Harnessing Mechanochemistry to Address Challenges in Materials Sustainability
Mechanochemistry enables chemical transformations to be triggered selectively by mechanical force, providing a unique route to control when and where reactions occur in polymeric materials-capabilities that are difficult to achieve with thermal or photochemical approaches. This presentation showcases our development of a new class of polymers designed to exploit force-responsive functional groups, known as mechanophores, to precisely control polymer degradation. In these polymers, the mechanophore is incorporated into the backbone, while a degradable moiety forms a ring structure with it on the side chain. Upon mechanical activation, the degradable functional groups are transferred to the backbone, enabling polymer breakdown. This two-step, on-demand degradation mechanism contrasts with conventional approaches to degradable polymers and is expected to extend material lifetimes while maintaining recyclability.
In addition to these newly designed mechanically active degradable polymers, our group has also demonstrated the mechanochemical degradation of commercial polymers such as polystyrene. Furthermore, this presentation discusses our efforts to detect material damage through mechanochemical fluorescence, offering another strategy to prolong material lifetime and address sustainability challenges. Finally, this presentation will also cover our work on establishing a quantitative connection between the macroscopic mechanical behavior of materials and their molecular mechanochemical responses.
Bio: Junpeng Wang received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2010 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Duke University in 2015. He then worked at the University of Chicago and MIT as a postdoc before joining the University of Akron as an assistant professor of polymer science in 2019 and was promoted to associate professor in 2024. In January 2026, Junpeng and his research moved to Lehigh University, where he is an associate professor of chemistry. His research focuses on understanding structure-property relationships in polymeric materials, with particular emphasis on sustainable polymers enabled by physical organic chemistry and polymer mechanochemistry. He has received prestigious recognitions, including an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award.