Welcome to Sun's Group
Professor Junqi Sun's Research Group
“Reversibly Cross-linked Polymers”:
Shaping the Future of High-Performance Sustainable Polymer Materials
Introduction to Prof. Junqi Sun:
Junqi Sun, born in 1975, is a professor at the College of Chemistry, Jilin Uni-versity, and currently serves as the director of the State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2001 from Jilin University. From January 2002 to August 2003, he conducted postdoctoral research at the RIKEN Institute in Japan. In 2003, he was awarded the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Prize and was appointed as a professor at Jilin University in the same year.
His notable honors include:
National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2012)
Leading Talent of the National “Ten Thousand Talents Program” (2018)
Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society (2020)
Chinese Chemical Society Young Chemist Award (2007)
Chinese Chemical Society-BASF Youth Knowledge Innovation Award (2019)
Chinese Chemical Society Wang Baoren Prize for Polymer Basic Research (2021)
Chinese Chemical Society Polymer Science Innovation Paper Award (2023)
First Prize of Jilin Provincial Natural Science Award (2023).
Research Interests:
It is essential for constructing sustainable polymer materials with mechanical properties and stability comparable to or even exceeding those of conventional polymeric materials. Our group proposes a new concept of reversibly cross-linked polymers (RCPs), which are three-dimensional (3D) polymer networks fabricated by reversibly cross-linking polymer chains via non-covalent interactions and/or dynamic covalent bonds. In RCPs, the proportion of covalent bonds relative to reversible cross-links can be maximized to ensure their satisfactory mechanical strength and stability. In particular, we can also in situ construct phase-separated nanostructures in RCPs, which markedly improve the mechanical performance and stability of RCPs. We believe that RCPs will become a new paradigm for high-performance and sustainable polymer materials.
Main Research Achievements：
We have fabricated a series of high-performance RCPs, including coatings, plastics, elastomers, ionogels/hydrogels, and adhesives, with capabilities for healing, reprocessing, degradation, and chemical recycling. We demonstrate that purposefully designed, in situ-formed phase-separated nanostructures are essential for constructing RCPs with mechanical properties comparable to or even exceeding those of conventional polymeric materials. a) In situ-formed rigid phase-separated nanostructures can significantly enhance the mechanical strength and modulus of RCPs. b) Moreover, nanostructures can be tailored to be tough yet deformable under external stress, thereby endowing RCPs with superior mechanical robustness and unique properties such as damage tolerance, damage resistance, and low hysteresis. c) By confining labile reversible cross-links within densely packed hydrophobic nanostructures or microenvironments, the thermal and solvent stability of RCPs are largely improved.
Representative Works:
Recent Activities:
