Polymer Materials and Technologies
The Centre is focused on the research and development in the field of advanced polymer materials with heterogeneous phase structure and tailored properties. A special attention is paid to the description and understanding of relationships between the materials’ structure and their end-use properties.
The Centre consists of three departments, i.e. Nanostructured Polymers and Composites, Polymer Morphology, and Polymer Processing. The researchers of the Centre pursue fundamental research in above mentioned fields with a particular emphasis on the effect of internal structure on the behaviour of polymer materials. The materials investigated are synthesized by various chemical routes or prepared by physical processes such as melt or solution processing. Besides chemical and processing laboratories, the departments are equipped with a variety of characterization techniques. Top-level equipment together with highly experienced staff enables one to get a detailed insight into the structure of polymer systems studied. These techniques — particularly electron microscopy, thermal analysis, rheology and mechanical testing, are a necessary prerequisite for complex material characterization and they are employed within the framework of projects carried out by all research centres of the Institute or by cooperating research institutions.
Besides the fundamental research, the Centre pursues successfully also the applied research in cooperation with industrial partners. The projects of applied research are focused mainly on the development of polymer materials with controlled properties and technologies for polymer products fabrication and recycling.
