Title: Assistant Professor
Dept/Program: School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering
Office: GDYR 529
Phone: 330-972-5345
Fax: 330-972-5290
Email: jwang6@uakron.edu
Website: https://www.junpengwanglab.org/

Dr. J. Wang (co-PI) is an assistant professor in SPSPE. He serves on the admission committee and curriculum committee in SPSPE as well as the curriculum committee in graduate school at UA. He has developed a new graduate course “Physical Organic Chemistry in Materials Science”, which integrates hands-on quantum chemical computation into lecture on physical organic chemistry and materials science. Dr. Wang is currently mentoring 1 post-doctoral research fellow and 6 Ph.D. students and has mentored 7 M.S. students. Dr. Wang has trained students in research areas of sustainable polymers and stimuli- responsive materials.

Biography

Dr. Junpeng Wang is a physical organic and materials chemist. Prior to joining U Akron as an assistant professor of Polymer Science, he worked as postdocs with Prof. Jeremiah Johnson at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Prof. Luping Yu at University of Chicago, respectively. He conducted his PhD research on polymer mechanochemistry with Prof. Stephen Craig at Duke University, and obtained his PhD degree in chemistry in 2015.

Research

We are interested in understanding the interplay between the molecular-level knowledge and macroscopic properties of polymeric materials. On one hand, the molecular information, such as the molecular structures as well as the intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, determine many important polymer properties, including glass transition temperature, crystallinity and mechanical properties. On the other hand, the macroscopic properties could also impact the molecular interactions. For example, the diffusion and bond exchange in a glassy polymer would occur much slower than in a rubbery one. Polymer mechanochemistry is a subject that concerns how macroscopic force couples to single molecules and to activate reactions. It perfectly weaves the molecular-level insights and the macroscopic properties and involves many interesting fundamental and applied questions. For example, how does the force-induced chemistry impact the material properties? If so, can we leverage the chemistry to alter and control materials properties? Can we use the force-induced chemistry to monitor the dynamics of the mechanics, such as the process of stress dissipation? What types of materials would facilitate the force transmission and force-induced reactions? Can we manipulate the material properties to maximize the force-induced reactions?

Publications

Google Scholar | ResearchGate | Ohio Innovation Exchange

• Zhou, J.; Sathe, D.; Wang, J.* “Understanding the Structure–Polymerization Thermodynamics Relationships of Fused-Ring Cyclooctenes for Developing Chemically Recyclable Polymers,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c11197.
• Wang, W.; Zhou, Z.; Sathe, D.; Tang, X.; Moran, S.; Jin, J.; Haeffner, F.; Wang, J.; Niu, J.* “Degradable Vinyl Random Copolymers via Photocontrolled Radical Ring-Opening Cascade Copolymerization,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2021, DOI: 10.1002/anie.202113302.
• Chen, H.; Shi, Z.; Hsu, T.-G.; Wang, J.* “Overcoming the Low Driving Force in Forming Depolymerizable Polymers through Monomer Isomerization,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2021, 60, 25493-25498.
• Zhu, T.; Shen, L.; Chen, H.; Yang, Y.; Zheng, L.; Chen, R.; Zheng, J.; Wang, J.*; Gong, X.* “Conjugated Molecules Based 2D Perovskites for High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cells,” J. Mat. Chem. A2021, 9, 21910-21917.
• Sathe, D.; Zhou, J.; Chen, H.; Su, H.-W.; Xie, W.; Hsu, T.-G.; Schrage, B.; Smith, T.; Ziegler, C. J.; Wang, J.* “Olefin Metathesis–Based Chemically Recyclable Polymers Enabled by Fused-Ring Monomers,” Nat. Chem., 2021, 13, 743-750. 
• A Polymer with “Locked” Degradability: Superior Backbone Stability and Accessible Degradability Enabled by Mechanophore Installation.
  5 Feb 2020 Journal of the American Chemical Society 142(5):2100-2104
  Hsu T-G, Zhou J, Su H-W, Schrage BR, Ziegler CJ, Wang J
  10.1021/jacs.9b12482
• Counting loops in sidechain-crosslinked polymers from elastic solids to single-chain nanoparticles
  22 May 2019 Chemical Science 10(20):5332-5337
  Wang J, Wang R, Gu Y, Sourakov A, Olsen BD, Johnson JA
  10.1039/c9sc01297d
• Counting Secondary Loops Is Required for Accurate Prediction of End-Linked Polymer Network Elasticity
  20 Feb 2018 ACS Macro Letters 7(2):244-249
  Wang J, Lin T-S, Gu Y, Wang R, Olsen BD, Johnson JA
  10.1021/acsmacrolett.8b00008

Education

• Ph.D., Chemistry, Duke University, 2015
• B.S., Chemistry, University of Science & Technology of China, 2010