Jean Duhamel

Jean Duhamel and his research team are characterizing the behavior of polymers in solution using a variety of techniques. Among those techniques, fluorescence and particularly pyrene excimer fluorescence (PEF) is certainly the workhorse of their research. Most polymers are synthesized and fluorescently labeled in the laboratory. The research projects aim at modeling the internal dynamics in solution of a variety of polymeric backbones ranging from vinyl polymers to polyolefins and including polypeptides using fluorescence decay measurements. The applications of these techniques to retrieve structural information about polypeptides as random coils and helices are also being investigated.

Solutions of associative polymers have peculiar viscoelastic properties which have found applications in the oil and paint industries. The origin of these properties is rooted in the level of association of water- and oil-soluble associative polymers which can be determined by fluorescence. Several projects apply PEF to answer these questions.

Specific applications: Application of fluorescence techniques to characterize chain folding, the associative strength of water- and oil-soluble associative polymers, the interactions between gemini surfactants and DNA, or the associations between associative polymers and colloidal particles.

• Characterization of macromolecules by fluorescence
• Colloidal particles
• Chain folding using fluorescence
• Smart Materials
• Biomaterials, Polymers and Bioplastics
• Biochemistry and Biophysic
• Bionanotechnology and Biosensors
• Soft Matter
• Devices and Analytical Methods
• Smart and Functional Materials

• 1989, PhD, Chemical Engineering, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, France
• 1987, MSc, Chemical Engineering, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, France
• 1987, BSc, Chemical Engineering, École Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques, France

• 2021, Macromolecular Science and Engineering Award, Chemical Institute of Canada
• 2013, Outstanding Performance Award
• 2007-2011, Renewed Tier-2 Canada Research Chair
• 2002-2006, Tier-2 Canada Research Chair
• 2002-2006, Premier Research Excellence Award

• 2010, Organizer and Chair of an MSED symposium at the 2010 CSC conference in Toronto
• 2008-2009, Senator, University of Waterloo
• 2002-2009, Canadian Coordinator, Trans-Atlantic Science Student Exchange Program for the European Union-Canada consortium, University of Waterloo
• 2009, Invited Editor, special issue in honour of Professor Mitchell A. Winnik, Canandian Journal of Chemistry

• Director, Institute for Polymer Research
• Member, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology

• Director, Institute for Polymer Research
• Member, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology

• CHEM 120 - General Chemistry 1
  • Taught in 2024
• CHEM 392A - Research Project 1
  • Taught in 2024
• CHEM 392B - Research Project 2
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Little H, Wang J, Duhamel J, Li X, Nagula M, Maurizot V, Huc I. Simplification in the Acquisition and Analysis of Fluorescence Decays Acquired with Polarized Emission for Time-Resolved Fluorescence Anisotropy Measurements. Analytical Chemistry. 2019.
• Wang J, Little H, Duhamel J, Li X, Markandeya N, Maurizot V, Huc I. Application of Time-Resolved Fluorescence Anisotropy To Probe Quinoline-Based Foldamers Labeled with Oligo (phenylene vinylene). Macromolecules. 2019 Jul 24;52(15):5829-37.
• Patel S, Seet J, Li L, Duhamel J. Detection of Nitroaromatics by Pyrene-Labeled Starch Nanoparticles. Langmuir. 2019 Sep 9;35(40):13145-56.
• Gholami K, Jiang S, Duhamel J. Probing the Interactions between Mimics of Pour Point Depressants (PPDs) and Viscosity Index Improvers (VIIs) in Engine Oil Using Fluorescently Labeled PPDs. Macromolecules. 2019 Mar 18;52(7):2651-8.
• Zhang Q, Kim D, Li L, Patel S, Duhamel J. Surfactant Structure-Dependent Interactions with Modified Starch Nanoparticles Probed by Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Langmuir. 2019 Feb 5;35(9):3432-44.

• Quantifying the Level of Intermacromolecular Interactions by Using Pyrene Excimer Formation. Sheng Jiang, Akhilesh Duggal, Jean Duhamel, Solmaz Pirouz. U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. (2016), US 20160077012 A1 20160317.