Shiping Zhu

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, 518172, China

EXTENDED ABSTRACT: Chemical engineering deals with production and processing of materials and chemicals in safe, sustainable, and profitable ways. Polymer reaction engineering bridges lab discovery of recipes to industrial production of goods through design, optimization, and control of processes. Polymers are macromolecules that have thousands of small molecules (termed as monomers) linked together in chains by covalent bonds. Polymer materials properties are determined to a large extent by chain microstructures, such as molecular weight distribution, composition distribution, sequence distribution, tacticity, and topology etc. Polymers are not only the products of chemical recipes but also polymerization processes. A slight difference in polymerization process could make a huge difierence in the polymer product, even with a same chemical recipe. At-will-as-wish production of polymers having precisely designed and controlled chain microstructures represents a key in the industrial innovation of high-end polymer products. Kinetic modeling and process digitalization provide a powerful tool serving the purpose. Presented are several research examples and industrial applications, including long-chain-branched metallocene polyethylene (PE) for the best combination of melt strength and processability, fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) having uniform composition and molecular weight upgraded via model­based semi-batch feeding policies, and computer-programed reactor technology for controlled gradient copolymers, as well as some viewpoints of disciplinary construction for polymer materials science and engineering.

Keywords: polymer; reaction engineering; kinetic modeling, process digitalization, high-end product, product upgrading