Analysis of the Frontiers and Development Trends in Polymer Materials Research
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This post was last edited by ljtjbx on 2015-8-3 at 13:39. Frontiers and Development Trends in Polymer Material Research: 1. General-purpose polymer materials are evolving toward higher performance, greater functionality, reduced pollution, and lower costs. General-purpose polymer materials mainly refer to the three categories of synthetic polymers namely plastics, rubbers, and fibers, as well as fine polymer materials such as coatings and adhesives. High performance, multifunctionality, low cost, and low pollution (environmental friendliness) are the prominent development trends of general-purpose synthetic polymer materials. In the field of polyolefin resin research, efforts are made to achieve high performance and lower costs for these resins through the development of new polymerization catalysts and the study of technologies for producing polyolefin copolymer alloys in reactors. The research direction of high-performance engineering plastics focuses mainly on the development of materials that combine high performance with good processability. Through molecular and material design, fundamental chemical and physical issues in the preparation of aromatic heterocyclic polymer materials are studied in a thorough and systematic manner. Their multi-level structures and control techniques are investigated, the intrinsic relationship between structure and properties is understood, and materials that are suitable both in terms of processability and performance are sought. In the field of synthetic rubber, high-performance properties are achieved by researching synthesis methods, chemical modification techniques, blending modification techniques, dynamic vulcanization and compatibilization techniques, interpenetrating network techniques, and chain-end modification techniques. In the field of synthetic fibers, research and development of special high-performance fibers, as well as functional, differentiated, and sensory fibers, remain important areas of focus. At the same time, the research and development of biological fibers, nanofibers, and new polymer fibers are also important areas in fiber research. In the field of coatings and adhesives, environmentally friendly coatings and adhesives, as well as those with high performance for use under special conditions, are the two main directions of development. 2. Functional polymer materials are developing rapidly, with their areas of application continuously expanding. More and more such materials will move from the stage of scientific invention and discovery to practical use. In the field of organic/polymer optoelectronic information functional materials, functional polymers with properties related to light, electricity, and magnetism serve as important carriers for next-generation information technologies, and will play an extremely vital role in the development of information technology throughout the 21st century. An important area that deserves close attention and could lead to breakthroughs is organic/polymer display materials, particularly electroluminescent materials, ultra-high-density polymer storage materials, and polymer biosensing materials. In addition, there is also the design, simulation, and computation of novel functional polymer materials, their synthesis and assembly, as well as the creation of molecular nanosystems. Research on the assembly and self-assembly of polymers, as well as their applications in molecular electronic devices. In the field of biomaterials, the overall trend is a progression from simple implants to the regeneration and reconstruction of living tissues and organs ； From large-scale surgical trauma to minimally invasive surgical treatment ； From temporary repair and restoration of tissues and organs to permanent repair and replacement ； There has been a development from drug sustained release to controlled release and targeted release. The focus of research on biomedical materials is: design that, based on biological principles, endows materials and implants with biological structures and functions ； The scientific basis for reliably testing the biosafety of materials and predicting their long-term lifespan ； Advanced process manufacturing methodology. In the field of adsorption separation materials, the focus of development for separation membranes lies in predicting, controlling, and optimizing the membrane structure and its separation performance, based on research into the preparation of polymer separation membranes, the membrane formation mechanism, and the relationship between this mechanism and the polymer structure ； Through the integration of separation membranes and biochemical technologies, an organic combination is achieved between the strength and processability of synthetic polymer membrane materials, and the specific selectivity and biological activity of natural biological membranes. For adsorption separation resins, instead of using biological ligands directly, high-selectivity adsorption resin materials with molecular recognition properties are designed and synthesized by mimicking affinity and the multiple effects of supramolecular chemistry (molecular recognition), which holds significant theoretical importance and practical value. The design and preparation of new imprint polymer materials, as well as research on their selective separation functions, are also important areas of development. 3. The coordinated development of polymer materials science with resources and the environment is receiving increasing attention. Synthetic polymer materials derived from petroleum resources have been widely used; while they bring convenience, they also cause environmental pollution. Moreover, in 50 years, we will face the threat of gradual depletion of petroleum resources. Therefore, natural polymers derived from renewable animal, plant, and microbial resources have the potential to become the main chemical raw materials for polymer materials in the future. The most abundant resources among them include cellulose, lignin, chitin, starch, various animal and plant proteins, as well as polysaccharides. They possess various functional groups, can be modified into new materials through chemical and physical methods, and can also be degraded into monomers or oligomers via chemical, physical, and biotechnological means to be used as raw materials in the chemical industry. To address environmental pollution issues, on the one hand, research on biodegradable polymer materials has become a focal point, and on the other hand, the recycling of waste polymer materials is also an important area of study. Biodegradable polymer materials saw rapid development at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century; in particular, some developed countries and enterprises invested heavily in the research and development of such materials, achieving remarkable progress. Biodegradable polymer materials are required to have good processability and performance, to degrade easily after fulfilling their functional purposes, and to have acceptable costs. Achieving the recycling of waste polymer materials and developing green engineering for polymer materials is a global strategic issue that must be addressed to protect the human ecological environment, make full use of resources, and ensure sustainable economic and social development. 4. Research in the field of polymer material processing continues to expand and deepen. The ultimate performance of polymer materials depends to a large extent on the morphology of the materials resulting from processing and molding. Polymer morphology mainly includes crystallization, orientation, etc.; multiphase polymers also include phase shapes (such as spheres, sheets, rods, fibers, etc.). The shape of polymer products is primarily formed under the influence of complex temperature fields and external force fields during the processing stage. Therefore, studying the formation, evolution, control, and ultimate ‘shape fixation’ of polymer materials under the influence of external fields during processing, as well as developing new methods for their processing and molding, is of great significance for the fundamental theoretical research on polymer materials and for the development of high-performance, composite, multifunctional, low-cost, and environmentally friendly polymer materials. The current focus of research at the forefront of this discipline is to study the formation and evolution patterns of material structures during processing, in order to achieve control over the shape of the materials ； Explore new processing principles and develop new processing methods. Furthermore, the processing of functional polymer materials and self-assembled supramolecular structure materials is becoming an emerging area of research. For example, structures of different micro- and nano-sizes obtained through novel processing methods are applied in fields such as optoelectronic devices. 5. The intersection between polymer materials science and other disciplines is continuously strengthening. The integration of polymer materials science with biology, bioengineering, chemistry, physics, information science, environmental science, etc., not only promotes the development of polymer materials science itself but also expands the range of applications for these materials. For example, biomimetic polymer materials that mimic the structure of organisms or their specific functions represent an important approach to the development of biomaterials. The study of electronic processes in organic/polymer materials facilitates the close integration of organic polymer materials science with information science, making organic plastic electronics an important area of research. The development of modern detection techniques such as scanning probe microscopy and ultra-high resolution has enabled in-depth research on organic/polymer nanomaterials.
The current status and strategies for the development of polymers in our country: Since the reform and opening up, China’s foreign trade has continued to expand, and joining the WTO has provided domestic enterprises with more opportunities for fair competition; China has thus become a major trading nation. However, being a large trading nation does not equate to being a strong trading nation, and the problems existing in our country’s foreign trade must draw our attention. Analyzing the current situation and formulating countermeasures is clearly of great significance: An analysis of the current state of foreign trade shows that, from a macro perspective, China’s foreign trade exhibits the following four characteristics: 1. The total volume of import and export trade is increasing year by year. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, China’s foreign imports and exports increased from $20.64 billion in 1978 to $620.77 billion in 2002; the total value of imports and exports reached another record high of $851.21 billion in 2003. 2. The economic and trade landscape has changed, but the core export products remain labor-intensive, with low industrial added value. Taking the United States, China’s most important trading partner (including **reexport trade, U.S. trade accounts for over 25% of China’s total trade), as an example. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce, in 2002, the top five categories of goods that China exported to the United States were miscellaneous products (18.44%), office machinery and automatic data processing equipment (11.7%), telecommunications and sound recording and reproduction equipment (10.74%), shoes and boots (8.7%), and electrical machinery and appliances (8.09%). Based solely on the data, the pattern of China’s exports to the United States, which were primarily composed of textiles and clothing, is beginning to change, with the share of exports of computer and communication products on the rise. However, according to statistics from China’s Ministry of Commerce, the main mode of trade for China’s exports of high-tech products remains processing trade. It still relies mainly on labor-intensive products, with low industrial added value. 3. Trade partners are too concentrated, resulting in insufficient risk resistance. Our country’s trading partners remain relatively concentrated in Eurasia and the Americas, particularly in a few major countries around the world; the top three are Japan, the United States, and the European Union, with trade volume with these three accounting for nearly half of the total. This trade pattern does not possess sufficient resilience to risks; a clear example of this is the significant impact on China’s foreign trade volume as these major trading partners adopted conservative trade policies due to economic downturns. By 2003, China’s foreign trade surplus was $25.54 billion, a decrease of 16.1% compared to the previous year. 4. Traditional competitive industries are greatly affected by the international market. China’s traditional competitive industries are mainly labor-intensive sectors, and in recent years there has been a decline in the international market for the products produced by these industries. This situation is due to three main reasons: (1) The impact of rapidly developing emerging economies on China’s export trade, such as Mexico’s impact on China’s textile industry ； (2) Developed countries restrict imports for their own interests; for example, the United States restricts imports to protect its domestic industries, while the EU does so to serve the interests of newly joined members ； (3) As China’s economic strength grows, foreign countries are removing preferential policies for it. If the EU decides to abolish the Generalized System of Preferences for six categories of products from our country, including dairy and egg products. The combined effect of these three factors is that countries in Europe and the United States continuously file complaints of dumping against various Chinese products, which has had a significant impact on China’s exports; as a result, some of its competitive industries are showing signs of decline. From a micro-level analysis, China’s foreign trade enterprises exhibit the following three characteristics: 1. A shortage of talent in international trade and international finance exposes these enterprises to greater operational risks. Some experts have predicted that after China’s accession to the WTO, there would be a shortage of around 200,000 professionals in the fields of foreign trade and finance; as more and more companies obtain the rights to import and export, this shortage is expected to increase further. Under such circumstances, there are always some companies that are unable to obtain the talent they need, and as a result they face two types of additional risks: (1) the risks associated with their lack of familiarity with WTO rules ； (2) The risks associated with a lack of financial knowledge. If these two types of risks cannot be avoided, companies may face catastrophic failure. 2. Information asymmetry leads to disorderly competition. It is difficult for export companies to predict the size of the market they are about to enter and how many competitors there are. The opposing side, however, is different in this regard; it can generally determine the production capacity of such goods in the target importing country. For example, if a company in China wants to export furniture to the United States, it doesn’t know how many furniture manufacturers around the world will be supplying furniture to the U.S. But the U.S. side is different – if it wants to import furniture from China, it can easily find out the production capacity of China’s furniture industry through normal channels of information. The serious consequence of this information asymmetry is chaotic competition within the industry: when it is seen that exports of a certain product were high last year, everyone starts producing it as well, resulting in a large surplus of products and price cuts in order to compete, which benefits the importers. In more severe cases, this can provide an excuse for dumping, leading to a chain of anti-dumping actions across various countries and ultimately the loss of access to international markets. 3. Insufficient R&D capabilities hinder our country’s products from entering international markets. Ten years ago, China waged a successful battle to defend its home appliance industry; many domestic home appliance manufacturers managed to capture the vast majority of the domestic market share thanks to their price advantages. It’s a pity that later on, the domestic home appliance industry relied on price wars as its ultimate strategy in competition with other firms in the same sector, neglecting product innovation. As a result, when foreign home appliances entered the Chinese market with improved performance, they quickly captured a significant share of it. This situation can be applied similarly to other industries as well. It is common for Chinese foreign trade companies to be turned away because their technology does not meet the required standards. Moreover, due to technical limitations, it is difficult for our country’s products to break into high-end categories. The lack of R&D capabilities also results in low added value for the products of Chinese enterprises.