Polymeric Materials and the Center for Macromolecular Engineering

Polymeric materials are ubiquitous in today’s society as plastics, rubbers, or fibers and are used in almost every type of commercial product. From various uses in exterior and interior automobile components, to food packaging and health and beauty products, in micro-electronics and lithography, as well as numerous biomedical applications, the list of industries employing polymeric materials in their products is virtually endless.

Such broad application requires that each product be optimized to meet certain criteria related to physical or mechanical properties. This variation has, traditionally, been done by randomly polymerizing comonomers, adding additives to the final polymer, or through novel processing techniques. Although all of these factors have been successfully used, the future of polymer science lies in developing more precise polymers to maximize the physical/mechanical properties of every molecule in the polymer chain. Another requirement is to develop these new materials with an economically feasible process; the monomers must already be commercially available, new polymerization processes must be compatible with current equipment, and the overall cost must not be excessive when extrapolated to millions, or billions, of pounds of polymeric material. The Center for Macromolecular Engineering uses controlled/“living” radical polymerization to prepare polymers with novel compositions, architectures, and functionalities. Each of these variations has a profound effect on the physical/mechanical properties of the final polymer, and by using various combinations, the polymer chemist can tailor each polymer to fit their desired product requirements.

Controlled/“living” polymerizations are not living in the biological sense of the word, but describe the chain growth of the polymer; the polymer chains all grow at nearly the same time and do not terminate irreversibly. Because of the lack of termination, the chemist gains the ability to customize the polymers. Polymers with varied composition can be prepared: statistical/gradient copolymers, or block copolymers; new architectures: linear, branched, hyperbranched, or graft; functionalities: telechelic (homo-, hetero-end functional), functional end groups, side groups, or site specific functionalization can be added to meet market requirements. Each of these types of polymers in conjunction with a wide variety of polymerizable monomers (i.e., variation in homopolymer properties) allows for the development of a nearly limitless array of polymeric materials.