Simocko, Chester

Assistant Professor
Organic Polymer Chemistry
 
DH01
(408) 924-5496
 

Education

B.Sc. Chemistry, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2008
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Florida, 2013
 

Courses Taught

CHEM 001A - General Chemistry Seminar
CHEM 008 - Organic Chemistry
CHEM 113A - Organic Chemistry Lab
CHEM 276 - Physical Chemistry of Polymers
 

Research Interests

  • Synthesis, characterization, and application of precision polymers via acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) and alternating diene metathesis (ALTMET) polymerizations; specifically enhanced mechanical and thermal properties and well-defined morphologies.
  • Synthesis and applications of precise block copolymers via ALTMET. Of particular interest is their use in self-assembled structures such as micelles, vesicles, and tubules as well as unique morphology and physical properties.
  • Synthesis and characterization of mixed polymer brushes grown from silicon wafers. We focus on brushes with a high chi value between the components as well as study the effect of different parameters of the brush (brush thickness, density, molecular weight, polymer identity, etc.).

Selected Publications

  1. Chester Simocko, Amalie L. Frischnecht, Dale L. Huber. “Phase Behavior of Ternary Polymer Brushes” ACS Macro Letters, 2016, 5, 149-153
  2. Chester Simocko, Thomas C. Young, Kenneth B. Wagener “ADMET Polymers Containing Precisely Spaced Pendant Boronic Acids and Esters” Macromolecules, 2015, 48, 5470-5473
  3. Chester Simocko, Yong Yang, Timothy Swager, Kenneth B. Wagener “Metathesis Polymerization in Ionic Liquids” ACS Macro Letters, 2013, 2, 1061-64
  4. Chester Simocko, Kenneth B. Wagener “Effects of boron-containing Lewis acids on olefin metathesis” Organometallics, 2013, 32, 2513-16
  5. Chester Simocko, Pascale Atallah, Kenneth B. Wagener “A Brief Examination of the Latest ADMET Chemistry” Current Organic Chemistry, 2013, 17, 2749-63