PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday, 16th January 2008

Landmark special issue features Chinese research at

State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering

A recent special double issue of the journal Plastics, Rubber and Composites: Macromolecular Engineering (volume 36, issue 7/8) reports research at the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering (SKLPME), Sichuan University, China. This landmark issue is believed to be the first such report from a State Key Laboratory published in English in an international peer reviewed journal.

The special issue is guest edited by Professor Xi Xu, the sole Chinese Academician in the polymer engineering area, who has responsibility for both SKLPME and the polymer laboratory in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Professor Qi Wang, Director of SKLPME. 

The 15 contributions highlight research in the following areas:

Ÿ new technology to develop high performance polymer materials, including irradiation treatment and the application of stress, thermal and electromagnetic fields

Ÿ new methods for manufacturing polymer micro- and nanocomposites, and for tailoring their structure and properties

Ÿ functional and high performance polymers: polymers with aryl heterocyclic structures, polymers with good electrical and thermal conductivity, optically active and biocompatible polymers

Ÿ processing fundamentals of non-equilibrium melts: mechanochemistry and rheology 

Ÿ new techniques and equipment to tailor chain structure, supramolecular structure, and product dimension by controlling stress fields and temperature

Ÿ polymers for oil field exploration and exploitation: drilling mud additives, oil flooding agents, surfactant, crude oil flow modifiers

Ÿ recycling and reutilising waste polymer materials.

A full list of contents and abstracts of the contributions to the special issue are freely accessible at www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/prc.

All research at the Laboratory has a focus on convenient, efficient, non-polluting processing and the requirements of recycling and reuse at the industrial scale. The Sichuan SKLPME is recognised internationally as a pre-eminent polymer engineering research centre, and was recently overwhelmingly voted the top Chinese laboratory in this discipline. Polymer research at Sichuan dates back to 1953, and SKLPME was set up in 1991, as one of seven state pilot laboratories in the Key Discipline Development Project supported by the World Bank loan.

SKLPME has a strong international outlook and currently collaborates with workers from 29 universities, research institutes and other organisations in 12 countries. The proposal for a special issue was formulated during the visit last year of Professor Phil Coates, the Editor of Plastics, Rubber and Composites, to Chinese polymer research establishments, as part of his EPSRC funded people collaboration programme.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Professor Phil Coates FREng is Professor of Polymer Engineering at the University of Bradford, UK, Associate Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) in Polymer Science and Technology, Director of the Polymer Centre of Industrial Collaboration and Director of the Yorkshire Forward Polymer Centre of Industrial Collaboration. He is also Pro Vice Chancellor, Research & Knowledge Transfer at the University of Bradford. 

His Bradford laboratory, with some 30 researchers, enjoys an international reputation and has developed world-class expertise in in-process measurement, micromoulding and orientation processing of polymers. It has ongoing interactions with more than 100 companies in additional to extensive international academic collaborations. Professor Coates' research has pioneered the development of in situ real-time process measurement in both melt and solid phases, with the objective of improving understanding and optimising industrial processes. 

Plastics, Rubbers and Composites: Macromolecular Engineering is an international journal for the processing, properties and modelling of macromolecular and composite materials. Published by Maney Publishing on behalf of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the journal provides a forum for the publication of original, peer-reviewed research on polymeric and related materials and polymer matrix composites, with a particular interest in macromolecular engineering: the manipulation of structure at the molecular scale to control properties and fitness for purpose of the final component. For more information visit www.maney.co.uk/journals/prc. To view free sample content visit www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/prc 

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