Biomolecular Science - Devon A. Shipp

Clarkson University » Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Science » Faculty

Devon A. Shipp Assistant Professor Chemistry 131 Science Center Clarkson University PO Box 5810 Potsdam, NY 13699-5810 Phone: 315-268-2393 E-mail: dshipp@clarkson.edu

Education
Ph.D. The University of Melbourne - Organic, Polymer Chemistry

Research Interests
Polymer chemistry, both the polymerization process or reactions that polymers can undergo themselves. In particular, I am interested in photochemistry and photophysics of polymers, using photolysis to initiate polymerization, and controlled radical polymerization techniques.

One of the major problems of studying free radical polymerization is the high reactivity of the free radicals and that there are many reactions all taking place all at once during a polymerization (initiation, propagation and termination all occur at the same time). This makes free radical polymerization difficult to study. It also means that the polymer products are often not very well defined, meaning that the final properties of the products may not be exactly as intended.

Research is focused on determining reaction rates for the processes that occur during free radical polymerization, on new methods of polymer synthesis and novel polymer material development. These areas of research are extremely important for the advancement of polymer technologies. The development of new synthetic methods allows the production of new materials with novel properties. As part of this development, the investigation into reaction rates is of primary significance because knowledge of such data leads to better synthetic methods.

Synthetic methods primarily include controlled/"living" radical polymerizations, such as atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), nitroxide-mediated polymerization and degenerative transfer (e.g. RAFT) polymerization methods.