TITLE:  Accelerating, Slowing, and Directing Crystallization with Polymers

 ABSTRACT

Recognition of the role of crystal packing in determining many of the important properties of molecular materials has led to increased demand for approaches to control the assembly of solids. Changes purely to arrangement of structural units, yielding crystalline polymorphs, can influence solubility of pharmaceuticals and performance of energetic materials. Polymers can act as phase directors during crystallization and, through judicious design, stabilize non-crystalline forms or accelerate crystallization of forms through heteronucleation. The design of polymers to serve these roles will be discussed in the context of improving drug delivery.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Adam J. Matzger received his B.A. degree in 1992 from Oberlin College. His Ph.D. was completed at the University of California at Berkeley in the group of K. Peter C. Vollhardt, where he conducted theoretical and experimental investigations of dehydrobenzoannulenes and phenylenes. He went on to postdoctoral work jointly with Nathan S. Lewis and Robert H. Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology investigating a novel class of chemical sensors. In 2000, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he is now the Charles G. Overberger Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Macromolecular Science and Engineering. His current research interest focus is on organic materials in the solid state and encompasses pharmaceuticals, organic electronic materials, explosive cocrystals, and porous materials.