Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation
ITRI
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Polymers have significant impact on our world today. Applications for polymers extend from adhesives, coatings, painting, foams and packaging materials to structural materials, composites, textile fibres, electronic and optical devices, biomedical materials, and use in many newly developed high-tech industries.
The polymer research at Deakin University is aimed at developing new polymeric materials to meet various requirements in different applications, involving a broad range of polymeric materials such as thermosets, thermoplastics, polymer blends, block copolymers, polymer composites, biodegradable polymers, polymeric biomaterials, nanostructured polymers and conducting polymers.
Thermosets include a broad range of materials such as epoxies, phenolics, unsaturated polyesters, vinyl esters and bismaleimide resins. One of the primary applications is as the matrix in composite materials that are widely used as high performance engineering materials in many fields such as automotive, aerospace, marine, construction and computer industries. Adhesives, paintings and coatings form another major application area for thermosets, ranging from relatively low performance applications to assembling aircraft and automotive components. In general, thermosets are known for their good adhesion, high chemical and heat resistance, excellent mechanical and electrical insulating properties. However, they are generally brittle materials due to their crosslinked nature. The research in this area aims at developing novel advanced tough thermosets with superior mechanical properties and optical clarity. Epoxy resins are main focus; however it also involves unsaturated polyesters, phenolics and other thermoset resins. The chemistry of epoxies and the range of commercially available variations allow cured epoxy thermosets to be produced with a very broad range of properties. In particular, the research is concerned with several key aspects: controlling the phase behaviour and morphology of thermoplastic toughened thermosets through adjusting chemical structures of crosslinked network; cure chemistry, structure development and fracture mechanics of thermoplastic toughened epoxy resins; nanostructured thermosets templated with block copolymers; and hyperbranched polymer modified thermoset composites.
The area of polymer blend technology has been growing rapidly over the last few decades. Polymer blends have been used in daily life covering a range of products including disposable coffee cups, car bumpers and sport facilities. Blending different polymers is an extremely attractive and cost-effective way of obtaining new materials from existing commercial polymers. The research activities encompass many aspects of this interesting topic, from basic principles, characterization, and structure of blends through properties and performance. The target for this research is to develop polymeric materials with new properties to meet the requirements of applications in diverse fields. In particular, this research is focused on blending modification of thermoplastics as high performance structural materials and developing functional polymer blends with special properties. In addition, various fillers are used to produce polymer composites and nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical properties. Polymer blending techniques are also employed as a versatile strategy for designing new materials that potentially fulfil the environment friendly requirements based on biodegradable and sustainable polymers - both natural and synthetic.
Block copolymer self-assembly, in situ polymerization and reactive polymer systems are employed to develop novel polymeric nanomaterials for a variety of applications. The research of polymeric nanomaterials includes developing various nanostructured thermoplastics, nanostructured thermosets, nanocomposites, polymer nanofoams, and nanoporous polymers. It also deals with new phenomena associated with nanoscale structure formation and various physical properties under nanoconfined environments, including nanoscale confinement effect on crystallization in polymeric nanomaterials such as nanostructured blends.
Both natural biopolymers and synthetic polymers have a long history of clinical use such as surgical implants, bone cements, orthopaedic devices and prosthetic applications. Polymers are also widely used as scaffolds in cell and tissue engineering and for drug delivery in pharmaceutical industries. This research involves novel polymeric biomaterials, including design, preparation and characterization of multicomponent polymeric biomaterials based on existing polymers and monomers. These new biomaterials can combine the advantages of the individual component polymers and exhibit adjustable chemical structure, controllable morphology, excellent properties and required biocompatibility, especially suitable for use for implantation, cell proliferation and tissue engineering.
The research in this area aims to develop conductive polymers and fabrics with good coating abrasion resistance and handling properties for applications in electromagnetic shielding, radar absorption, sensors, electrochromic materials and intelligent textiles. It involves synthesis of a variety of electroactive conducting polymers with solution and vapour phase polymerization methods. The structure, morphology, electrical and dielectric properties, microwave behaviour, and mechanical properties are characterized by infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, microwave analysis, and various electrical and mechanical tests. Various plasma treatment techniques are employed to improve the electrical properties and binding strength of conductive coatings on textiles. Soluble conducting polymers can be coated on surface of material as a conductive ink. The advantages include that use of harmful oxidizing agents can be avoided. These conducting polymers can also be applied directly on to surface of material by using screen printing to produce different conductive patterns, for instance, on textiles to produce electronic textiles. The continuous nature of the conductive layer on the material surface enables heating without any wiring.
