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williamsgroupox.bsky.social
Williams Group
@williamsgroupox.bsky.social
Our research focuses on the study of metal complexes for use as catalysts to make polymers and new materials | University of Oxford | Account run by PhD students.
Excited to share our latest work - a perspective on 'General, Quantified Structure-Performance Correlations for Synergistic Heteronuclear Electro-, Polymerization, and Asymmetric Catalysts' published in ACS Catalysis!

doi.org/10.1021/acsc...
General, Quantified Structure-Performance Correlations for Synergistic Heteronuclear Electro-, Polymerization, and Asymmetric Catalysts
Intermetallic synergy can be useful to both enhance catalytic performance and access diverse chemistries, but understanding and predicting the most effective metal combinations remains a challenge. Th...
doi.org
July 18, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Our work on 'Toughened commercial poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) using degradable and recyclable poly(ester-alt-ether)-b-PLLA' is out now in Green Chemistry as part of the 25th Anniversary Collection!

Congratulations to Sandy, Ryan, Thom, and Lukas! 🧪💚

doi.org/10.1039/D5GC...
Toughened commercial poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) using degradable and recyclable poly(ester-alt-ether)-b-PLLA
A more sustainable future for plastics relies on the development of high performance materials that are renewably sourced, recycled without suffering losses in performance, and which are, ultimately, ...
doi.org
July 18, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Check out our latest paper on 'Heterodinuclear Co(III)Na(I) Catalysts for the Ring-Opening Copolymerization of Propene Oxide and Carbon Dioxide' out now in Macromolecules!

Congratulations to @freyab98.bsky.social, Francesca Fiorentini, and Katharina Eisenhardt 🎉🧪

doi.org/10.1021/acs....
Heterodinuclear Co(III)Na(I) Catalysts for the Ring-Opening Copolymerization of Propene Oxide and Carbon Dioxide
The ring-opening copolymerization of propene oxide and carbon dioxide is an effective route to make polycarbonates. Catalysts showing high activities, high polymer selectivities, molecular weight cont...
doi.org
July 18, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Williams Group
Our work with @williamsgroupox.bsky.social uncovering thermodynamic and kinetic relationships in depolymerization catalysis is out in @jacs.acspublications.org. Congrats to Thom McGuire & David Ning who led the study. Thanks @royalsociety.org @ukcatalysishub.bsky.social. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
The Science of Polymer Chemical Recycling Catalysis: Uncovering Kinetic and Thermodynamic Linear Free Energy Relationships
Polymer recycling must accelerate to limit ever-growing wastes and carbon dioxide emissions. Polymer chemical recycling to monomer enables multiple closed recycling loops, tackling the material and pr...
pubs.acs.org
June 23, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Congratulations to @kampoon1.bsky.social who has been awarded the 2025 Jon Weaver Prize for the best PhD in polymer chemistry in the UK! 🥳
May 20, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Our latest paper "High-Performance Recyclable Polyester Elastomers Through Transient Strain-Stiffening" is out now in Advanced Materials!

Congrats to @bonny-gao.bsky.social, @kampoon1.bsky.social, @matildeconcilio.bsky.social, Thomas, and George! 🧪💚♻️
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
High‐Performance Recyclable Polyester Elastomers Through Transient Strain‐Stiffening
Transient strain-crystallization simultaneously strengthens and toughens block polyester elastomers while conserving recyclability. Using controlled polymerization catalysis and commercial monomers, ...
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
April 17, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Check out our latest work "Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry to Accelerate Polymerization Catalysis: A Toolkit for Miniaturized and Automated Kinetics Measurements" online now in ACS Catalysis!

Congratulations to Thom and David! 🎉🧪

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry to Accelerate Polymerization Catalysis: A Toolkit for Miniaturized and Automated Kinetics Measurements
Understanding catalysts, and improving their future performances, requires quantification of their kinetic and thermodynamic parameters, including measurement of rate constants (kobs), transition stat...
pubs.acs.org
April 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Our latest work on "Controlled Catalysis Delivering High Molecular Weight Polyesters as Recyclable Alternatives to Polystyrenes" is now online in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social! 🧪🪢♻️

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
April 2, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Congratulations to @kampoon1.bsky.social for receiving 1st Prize for his #RSCPoster in the #RSCMat category! 🏆💚

@rsc.org

www.linkedin.com/pulse/rscpos...
March 18, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Our latest paper "From Polymers to Rings and Back Again: Chemical Recycling of Polyesters to Macrolactones" is out now in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social!

Congratulations to Maddie, Thom, and
@ryanwfkerr.bsky.social 💚🧪♻️

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
From Polymers to Rings and Back Again: Chemical Recycling of Polyesters to Macrolactones
Cyclic anhydride and epoxide ring-opening copolymerization is a versatile and controlled route to make polyesters, gaining attention in different application sectors but so far the chemical recycling...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 12, 2025 at 9:33 AM
The @ukcatalysishub.bsky.social III launches today! With EPSRC & partner support, researchers from 46 universities will advance catalysis for net zero & sustainable chemistry. Over the next 7 years, the hub will tackle key challenges in cleaner manufacturing & carbon capture.

shorturl.at/S5QCa
UK Catalysis Hub III launches with £12.5m EPSRC investment
shorturl.at
March 6, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Congratulations @matildeconcilio.bsky.social, Greg, Fer, and Steven! 🥳

Check out our latest paper on “Precise Carboxylic Acid-Functionalized Polyesters in Reprocessable Vitrimers” now out in JACS! ♻️👇
Thrilled to share this work on precise COOH-functionalized polyesters in reprocessable vitrimers, now online in JACS! This research highlights the role of catalysts in vitrimer chemistry and how tailored catalyst mixtures can control vitrimer properties and bond exchange pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Precise Carboxylic Acid-Functionalized Polyesters in Reprocessable Vitrimers
Thermosets are valued for their exceptional dimensional stability, mechanical properties, and resistance to creep and chemicals. Their permanent molecular structures limit reshaping, reprocessing, and recycling. Incorporating exchangeable chemical bonds into cross-linked polymer networks provides materials with thermoset-like properties that are also reprocessable. Here, ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) of unpurified, commercially available epoxides and succinic anhydride is employed to synthesize well-defined, low molecular weight polyesters with controlled functionalization. Polymer networks are then formed through the catalyzed reaction of these copolymers with the epoxy-containing cross-linker diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A. Catalyst mixtures of zinc bis(2-ethylhexanoate) and 1,8-diazabicyclo(5.4.0)undec-7-ene are used to assess the role of the catalysts in the curing and dynamic bond exchange reactions. Varying the catalyst ratios results in polymer networks with tunable mechanical properties (90% < εb < 450%, 0.30 MPa < UTS < 24 MPa), high creep recovery (%recovery > 90% after five creep cycles), and good reprocessability.
pubs.acs.org
February 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Congratulations to Kanyapat for winning a poster prize for her work on recyclable polymers in solid-state batteries at the Samaggi Research & Networking Symposium in London !

🔋🥳
February 11, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Williams Group
Recovering from a brilliant and tiring week at Diamond Light Source’s I22 beam line!

We can’t wait to share our exciting results soon… 😁
February 1, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by Williams Group
This is a great article about our Honorary Fellow Charlotte Williams @williamsgroupox.bsky.social and her work on sustainable plastics at @oxmartinschool.bsky.social - can we achieve a net zero plastics future?
www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/blog/a-dream...
A research team’s dream to achieve a net-zero plastics future
With the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Plastics coming to an end, we explore how this research programme has helped develop a holistic solution…
www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk
January 28, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Williams Group
What an incredible week at #GYSS in Singapore!

I had a wonderful time presenting my recent work and moderating the discussion on Advanced Materials.

I got to know so many incredible young scientists and am leaving Singapore inspired by all the outstanding talks!
January 13, 2025 at 6:08 AM
Our first paper of 2025 is now out in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social!

Check out “Structure-Activity Relationships for s-Block Metal/Co(III) Heterodinuclear Catalysts in Cyclohexene Oxide Ring-Opening Copolymerizations” below👇

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
January 6, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Thank you @ukcatalysishub.bsky.social for highlighting @kateisenhardt.bsky.social’s JACS paper in their 2024 Publication Highlights! 🤩🧪

ukcatalysishub.co.uk/uk-catalysis...
UK Catalysis Hub 2024 publication highlights – UK Catalysis Hub
ukcatalysishub.co.uk
December 23, 2024 at 6:20 PM
A very merry Christmas from the Williams Group! 🎄💚
December 6, 2024 at 3:29 PM
Our work on “Property Prediction of Bio-Derived Block Copolymer Thermoplastic Elastomers Using Graph Kernel Methods” is out now in Angewandte Chemie!

A huge congratulations to Shannon, David, George, Yichen, David and Clive!! 🧪💻🔧💚

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Property Prediction of Bio‐Derived Block Copolymer Thermoplastic Elastomers Using Graph Kernel Methods
Increasing the diversity of bio-based polymers is needed to address the combined problems of plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The magnitude of the problems necessitates rapid discovery...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 6, 2024 at 8:18 AM
Our latest work on “Understanding the Effect of M(III) Choice in Heterodinuclear Polymerization Catalysts” is out now in Inorganic Chemistry!

Congratulations to Kat and Fran! 🥳🧪

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Understanding the Effect of M(III) Choice in Heterodinuclear Polymerization Catalysts
The ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) of epoxides with CO2 or anhydrides is a promising strategy to produce sustainable polycarbonates and polyesters. Currently, most catalysts are reliant on scar...
pubs.acs.org
November 20, 2024 at 2:10 PM