Reactive and conventional processing of polymers

挤出是一种非常重要的聚合物加工工艺。传统的挤出工艺包括熔融、均质和成型聚合材料，使其成为连续的最终塑料产品，如薄膜和纤维。反应挤出将前面提到的操作与熔融聚合物中的反应相结合，目的是生产具有增强性能的新材料。典型的应用包括反应共混，在惰性聚合物上添加官能团，以及改变分子量和结构。每个操作都是由材料特性和加工条件之间的潜在相互作用决定的。提出的研究计划的主要推力是对工业上重要的反应性和传统聚合物加工操作中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.