Fors Group
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forsgroup.bsky.social
Fors Group
@forsgroup.bsky.social
Organic, polymer, and materials research group led by Prof. Brett Fors at Cornell University. Student-run account.
We are so grateful to Synthesis Workshop for hosting Paige Jacky to discuss her stellar work on user-friendly anionic polymerizations! Check it out!
Join us today to learn about controlled anionic polymerizations with Paige Jacky, focusing on her recently published work in Nature Chemistry!!

Link: youtu.be/6XD7dBUByyQ

Nat Chem. 2025, 17, 1076-1082.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
September 8, 2025 at 8:33 PM
💯💯💯 100th paper alert!!! 5th year @paigejacky.bsky.social and 3rd year Madison Neukirch have achieved RAFT for anionic polymerization using an aldehyde CTA! What some professors have called "sh*tty aldol chemistry," we call success 😎 doi.org/10.1021/jacs...
Anionic Reversible Addition–Fragmentation Chain-Transfer Polymerization of Methacrylates
Anionic polymerizations of methacrylates are controlled processes that give well-defined materials; however, these polymerizations require reactive and pyrophoric organolithium reagents for initiation...
doi.org
September 8, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Maddy, Maeve, and Izzy passed their A exams today and are officially PhD candidates!!
June 19, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Out last week in @natchem.nature.com is
@paigejacky.bsky.social’s first work on CO2-mediated anionic polymerization! Congrats Paige!!!
May 23, 2025 at 8:30 PM
We’ve given you easy radical methods….we’ve given you easy cationic methods…drumroll for our first super simplified, solid initiated, dare we say heated ANIONIC polymerization method!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Controlled anionic polymerization mediated by carbon dioxide - Nature Chemistry
Dangerous initiators and low reaction temperatures required for controlled anionic polymerization limit its widespread implementation. Now it has been shown that safe-to-handle, solid, CO2-protected i...
www.nature.com
May 23, 2025 at 8:29 PM
We come in peace ☮️ 🕊️ Amine you no harm ✋🤚--only selective and controlled polymerization!

Using EDA complexes to trigger deamination, 1st author Megan Driscoll initiates photocontrolled polymerization from the α-C of primary amines! (Peptides hate to see Megan coming)

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Radical Deamination of Primary Amines for Initiation of Controlled Polymerization
Selectively initiating controlled polymerizations using common functional groups is a powerful route to synthesizing advanced polymer architectures. Amines are one of the most common functional groups in small molecules, pharmaceuticals, and biomolecules, and thus are valuable substituents to use for initiating controlled polymerizations. In this study, we present the facile initiation of a controlled radical polymerization from the α-carbon of a primary amine via an electron donor–acceptor (EDA) complex-triggered radical deamination. Through this method, polymers were successfully grafted from a variety of amino acid derivatives. The resulting polymers had good matching between theoretical and experimental molar masses, narrow molar mass distributions (Đ ∼ 1.1–1.2), and exceptional α-chain end fidelities. This method was trialed on a model dipeptide, demonstrating the viability of EDA-RAFT in the synthesis of peptide–polymer conjugates.
pubs.acs.org
May 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM
…and an ENORMOUS encore for 2nd year Maddy Neukirch, who received honorable mentions from the NSF GRFP ‼️🏆 Maddy is our ROMP role model and nitrogen nonpareil, and we are so lucky to have her! 🎉
April 9, 2025 at 7:11 PM
HUGE round of applause to our 2nd year Isobel McClements, who was awarded the NSF GRFP yesterday! Three cheers for Izzy, our GPC guru and ATRP authority 🥂🍻🍾 We are so proud of you!!
April 9, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Spice up your plastic waste with PEPPr, the PolyEthylene Property Predictor!!

Teaming up with the DiStasio group, 5th year Jenny Hu made and tested **THOUSANDS** of PE blends—teaching a machine learning model to relate MW distributions and physical properties for better and smarter PE recycling.
March 18, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Happy Valentine’s Day from us to you <3
February 14, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Every day is International Day of Women and Girls in Science when all your grad students are female 😉
a man in a leather jacket is standing in front of a building with a sign that says opening on it .
ALT: a man in a leather jacket is standing in front of a building with a sign that says opening on it .
media.tenor.com
February 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Oh my 2,3-dihydrofuran,
I don’t know know any monomer cooler than
Thee.

Your cyclic vinyl ether,
Makes thermosetting so much easier
For me:

You ROMP in the dark, Crosslink in the light,
Recycle to monomer under vacuum overnight.
Degrade in acid or with a lot of O2,
Oh DHF this is an ode to you.
Degradable thermosets via orthogonal polymerizations of a single monomer - Nature
Degradable thermoset multimaterials can be synthesized from a commercially accessible, biosourced monomer using orthogonal polymerizations in a single pot; after selective degredation, the resulting s...
www.nature.com
January 29, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Walking by Megan’s hood and asked what the numbers were.

She said “Oh, I was trying to see how many digits of pi I could remember….I wasn’t very cool in middle school.”

We think you’re pretty cool Megan 😎
January 15, 2025 at 8:56 PM
D-d-d-d-drop the Brett 🍾🎈🎉
December 12, 2024 at 6:23 PM
What’s up #chemsky ?! Seems fitting for our first post to be an announcement of the new PhD students in the lab - Lydia Goedert and Nadia Crawford!! Lydia joins us from Stanford U., while Nadia comes from Trinity U. Wish them high yields and low dispersities for their next 5 years! 🥂🎓
November 15, 2024 at 5:14 PM