Biography: Tejveer Singh Plaha (he/him) is going into his 4th year as an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. For the past year, he has been working under Professor Mitchell A. Winnik. Initially, he worked to investigate the self-assembly of block copolymer blends. Currently, he is studying the formation of multi-component latex films for coating applications.
Outside of lab he enjoys spending time with his friends, watching Indian cinema, and casually playing his Nintendo switch.
Program: Chemistry Specialist
Campus and Department: UTSG, Department of Chemistry
Area of Interest: Physical Polymer Chemistry
We asked:
Where did your interest in chemistry come from? Outside of high school courses, my initial interest in chemistry stemmed from my interests in fashion. The most common synthetic materials are incredibly harmful to the environment, and I wondered why there was not a bigger initiative within the industry to develop sustainable alternatives. Knowing that these materials are composed of polymers (polyamides, polyesters, etc.) I took up an interest in polymer chemistry. Furthermore, materials such as transparent leather and transparent wood just looked incredibly cool to me.
After joining the Winnik group, I developed a fascination with the physical behavior of polymer systems at smaller length-scales, which is where my current interests lie.
You have focused during your studies on Practical Chemical Analysis. What drew you to this area of chemical research? Honestly, I really hated the introductory analytical chemistry course, CHM217. After completing it I wanted nothing to do with analytical chemistry.
This changed when I joined the Winnik group for CHM395. We used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to observe micelle structures resulting from our self-assembly protocols. The ability to fabricate such uniform structures reproducibly – and the fact we have the ability to see these nano/mesoscale structures – really mesmerized me. Now that I study film formation in systems with multiple components, I use a variety of analytical techniques in my research. Many of them are characterization techniques. You must know what exactly your system is composed of: that’s the key.
What is your favorite fact about chemistry? Self-assembled systems never fail to amaze me. Most of these systems are extremely sensitive, hence achieving particular morphologies can be challenging. There are many cases of unique morphologies being accessed. For example, uniform raspberry-like structures can be achieved by the self-assembly of colloidal particles!
What course have you taken here that has seemed especially remarkable or surprising? CHM457 (Introduction to Polymer Chemistry) has by far been my favourite course. It provides an excellent foundation for polymer science and really demonstrates how different macromolecules are from the small molecules we are more familiar with in undergrad.