEG nanocarriers. The nanocarriers are designed to degrade under acidification and release their payload inside the lysosome.

 

12.10.2013 - Cover Page of the journal "Polymer".

The review article on the grafting of branched structures onto polymer chains and surfaces was featured on the cover.

 

 

 

 

11.10.2013 - MAINZ-award for Anna Maria Hofmann and Christine Tonhauser

Anna Maria Hofmann and Christine Tonhauser received the two MAINZ awards for their outstanding PhD theses. Anna Maria Hofmann worked on branched and hyperbranched lipids and Christine Tonhauser worked on functional PEG. Pressemeldung der JGU.

 

05.10.2013 - Poster award for Rebecca Klein at IP2013 at Awaji Island, Japan

Rebecca Klein received an award for her poster presentation at the 2013 Symposium on Ionic Polymerization (IP 2013, Japan) on poly(oxymethylene) block copolymers. The materials are prepared by combined cationic and oxyanionic ring-opening polymerization.

 

26.01.2013 - Cover Page of Journal of Polymer Science A, Polymer Chemistry

New Review Article published: "Hyperbranched Aliphatic Polyether Polyols"

M. Schömer, C. Schüll, H. Frey J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 995-1019;

Cover Page of Journal of Polymer Science A, Polymer Chemistry

 

 

 

25.12.2012 - Cover Page of Macromolecules

Perspectives Article published on Polymer Synthesis in Microflow;

Cover of Macromolecules, issue from Dec. 25, 2012

 

 

 

 

14.12.2012 - Poster Award on IPC 2012

Mathias Werre received the "Young Scientist Poster Award" on the "International Polymer Conference 2012" (IPC 2012) in Kobe, Japan for his poster "Polymerization of a Bifunctional Epoxy-Styrene Monomer via Orthogonal Polymerization Techniques".

 

29.03.2011 - New Book

Release of the book "Hyperbranched Polymers: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications" edited by Deyue Yan, Chao Gao and Holger Frey. Link

ISBN: 978-0-471-78014-4