Roksana Bernat

Visiting Scholar

Bio

Roksana is a visiting scholar in Maty Lab. She works as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Materials Engineering at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland). She is a graduate of master's studies in Drug Chemistry and engineering studies in Chemical Technology. In 2022 she became PhD in the field of Polymer Chemistry (supervisor: Prof. K. Kamiński, co-supervisor: Dr. Eng. P. Maksym).

Her research interests are focused on photo- and thermally-induced polymerization of less activated/hardly-polymerizable monomers additionally utilizing external physical factors (i.e. high pressure and 2D-confinement) to force or achieve better control over the polymerization process. However, she pays particular attention to high-pressure assisted polymerization methodology, especially ROP, but also FRP and CRP (mainly RAFT, ATRP).

During PhD studies, she carried out her research as a PhD student-scholarship holder in the SONATA project entitled "Innovative methods of polymerization of less activated LAMs monomers", headed by Dr. Eng. P. Maksym and as a participant of the NOMAD-L project, entitled “Innovative methodology for medicinal products under development”, headed by Prof. K. Kamiński. After graduation, she completed two post-doctoral fellowships: the SONATA BIS 6 project at the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice and the OPUS 17 project at the University of Silesia in Katowice. Currently, she is a PI of the MINIATURA 7 project entitled 'Radical Ring-Opening Polymerization as a novel tool for improving degradability of smart vinyl polymers for biomedical applications' being the main purpose of the internship at CMU. Roksana is also a laureate of the prestigious START scholarship of the Foundation for Polish Science. She is a co-author of 11 articles and one patent entitled ‘Method of obtaining poly(γ-butyrolactone)’. She is also a member of an interdisciplinary research team Silesia MacroSynth Group involved in a wide range of macromolecular chemistry and applied materials chemistry (in particular: the synthesis of polymers with unique parameters on a small scale).

Publications

1. R. Bernat, G.Szczepaniak, K. Kamiński, M. Paluch, K. Matyjaszewski, P. Maksym. Visible-light-induced ATRP under high-pressure: synthesis of ultra-high-molecular-weight polymers, Chemical Communications, 2024, 60, 843-846.
2. P. Maksym, R. Bernat, K. Koperwas, M. Wojtyniak, J. Piecha, B. Hachuła, M. Geppert-Rybczyńska, A. Brzózka, G. D. Sulka, M. Tarnacka, M. Paluch, K. Kamiński. The unique role of pore wall nanostructurization in the intrachannel photo-ATRP for fine-tuning PMMA tacticity, Chemical Communications, 2022, 58 (93), 13015-13018.
3. R. Bernat, P. Maksym, M. Tarnacka, K. Koperwas, J. Knapik-Kowalczuk, K. Malarz, A. Mrozek-Wilczkiewicz, A. Dzienia, T. Biela, R. Turczyn, L. Orszulak, B. Hachuła, M. Paluch, K. Kamiński. The effect of high-pressure on organocatalyzed ROP of γ-butyrolactone, Polymer, 2021, 223, 124166.
4. R. Bernat, P. Maksym, M. Tarnacka, K. Malarz, A. Mrozek-Wilczkiewicz, T. Biela, S. Golba, E. Kamińska, M. Paluch, K. Kamiński. High pressure as a novel tool for the cationic ROP of γ-butyrolactone, RSC Advances, 2021, 11 (55), 34806-34819. 
5. R. Bernat, P. Maksym, M. Tarnacka, A. Szelwicka, R. Bielas, M. Wojtyniak, K. Balin, B. Hachuła, A. Chrobok, M. Paluch, K. Kamiński. Hard confinement systems as effective nanoreactors for in situ photo-RAFT: towards control over molecular weight distribution and morphology, Polymer Chemistry, 2021, 12 (8), 1105-1113.
6. P. Maksym, M. Tarnacka, R. Bernat, A. Dzienia, A. Szelwicka, B. Hachuła, A. Chrobok, M. Paluch, K. Kamiński. Light-mediated controlled and classical polymerizations of less-activated monomers under high-pressure conditions, Polymer Chemistry, 2021, 12 (30), 4418-4427. 
7. P. Maksym, M. Tarnacka, R. Bernat, R. Bielas, A. Mielańczyk, B. Hachuła, K. Kamiński, M. Paluch. Pressure-assisted strategy for the synthesis of vinyl pyrrolidone-based macro-star photoiniferters. A route to star block copolymers, Journal of Polymer Science, 2020, 58 (10), 1393-1399.
8. P. Maksym, M. Tarnacka, D. Heczko, J. Knapik-Kowalczuk, A. Mielańczyk, R. Bernat, G. Garbacz, K. Kamiński, M. Paluch. Pressure-assisted solvent- and catalyst-free production of well-defined poly(1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) for biomedical applications, RSC Advances, 2020, 10 (36), 21593-21601.