Vol. 33 No. 2
March-April 2011

Polymer-Solvent Complexes and Intercalates

by Jean-Michel Guenet

The 8th International Conference on Polymer-Solvent Complexes and Intercalates, held in Strasbourg, France, from 5 to 8 July 2010, was the first of the series to be granted IUPAC sponsorship.

The topic of this series of international conferences was originally centered on polymer systems that are obtained through the co-crystallization, or in a broader sense through the co-organization, of polymer chains or macromolecules with solvent molecules. These systems, which are also designated as polymer-solvent molecular compounds, crystallosolvates, intercalates, form typically through molecular recognition (intercalates) and/or through specific molecular interactions (complexes). It, however, turned out that more and more other systems, such as supramolecular polymers (self-assembled systems) and proteins complexes, were discussed, as the scientists involved in their study clearly shared common concerns, and in many cases similar scientific approaches. To acknowledge the broader range of systems presented and to convey the general idea of specific interactions of large molecules with smaller ones, a new name was coined: POLYSOLVAT.

Participants at POLYSOLVAT-8 numbered 92 people from 5 continents. They were welcomed by C. Marquès, deputy director of Institut Charles Sadron, a CNRS laboratory where the conference was held, and J.M. Guenet, chairman of the conference and chairman of the scientific committee of POLYSOLVAT.

The program included 14 invited talks:

• Christophe Daniel, Universita di Salerno, Italy, “Nanoporous Polymeric Crystalline Materials for Environmental and Energy Applications”
• Nicolas Giuseppone, Université de Strasbourg, France “Responsive Multicomponent Supramolecular Systems”
• Gaetano Guerra, Universita di Salerno, Italy “Polymer Co-crystalline Phase”
• Akira Harada, Osaka University, Japan “From Supramolecular Chemistry to Polymer Science”
• Wim E. Hennink, Utrecht University, The Netherlands “Self-Assembling Hydrogels for Proteins Release”
• Erdogan Kiran, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA “Polymorphic Transformations and Morphological Modifications of Polymers in Dense Fluids”
• Jean-François Luz, Fraunhofer Institute, Potsdam, Germany “Design of Synthetic Hydrogels with a Sol-Gel or a Gel-Sol Thermoreversible Transition in Aqueous Medium”
• Yasushi Maeda, Fukui University, Japan “Hydration of Temperature-Responsive Polymers Observed by IR Spectroscopy”
• Ulrich Maschke, Université de Lille, France “Dispersions of Liquid Crystals in Polymers: Investigation of Thermo-Physical, Morph-ological, and Electro-Optical Properties”
• Philippe Mesini, Institut Charles Sadron, France “Self-Assembled Nanotubes: Structural Studies and Use as Templates for Porous Materials”
• Aline Miller, Manchester University, UK “Designing Functional Biomaterials Exploiting Peptide Self-Assembly”
• Jean-Luc Putaux, CERMAV, France “Helical Conformation in Crystalline Complexes of V-Amylose”
• Francesco di Renzo, Inst. Charles Gerhardt, Montpellier, France, “Physisorption Methods for the Characterization of Biopolymers”
• Jiri Spevacek, Inst. Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague, Czech Republic, “Stimuli-Responsive Polymers in Solution Investigated by NMR Methods”

The conference proceedings will be published in Macromolecular Symposia. The conference received financial support from CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, Alsace regional government, and the French Polymer Group. The next conference, POLSOLVAT-9, will be held in Crimea at the seashore resort of Gurzuf.

Jean-Michel Guenet <[email protected]> is director of research at the Institut Charles Sadron in Strasbourg, France. He was chair of the Local Organizing and Program Committees for POLYSOLVAT-8.