{"id":2925,"date":"2026-10-01T22:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T22:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/?p=2925"},"modified":"2026-10-02T11:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:21:13","slug":"new-paper-preprint-published","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/2026\/10\/01\/new-paper-preprint-published\/","title":{"rendered":"New Paper Preprint Published!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reposted from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:ugcPost:7510878708182949888\/\">LinkedIn<\/a> <br><br>How does the randomness of polymer functionalization reactions impact the downstream material properties or products of polymers?<br> <br>I\u2019m excited to share that another paper from my Ph.D. research addressing this question is now available as a <a href=\"https:\/\/chemrxiv.org\/doi\/full\/10.26434\/chemrxiv.15009226\/v1\">preprint on ChemRxiv<\/a>!<br><br>In this work, we derived a general Atomistic Probability Distribution (APD) grounded in combinatorics to predict the spatial distribution of randomly inserted substituents along a polymer chain.<br> <br>To validate this framework, we applied it to a model upcycling system: the sulfonation of polyethylene (PE) followed by H2O2-driven oxidative depolymerization to organic acids. By integrating probabilistic arguments (e.g., random insertion, regioregularity) with deterministic reaction kinetics, we established a Kinetic Probability Distribution (KPD) that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Accurately predicts product distribution yields within ~10% of experimental data.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Provides mechanistic insights into optimizing the initial functionalization step to target higher-value products.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduces the parameter space by 55% compared to traditional kinetic models (14 parameters vs 4N + 7 for an N-species system).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"391\" class=\"wp-image-2929\" style=\"width: 600px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?resize=600%2C391&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?resize=300%2C196&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?resize=1024%2C668&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?resize=768%2C501&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?resize=1536%2C1002&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?resize=2048%2C1335&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TOC-Figure-scaled.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"474\" class=\"wp-image-2930\" style=\"width: 600px;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?resize=600%2C474&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?resize=300%2C237&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?resize=1024%2C809&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?resize=768%2C607&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?resize=1536%2C1214&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?resize=2048%2C1618&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/KPD-Result-scaled.png?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><br> <br>I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Scott Calabrese Barton, and my co-authors, Dr. Christian Howard, Aspen Tapley, and Dr. John R. Dorgan, for their support and collaboration on this work!<br> <br>You can read the <a href=\"https:\/\/chemrxiv.org\/doi\/full\/10.26434\/chemrxiv.15009226\/v1\">full preprint on chemRxiv<\/a>. This paper is currently under review and should hopefully be published in the coming months!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reposted from LinkedIn How does the randomness of polymer functionalization reactions impact the downstream material properties or products of polymers? I\u2019m excited to share that another paper from my Ph.D. research addressing this question is now available as a preprint &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/2026\/10\/01\/new-paper-preprint-published\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2925"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2936,"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions\/2936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.egr.msu.edu\/~scb-group-web\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}