Research Areas

Polymer science and engineering is a multidisciplinary STEM field focused on this special class of molecules. Polymer materials are ubiquitous in almost every aspect of modern life, and advances in the field enable scientific and technological breakthroughs in a wide range of technical applications.

The School of Polymer Science and Engineering is nationally and internationally recognized for the achievements of its faculty, its level of research excellence and the quality of our students.

Teachers will work with faculty and student researchers in efforts focused on addressing 21st century grand challenges in engineering in three areas:

The School of Polymer Science and Engineering faculty are engaged in world leading and innovative research spanning multiple areas in the field of polymer science and engineering including:

Reducing waste through design of degradable and bio-based polymers

Improving water quality through polymer sensors and delivery vehicles

Enabling alternative energy approaches with high performance polymers.

Functional Polymeric Materials

Functional polymeric materials with novel and controlled electronic, optical, and mechanical properties can enable numerous applications, including lighting, sensors, structural materials, packaging, and soft wearable electronics. Research in this area includes stimuli-responsive materials, devices, and processing techniques to obtain materials with controlled chain dynamics, morphology function and structures.

Energy & Sustainability

Clean energy and environmental sustainability are clearly the greatest societal challenges of our time. They hinge on the development of new materials capable of fulfilling and advancing our needs while meeting the requirements of a circular economy. Making highly efficient energy-harvesting and -storage materials is crucial for addressing those grand challenges. Research efforts in this area include understanding process-structure-property relationship of energy-related materials, design of gas separation/capture membranes, and new approaches to plastics/thermosets recycling.

Materials for Biology & Health

Nature has evolved to produce remarkable materials ranging from the precise way proteins fold to enable function to the hierarchical self-assembly observed in bone development. These processes all fundamentally involve polymers. Research on biomaterials within the School of Polymer Science and Engineering aims to mimic these processes with synthetic materials and utilize these for a broad range of applications including tissue regeneration, drug delivery, programmed self-assembly, and novel bioactive surface chemistries.

High Performance Polymers, Composites and Coatings

Polymer composites are multi-phase materials comprised of a polymer matrix and reinforcing agents that when combined result in a synergistic enhancement of properties. The science, technology, and engineering of these materials is central to many emerging technologies. Research in this area spans a broad range of topics such as polymer matrix science, nanocomposites, fabrication engineering, interfacial science and multi-scale structure-property relationships, high performance coating. 

Past Projects

The following are examples of research projects that RET participants have been involved with in the past. This is not intended to be a complete list. Projects vary year to year depending on participant interest and faculty availability.

  • Carbon Fiber Influence on Crystallization Kinetics in Poly (phenylene sulfide) and Poly (ether ketone ketone) Composites

    To meet the growing demand of commercial aircraft production, processing of polymer composites must be performed at higher rates. While melt processing of thermoplastic composites offers fast rates of production, it is not currently compatible with manufacturing methods such as automated tape placement, stamp forming, and fusion bonding.

  • Investigation of toughness of chitosan-graphene oxide films

    Sustainability is at the forefront of the minds of leaders in both industry and academia due to the massive environmental challenges with polymer waste. One approach to creating a more sustainable future is through increased utilization of bioderived and biodegradable polymers like chitosan.

  • Formulation and processing of polypropylene precursors for 3D printed carbon materials

    Additive manufacturing aka 3D printing is a branch of processing that allows for the manufacture of highly complex structures with customizable properties. Additive techniques have been reported for the manufacturing of carbon structures for the past ~10 years but tend to be hindered by cost, commercially inaccessible material systems and multi-step processing.

  • Determination of Topology Freezing Transition Temperature through Specific Volume in Isomeric Epoxy Amine Vitrimers

    Epoxy amine networks are crosslinked thermosets that exhibit high strength, modulus, and chemical resistance. The covalent bonds that crosslink the network are permanent, resulting in networks that cannot be repaired or reprocessed at the end of service life. Through integration of dynamic bonds that exchange in response to thermal stimulus, vitrimer networks may be heated to an elevated temperature where network topology is no longer frozen.

  • Investigating the Degradation and Preservation of Cellulose Acetate Film for USM Library Archive Resources

    Cellulose acetate (CA) films have been, and are sometimes still, used for storing various media in the form of movie films, photographic films, and microfilms. Although there are other materials that can be utilized, the issue at hand is the historic media that is currently being stored via CA films. It was found with the use of CA films that a major sign of degradation is caused by the formation of acetic acid gas which is a chemical biproduct of the degradation process.

  • Re-Processable Polyureas

    Polyurethanes and polyureas are two of the most common components of commercial thermosets. Covalent adaptable networks (CANs) combine thermoset thermo-mechanical properties and thermoplastic recycling, wherein dynamic, non-permanent, thermoset crosslinking chemistries are incorporated into the polymeric networks.