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Special issue in honour of John Ebdon on the occasion of his retirement
REACTIVE & FUNCTIONAL POLYMERS
Reactive & Functional Polymers 66 (2006) vii–viii
www.elsevier.com/locate/react
Editorial
Special issue in honour of John Ebdon on the occasion of his retirement
This issue of Reactive and Functional Polymers contains a set of invited papers commissioned to celebrate the career of John Ebdon following his retirement. John has enjoyed a long and influential career in polymer chemistry and all of the contributors to this issue wish him well in this next stage of his life. Many of the younger contributors were helped in many ways at early stages of their careers by John and I am sure that he will be delighted at our later successes. John received a BSc degree in Chemistry with First Class Honours from the University of Birmingham in 1965. He then stayed at Birmingham to undertake research for PhD under the guidance of Professor James Robb and Dr. Roy Lehrle, funded by a Scholarship from the DistillerÕs Company Ltd. (later BP Chemicals). His PhD degree was awarded in 1968 for a thesis entitled ‘‘The Thermal Reactions of Chloroprene’’. Chloroprene undergoes a spontaneous dimerization and a parallel low rate of thermal polymerization even when stored at low temperature, and JohnÕs work helped to disentangle the kinetics of these two processes. Moreover, he showed that the majority of the spontaneous polymerization arose from the decomposition of polyperoxides adventitiously present in the chloroprene. Following his PhD, John Ebdon moved to the then newly established University of Lancaster where he was to remain for the next 32 years, first as a Research Fellow, then as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader and finally, Professor of Polymer Chemistry. JohnÕs first research at Lancaster was carried out in collaboration with Professor John Bevington, the founding Head of the Department of Chemistry, and involved a study of the alkaline hydrolysis of a range of diene-acrylate and diene-methacrylate copolymers. This work demonstrated that hydrolysis took place preferentially at acrylate or methacrylate units adjacent to diene units. It was through this work that John first became interested in the uses of high resolution 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy for the anaylsis of polymer structure, and susbsequently used this technique to sequence a variety of copolymers, to investigate geometrical isomerism in diene homopolymers, and to analyse the structures of the complex products arising from the condensation of formaldehyde with urea and melamine. This last work led to one of the first published applications of 15N NMR spectroscopy to the analysis of polymer structure. Much of the work on copolymers was directed towards trying to resolve the question of whether or not highly alternating radical copolymerizations involve significant propagation via complexed monomer pairs, a view that was very much in vogue in the 1970s and 1980s but which JohnÕs work threw into question. In the mid-1980s John turned his attention to the synthesis and further reactions of telechelic oligomers, as part of a larger ‘‘Polymer Synthesis Initiative’’ funded mainly by EPSRC and ICI, and involving a col1381-5148/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.reactfunctpolym.2005.07.006
viii
Editorial / Reactive & Functional Polymers 66 (2006) vii–viii
laboration with Professor Phil Hodge (now at Manchester). To synthesise the oligomers, a relatively untried method involving scission of unsaturated polymeric precursors with ozone was employed. This method proved to be a versatile route to oligomers with a variety of different end-groups, the lengths of which could be controlled by the amount of unsaturation and duration of ozonolysis. This project also marked the beginning of a series of collaborations with myself, which continue beyond retirement, and which attracted significant further support from EPSRC, the MoD and ICI Paints. It was during this period that John worked also with Dr. Doug Hourston on the establishment of the Lancaster Polymer Centre and became Director of the Centre on Doug HourstonÕs move to Loughborough University. The Centre at Lancaster developed into a thriving internationally recognised centre of polymer research embracing the work of many staff drawn principally from the Departments of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science. During this time, John also began a collaboration with the late Dr. Gordon Thorpe on chemically modifying polymers to improve their flame retardance. This work looked at chemically modifying a variety of chain-reaction polymers with silicon, boron and phosphorus-containing groups and examining the effects of these modifications on flame retardance via measurements of such parameters as limiting oxygen index, heat of combustion and maximum rate of heat release. This research has continued up to and beyond JohnÕs retirement and has attracted support from companies such as ICI, Acordis, Noveon and Rhodia, and several grants from EPSRC and the DTI. It has also led to very fruitful collaborations with the Fire Chemistry and Materials Chemistry research groups at Bolton University (and formerly Salford University). Further collaborations at this time were with Linda Swanson and the late Ian Soutar on the development of novel polymeric binders for luminescent inks, funded by the Royal Mail Research laboratories. In 2000, John moved with six other academic staff and associated research staff and equipment from the University of Lancaster to the University of Sheffield. Here John became the founding Director of the Sheffield Polymer Centre and, with the aid of funding from the University of Sheffield and HEFC(E), helped to establish an internationally recognised polymer research group encompassing the work of some forty academic staff drawn from seven different Departments. This Centre now forms part of an enlarged IRC in Polymer Science and Engineering covering research also at Durham, Leeds and Bradford Universities. Outside of his University activities, John has maintained a strong interest in fostering polymer science in the UK and abroad, not least through periods spent first as Bulletin Editor, then Secretary, and finally Chairman of the Pure and Applied Macromolecular Chemistry Group of the RSC and SCI (Macro Group UK), as well as through extensive conference organisation. John also served, early in his career, as Chairman of the Lancaster and District section of the RSC, and has given many lectures to schools audiences on polymer topics. He has also spent periods of study leave at the Universities of Alexandria and El Minya in Egypt, at Bayero University in Nigeria, and at Sintef in Norway, where he continues to have good friends. Steve Rimmer Department of Chemistry University of Sheffield Dainton Building, Brook Hill Sheffield S3 7HF United Kingdom Tel.: +44 114 222 9565; fax: +44 114 273 8673 E-mail address: s.rimmer@sheffield.ac.uk Available online 1 September 2005
Reactive & Functional Polymers 66 (2006) vii–viii
www.elsevier.com/locate/react
Editorial
Special issue in honour of John Ebdon on the occasion of his retirement
This issue of Reactive and Functional Polymers contains a set of invited papers commissioned to celebrate the career of John Ebdon following his retirement. John has enjoyed a long and influential career in polymer chemistry and all of the contributors to this issue wish him well in this next stage of his life. Many of the younger contributors were helped in many ways at early stages of their careers by John and I am sure that he will be delighted at our later successes. John received a BSc degree in Chemistry with First Class Honours from the University of Birmingham in 1965. He then stayed at Birmingham to undertake research for PhD under the guidance of Professor James Robb and Dr. Roy Lehrle, funded by a Scholarship from the DistillerÕs Company Ltd. (later BP Chemicals). His PhD degree was awarded in 1968 for a thesis entitled ‘‘The Thermal Reactions of Chloroprene’’. Chloroprene undergoes a spontaneous dimerization and a parallel low rate of thermal polymerization even when stored at low temperature, and JohnÕs work helped to disentangle the kinetics of these two processes. Moreover, he showed that the majority of the spontaneous polymerization arose from the decomposition of polyperoxides adventitiously present in the chloroprene. Following his PhD, John Ebdon moved to the then newly established University of Lancaster where he was to remain for the next 32 years, first as a Research Fellow, then as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader and finally, Professor of Polymer Chemistry. JohnÕs first research at Lancaster was carried out in collaboration with Professor John Bevington, the founding Head of the Department of Chemistry, and involved a study of the alkaline hydrolysis of a range of diene-acrylate and diene-methacrylate copolymers. This work demonstrated that hydrolysis took place preferentially at acrylate or methacrylate units adjacent to diene units. It was through this work that John first became interested in the uses of high resolution 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy for the anaylsis of polymer structure, and susbsequently used this technique to sequence a variety of copolymers, to investigate geometrical isomerism in diene homopolymers, and to analyse the structures of the complex products arising from the condensation of formaldehyde with urea and melamine. This last work led to one of the first published applications of 15N NMR spectroscopy to the analysis of polymer structure. Much of the work on copolymers was directed towards trying to resolve the question of whether or not highly alternating radical copolymerizations involve significant propagation via complexed monomer pairs, a view that was very much in vogue in the 1970s and 1980s but which JohnÕs work threw into question. In the mid-1980s John turned his attention to the synthesis and further reactions of telechelic oligomers, as part of a larger ‘‘Polymer Synthesis Initiative’’ funded mainly by EPSRC and ICI, and involving a col1381-5148/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.reactfunctpolym.2005.07.006
viii
Editorial / Reactive & Functional Polymers 66 (2006) vii–viii
laboration with Professor Phil Hodge (now at Manchester). To synthesise the oligomers, a relatively untried method involving scission of unsaturated polymeric precursors with ozone was employed. This method proved to be a versatile route to oligomers with a variety of different end-groups, the lengths of which could be controlled by the amount of unsaturation and duration of ozonolysis. This project also marked the beginning of a series of collaborations with myself, which continue beyond retirement, and which attracted significant further support from EPSRC, the MoD and ICI Paints. It was during this period that John worked also with Dr. Doug Hourston on the establishment of the Lancaster Polymer Centre and became Director of the Centre on Doug HourstonÕs move to Loughborough University. The Centre at Lancaster developed into a thriving internationally recognised centre of polymer research embracing the work of many staff drawn principally from the Departments of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science. During this time, John also began a collaboration with the late Dr. Gordon Thorpe on chemically modifying polymers to improve their flame retardance. This work looked at chemically modifying a variety of chain-reaction polymers with silicon, boron and phosphorus-containing groups and examining the effects of these modifications on flame retardance via measurements of such parameters as limiting oxygen index, heat of combustion and maximum rate of heat release. This research has continued up to and beyond JohnÕs retirement and has attracted support from companies such as ICI, Acordis, Noveon and Rhodia, and several grants from EPSRC and the DTI. It has also led to very fruitful collaborations with the Fire Chemistry and Materials Chemistry research groups at Bolton University (and formerly Salford University). Further collaborations at this time were with Linda Swanson and the late Ian Soutar on the development of novel polymeric binders for luminescent inks, funded by the Royal Mail Research laboratories. In 2000, John moved with six other academic staff and associated research staff and equipment from the University of Lancaster to the University of Sheffield. Here John became the founding Director of the Sheffield Polymer Centre and, with the aid of funding from the University of Sheffield and HEFC(E), helped to establish an internationally recognised polymer research group encompassing the work of some forty academic staff drawn from seven different Departments. This Centre now forms part of an enlarged IRC in Polymer Science and Engineering covering research also at Durham, Leeds and Bradford Universities. Outside of his University activities, John has maintained a strong interest in fostering polymer science in the UK and abroad, not least through periods spent first as Bulletin Editor, then Secretary, and finally Chairman of the Pure and Applied Macromolecular Chemistry Group of the RSC and SCI (Macro Group UK), as well as through extensive conference organisation. John also served, early in his career, as Chairman of the Lancaster and District section of the RSC, and has given many lectures to schools audiences on polymer topics. He has also spent periods of study leave at the Universities of Alexandria and El Minya in Egypt, at Bayero University in Nigeria, and at Sintef in Norway, where he continues to have good friends. Steve Rimmer Department of Chemistry University of Sheffield Dainton Building, Brook Hill Sheffield S3 7HF United Kingdom Tel.: +44 114 222 9565; fax: +44 114 273 8673 E-mail address: s.rimmer@sheffield.ac.uk Available online 1 September 2005