Yossi Weizmann

Congratulations to Zuckerman Faculty Scholar Yossi Weizmann, Professor of Chemistry at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, on publishing the “Photoswitchable olefins as latent metathesis monomers for controlled polymerization” in Nature Chemistry.

The study introduces a new way to control the way polymers are formed by switching the monomers themselves, rather than the catalysts traditionally used to regulate polymerization.

Abstract
Our understanding of polymers has given rise to fundamental changes in society. Nonetheless, there is much room to further develop and improve creative techniques to enable advanced materials. At the frontiers of this endeavour is the development of switchable catalysts aimed at providing spatiotemporal control over polymerization reactions. Here we present an alternative to the conventional catalyst-centred approach by using quadricyclane–norbornadiene isomerization as a switchable monomer for ring-opening metathesis polymerization.