Abstract:  The microenvironment of a catalytic metal has a significant impact on its reactivity and selectivity as demonstrated by enzymes, complexes with moieties to mimic secondary coordination spheres, and bi- and multi-metallic complexes. Our research focuses on the design, synthesis, and use of structured macromolecular materials as scaffolds for transition metal catalysts to site-isolate transition metal catalysts. We hypothesize that this will enhance their reactivity, selectivity, and compatibility, and enable tandem catalytic reactions.  In our primarily undergraduate research group, some students synthesize and characterize structured polymers including star polymers and single chain nanoparticles while others design and synthesize ligands with alkene groups to be directly copolymerized or coupled with previously made polymers. These synthetic efforts will allow us to directly affect the location of the catalytic species in the polymer structures, giving us greater control over the microenvironment.