Reactive and conventional processing of polymers

挤出是非常重要的聚合物加工操作。常规挤出涉及将聚合物材料熔融、挤出和成形为连续的最终塑料产品，例如膜和纤维。反应性挤出将前述操作与熔融聚合物中的反应相结合，以生产具有增强性能的新材料。典型的应用包括反应性共混，在惰性聚合物上添加官能团，以及分子量和结构的改性。每个操作都由材料特性和加工条件之间的潜在相互作用控制。在拟议的研究计划的主要推力是在工业上重要的反应和传统的聚合物加工操作这些相互作用的基本理解。

Extrusion is a very important polymer processing operation. Conventional extrusion involves melting, homogenizing and shaping of polymeric materials into continuous final plastic products such as films and fibres. Reactive extrusion combines the previously mentioned operations with reaction(s) in the molten polymer for the purpose of producing new materials with enhanced properties. Typical applications involve reactive blending, addition of functional groups on otherwise inert polymers, and modification of molecular weight and structure. Each operation is governed by underlying interactions between material properties and processing conditions. The main thrust in the proposed research program is the fundamental understanding of these interactions in industrially important reactive and conventional polymer processing operations.