Designing of the Chemical Process for Polyethylene Furanoate-based Materials
Project Description
Polyethyleneteraphathalate (PET) is widely used in our daily life due to its attractive features. The PET has good tenacity and high creep resistance, which can sustain from deformation under mechanical stresses. Since the PET is an artificial polymer and unrecyclable. Polyethylene Furanoate (PEF), which is a kind of 100% biobased material and is made from plant-based raw material rather than crude oil, can replace the current PET materials for the plastic-made materials. Furthermore, the PEF also has better mechanical properties compared to the PET, such as higher glass transition temperature and modulus, and lower melting point, which are important factors in the production of plastic.
This project aims to develop a mass production process for the PEF materials so that it can be widely used in the plastics industry. In addition, the designing of the chemical process and its modification to the current approach will surely bring benefits to the community.
Supervisor
HU Xijun
Quota
2
Course type
UROP1000
UROP1100
UROP2100
UROP3100
Applicant's Roles
The applicant should have knowledge, experience and interests for polymer as well as strong incentives for research. Therefore the applicant is able to design the manufacturing process of PEF plastic bag production, evaluate the performance of PEF plastic bag, and optimize operating parameters during research.
Applicant's Learning Objectives
To learn how to design and control process of PEF production
To optimize the system parameters for economic manufacturing of PEF production
To evaluate the potential applications of the developed PEF
Complexity of the project
Moderate