Developing Next-Generation Durable and Sustainable Polymers
MIE Assistant Professor Ruobing Bai received a $110,000 Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) grant from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for “Fracture and Toughening of Reconfigurable Polymers: Towards Next-Generation Durable and Sustainable Materials.”
Abstract
The pollution of petroleum-based plastics has become a global challenge that calls for fundamental research in the petroleum field with multidisciplinary efforts. One promising solution is to develop highly recyclable plastics from their fundamental material compositions and structures utilizing reconfigurable polymers. These emerging materials are polymer networks crosslinked by reversible dynamic bonds which allow network reconfiguration in controlled conditions. However, despite many recent advancements in their fundamental science and application, the fracture performance and toughening mechanisms remain largely unexplored. In particular, most reconfigurable polymers perform much poorer by orders of magnitude than existing synthetic polymers in toughness and durability. This huge contrast severely hinders their development towards replacing commercial plastics, and highlights an urgent research need for the fundamental understanding of fracture and toughening of reconfigurable polymers.
The goal of this proposal is to address this urgent need by combining experiment and theory to develop new reconfigurable polymers with excellent durability, degradability, and recyclability, leading towards a more sustainable and productive future for the plastics and petroleum industry.