(550a) Polymer Reaction Engineering

Polymer reaction engineering research aims at solving scientific and technical problems relevant to industrial polymerization process technology. Studies of polymerization kinetics, polymerization reactor/process modeling, control, and optimization have been the major research goals. As polymer industry matures, polymer reaction research is now shifting towards the solution of nanoscale polymerization problems for various new applications where phase heterogeneity complicates the process. Our recent investigation includes catalytic heterogeneous reactions to develop silicon-CNT nano-composites as anodes for Lithium ion batteries, micro-channel reactors for heterogeneous polymer reactions, and ultrahigh molecular weight step-growth polymers in confined reaction space. Some challenging polymer reaction problems will be discussed at the meeting.