Research

Supramolecular Metallopolymers

What happens when you build soft materials from metal complexes instead of purely organic molecules? We use coordination chemistry as a design tool for soft matter assembly. Metal complexes offer features that organic building blocks lack: tunable geometries, bonds ranging from labile to inert, metallophilic metal–metal interactions, and redox and photophysical activity. We translate these features into supramolecular polymers that form fibres, gels and films. We then control their structure and function across every length scale, from a single molecule to a material you can hold in your hand.

One of our biggest surprises has been the role of water. Water usually disrupts self-assembly, but in our systems it acts as a structural co-monomer. It bridges metal centres inside hollow, tubular fibres, which we can resolve at near-atomic resolution with cryo-electron microscopy. In other systems, coordination cooperates with π–π stacking and hydrogen bonding. The resulting materials range from reprocessable adhesives to hydrogels that respond to temperature, salt or light. Some even protect themselves from acid for as long as they are irradiated, much like living cells spend energy to survive in hostile environments.

The work sits at the interface of molecular and materials chemistry. In our projects, synthesis goes hand in hand with methods such as (cryo-)TEM, rheology, spectroscopy and DFT.

Further reading: Adv. Mater. 2026; Adv. Mater. 2026; Adv. Funct. Mater. 2026

Sulfur-Containing Polymers

What happens when you swap oxygen atoms in a plastic for sulfur? Sulfur changes how polymer chains pack, crystallise, melt and degrade. It can raise the refractive index, bind transition metals and, as sulfur–sulfur bonds, make materials dynamic, so they can be reshaped, healed or broken down on demand. Making these polymers with real control is still a major challenge, and this is where catalysis comes in.

We make sulfur-containing polymers by ring-opening copolymerisation, in which a catalyst stitches cyclic monomers such as epoxides and oxetanes together with sulfur-based partners. These partners range from carbon disulfide and isothiocyanates to elemental sulfur, which is left over in millions of tonnes every year from oil refining. The catalysis decides almost everything: which monomers can be combined, where each sulfur atom ends up in the chain, and how long the chains grow. It also makes chemical recycling possible. Most plastics today can only be shredded and remelted, and they lose quality each time. Our sulfur-containing polymers are designed so that a catalyst can take them apart again, breaking them down into small molecules that can be turned back into new polymers. Instead of ending up as waste, the material stays in a closed loop.

Sulfur also breaks the catalyst rulebook. Most catalysts in this field are borrowed from all-oxygen chemistry, but sulfur behaves differently. It binds metals strongly and takes part in electron-transfer reactions, which can shut a catalyst down in ways that oxygen never would. We study the mechanisms behind this to understand why a catalyst works or fails, and turn that understanding into design rules for new catalysts. This approach lets us combine building blocks that would otherwise be incompatible, and make sulfur-containing plastics that can be processed like conventional ones into fibres, foams or adhesives.

The work sits at the interface of molecular chemistry, catalysis and materials science. In our projects, catalyst design and synthesis go hand in hand with mechanistic studies, DFT calculations, thermal and mechanical analysis and polymer processing.

Further reading: Nat. Commun. 2023; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2024; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025