Measurement and Modeling of Polymerization Kinetics for Product and Process Development

提高生产率和利用现有设备生产新聚合物材料的需求，以及用具有成本效益和环境友好型版本替代工艺的能力，是聚合物行业的关键驱动力。另一方面，学术研究通常集中在从生物可再生原料合成新聚合物，或开发具有可控微结构的高价值产品应用材料。在学术界和工业界，指导聚合物合成条件以进行工艺和产品开发所需的聚合动力学和机理的基础知识往往缺乏。我的研究填补了这一空白，应用专门的动力学脉冲激光技术来测量通过标准实验无法获得的关键速率系数，在详细的机械模型中捕获这些知识，这些模型被制定为代表聚合系统，并在相关条件下进行有针对性的实验研究，以测试和验证模型。我将利用我的NSERC发现基金，将我的专业知识应用于有前途的新材料的开发，减少环境和生物医学应用的开发时间。 特定的靶向材料是由生物来源的单体Tulipalin-A生产的新型水溶性共聚物，以及由新型聚（己内酯）（PCL）和聚（丙交酯）（PLA）大分子单体合成的可生物降解的纳米颗粒，其具有靶向药物递送的应用。在这两种情况下，需要改进动力学知识，以更好地理解和控制用于合成这些材料的自由基共聚过程。第三个项目将开发连续水相可控自由基聚合工艺，以在材料应用需要时提供对聚合物链微观结构的更精确控制。除了能够开发具有环境和生物医学应用的新材料，以补充我对现有自由基聚合工艺的工业赞助研究外，该研究还将进一步深入了解氢键对聚合动力学的作用，这是我系统研究的一个主题。此外，它将培训新的研究生在加拿大聚合物行业的重要专业知识，并让本科生接触实际的材料开发和反应工程问题。

The need to increase production rates and produce new polymeric materials with existing equipment as well as the ability to replace processes with cost-effective and environmentally-friendly versions are key drivers in the polymers industry. On the other hand, academic research is often focused on the synthesis of new polymers from bio-renewable feedstock, or the development of materials with controlled microstructures for high value product applications. The fundamental knowledge of polymerization kinetics and mechanisms required to guide polymer synthesis conditions for both process and product development efforts is often lacking in both academia and industry. My research fills this gap by applying specialized kinetic pulsed-laser techniques to measure key rate coefficients not accessible through standard experimentation, capturing that knowledge in detailed mechanistic models formulated to represent polymerizing systems, and undertaking targeted experimental studies at relevant conditions to test and validate the models. I will use my NSERC Discovery funding to apply my expertise to the development of promising new materials, reducing the development time for environmental and biomedical applications. Specific target materials are a new water-soluble copolymer produced from the biosourced monomer Tulipalin-A, and biodegradable nanoparticles synthesized from novel poly(caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(lactide) (PLA) based macromonomers that have application for targeted drug delivery. In both cases, improved knowledge of the kinetics is needed to better understand and control the radical copolymerization process used to synthesize these materials. The third project will develop continuous aqueous-phase controlled-radical polymerization processes to provide a more precise control of polymer chain microstructure, if needed for material application. As well as enabling the development of new materials with environmental and biomedical applications to complement my industrially-sponsored research on existing radical polymerization processes, the research will provide further insight into the role of hydrogen bonding on polymerization kinetics, a subject I am systematically investigating for non-biodegradable acrylic monomers. In addition, it will train new graduate students in expertise important to the Canadian polymers industries, and expose undergraduate students to practical material development and reaction engineering issues.