The Polymers, Materials & Application Development work package will transform 'green' chemicals into sustainable polymers, resins, elastomers, and adhesives by exploring a range of polymerizations, including scalable condensation/addition reactions and heterocycle/CO2 ring-opening (co)polymerizations, and integrating them with renewable power.
The overall polymer design will encompass explicit consideration of product re-use, re-manufacturing, recycling, and, where relevant, biodegradation.
Research priorities in polymerizations and material applications include:
- Switchable polymerization of mixed monomer feedstocks
- Block polymer thermoplastic elastomers
- Engineering thermoplastics with improved toughness / resilience
- Re-configurable and re-cyclable resins (vitrimers)
- Ionomers and dynamic networks
- De-bondable adhesives and coatings
- Water soluble, biodegradable polymers for formulations and surfactants
