Mark Watson | University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences

Mark Watson

Associate Professor

Contact Information

mdwatson@uky.edu

15 Chemistry-Physics Building

859-257-4529

Affiliations

Chemistry
Materials
Organic

Research

Materials Chemistry as defined by IUPAC committee is: “The synthesis, processing, characterization and exploitation of substances that have useful, or potentially useful, properties and applications. The focus of the research is the creation, understanding and development of substances or systems with improved properties that will impact positively on business and personal life. To use chemistry to create substances that may lead to new technological opportunities or significant improvements in existing technology.”

Our materials chemistry research group mainly focuses on conceiving new organic materials, designing efficient (short) synthetic routes to prepare them, and then testing their properties. The types of materials we currently target include organic small molecules, oligomers, and polymers in the form of amorphous, crystalline, and liquid-crystalline materials. We select existing building blocks, or build new ones, and modify them chemically to rationally engineer their physical properties and processability. We employ more modern controlled radical polymerizations, as well as well-established "bread and butter" step polymerizations.

Graduate Training

Organic, Polymer and Materials Chemsitry

Selected Publications

Selected Publications:

Mukherji, D.; Watson, M.D.; Morsbach, S.; Schmutz, M.; Wagner, M.; Marques, C.M; Kremer, K. “Soft and Smart: Co-nonsolvency-Based Design of Multiresponsive Copolymers“ Macromolecules, 2019 DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b00414

Yao, X; Wang, X-Y; Simpson, C; Paterno, G.M; Guizzardi, M; Wagner, M; Cerullo, G; Scotognella, F; Watson, M.D; Narita, A; Muellen, K “Regioselective Hydrogenation of a 60-Carbon Nanographene Molecule toward a Circumbiphenyl Core” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 4230-34.

Mukherji, D.; Wagner, M.; Watson, M.D.; Winzen, S.; de Oliveira, T.E.; Marques, C.M; Kremer, K. “Relating side chain organization of PNIPAm with its conformation in aqueous methanol” Soft Matter, 2016,12, 7995-8003. DOI: 10.1039/C6SM01789D

Liyanage, A. D.T.; Milian-Medina, B; Zhang, B.; Gierschner, J.; Watson, M. D. “ ¿Conjugated? Copolymers from a Pechmann Dye Derivative” Macromol. Chem. Phys. 2016, 217, 2068-73.

Guo, X.; Kim, F.S.; Seger, M.J.; Jenekhe, S.A.; Watson, M.D. "Naphthalene Diimide-Based Polymer Semiconductors: Synthesis, Structure-Property Correlations, and n-Channel and Ambipolar Field-Effect Transistors" Chem. Mater. 2012, 24, 1434-1442. DOI 10.1021/cm2034273

Guo, X.; Watson, M.D. "Pyromellitic Diimide-Based Donor-Acceptor Poly(phenylene ethynylene)s" Macromolecules, 2011, 44, 6711-6716. DOI 10.1021/ma2009063

COVER ARTICLE Kim, F.S.; Guo, X.; Watson, M.D.; Jenekhe, S.A. "High-Mobility Ambipolar Transistors and High-Gain Inverters from a Donor-Acceptor Copolymer Semiconductor" Adv. Mater. 2010, 22, 478-82. DOI 10.1002/adma.200901819

Dutta, T.; Woody, K.B.; Parkin, S.R.; Watson, M.D.; Gierschner, J. "Conjugated Polymers with Large Effective Stokes Shift: Benzobisdioxole-based Poly(phenylene ethynylene)s" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 17321-27. DOI 10.1021/ja9068134.

Xin, H.; Guo, X.; Kim, F.S.; Ren, G.; Watson, M.D.; Jenekhe, S.A. "Efficient Solar Cells based on a New Phthalimide-Based Donor-Acceptor Copolymer Semiconductor: Morphology, Charge-Transport, and Photovoltaic Properties" J. Mater. Chem. 2009 DOI 10.1039/b900073a

Guo, X.; Kim, F.S.; Jenekhe, S.A.; Watson, M.D.; "Phthalimide-Based Polymers for High Performance Organic Thin-Film Transistors" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 7206-7. DOI 10.1021/ja810050y

Guo, X. Watson, M.D. "Conjugated Polymers from Naphthalene bisimide" Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 5333-6. DOI 10.1021/ol801918y

Wang, Y.; Watson, M.D. "Bithiophene-Perfluorobenzene Copolymers" Macromolecules, 2008, 41, 8643-7. DOI 10.1021/ma801400v

Wang, Y.; Parkin, S.R.; Gierschner, J.; Watson, M.D. "Highly Fluorinated Benzobisbenzothiophenes" Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 3307-10. DOI 10.1021/ol8003468

Wang, Y.; Parkin, S.R.; Watson, M.D. "Benzodichalcogenophenes with Perfluoroarene Termini" Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 4421-4. DOI 10.1021/ol801569

Dutta, T.; Woody, K.B.; Watson, M.D. "Transition-Metal-Free Synthesis of Poly(phenylene ethynylene)s with Alternating Aryl-Perfluoroaryl Units" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 452-3. DOI 10.1021/ja710546b