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Polymer Chemistry 2018
Polymer Sciences
ISSN: 2471-9935
Page 48
March 26-28, 2018
Vienna, Austria
3
rd
Edition of International Conference and Exhibition on
Polymer Chemistry
A
mong polymeric materials, polyolefins are clear leaders with
respect to both world production scale and sustainability.
Produced in solvent-free and environmentally friendly processes,
they combine high resource-, eco-, energy- and cost-efficiency
with low weight and outstanding versatility in terms of properties,
processing, applications, and recycling. However, to compete with
metals they require reinforcement by alien materials which impair
recycling and processing. Special processing technologies such
as lamination of stretched tapes and fiber technology are required
to produce “all polyolefin composites” in which both matrix and
reinforcingphasesconsistofpolyolefin.Atthebeginningofthe21
st
century, remarkable progress inmultisite polymerization catalysis
enables to produce reactor blends with tailored molar mass
distribution which formextended-chain polyolefin during injection
molding and extrusion, typical for commodity polyolefins. Robust
chromium sites produce nanophase-separated ultrahigh molar
mass polyethylene (UHMWPE) unaffected by other sites during
ethylene polymerization on supported multisite catalysts. The
site blend ratio governs ultrabroad PE molar mass distributions
and nanostructures with unprecedented precision. Owing to
significantly reduced UHMWPE entanglement, reactor blends
with high UHMWPE content (>20 wt.-%) are melt processable by
classical injection molding. HDPE wax serves as a processing
aid which cocristallizes and does not cause emission and odor
problems. This
in situ
formation of nanophase-separated fiber-
like extended chain UHMWPE, with an average diameter of 80 nm,
effectivelyreinforcestheHDPEmatrixasexpressedbysignificantly
improved strength/stiffness/toughness balance. In addition
to tailoring two- and three-site catalysts systems and reactor
blends, nanophase-separated UHMWPE embedded in HDPE wax
represents a versatile new additive enabling fabrication of all-
polyethylene composites by melt compounding without affecting
ethylene polymerization of commodity polyethylenes. Hence, this
versatile route to sustainable all-polyethylene composites holds
great promise for converting commodity polyolefin materials into
high performance engineering materials without impairing melt
processing, sustainability and facile recycling. Unlike common
polyolefin nanocomposites, neither handling of problematic
nanofillers nor special composite processing is required.
Recent Publications
1. M. Stürzel; S. Mihan; R. Mülhaupt (2016) From Multisite
Polymerization Catalysis to Sustainable Materials and
All-Polyolefin Composites, Chem. Rev. 116, 1398.
2. F. Zhong; J. Schwabe; D. Hofmann; J. Meier; R. Thomann,
M. Enders, R. Mülhaupt (2018) All-polyethylene
composites reinforced via extended-chain UHMWPE
nanostructure formation during melt processing,
Polymer 140, 107.
3. M. Stürzel; T. Hees; M. Enders; Y. Thomann; H. Blattmann;
R. Mülhaupt (2016), Nanostructured Polyethylene
Reactor Blends with Tailored Trimodal Molar Mass
Distributions
as
Melt-Processable
All-Polymer
Composites, Macromolecules 49, 8048.
4. M. Stuerzel; A. Kurek; T. Hees; Y. Thomann; H. Blattmann;
R. Mülhaupt (2016) Multisite catalyst mediated
polymer nanostructure formation and self-reinforced
polyethylene reactor blends with improved toughness/
stiffness balance, Polymer 102, 112.
Biography
Prof. Dr. Rolf Mülhaupt studied chemistry at University of Freiburg, Germany
(1973-1978) and got his PhD (1981) at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. After indus-
trial research at DuPont Central Research (1981-1985) in Wilmington, DE,
USA, and at Ciba-Geigy AG (1985-1989) in Marly, Switzerland, since 1989
he is full professor for macromolecular chemistry and director of the Insti-
tute of Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of Freiburg, Germany.
Since 1992 he is the managing director of the Freiburg Materials Research
Center, FMF, at the University of Freiburg, Germany. His research focuses on
polymer chemistry and engineering, sustainable materials, polymerization
catalysis & polyolefins, functional polymer and tailoring polymer systems,
reactive processing and 3D-printing. He has published 456 papers in refer-
eed journals and is listed as coinventor of 106 patent applications. He was
awarded the Silver Medal of ETH-Zürich (1981), Piero Pino GoldMedal of the
Italian Chemical Society (2004), Hermann Staudinger Price of the German
Chemical Society (2009) and the Hermann F. Mark Medal (2013).
rolfmuelhaupt@web.deAll polyolefin composites via nanostructure formation during
melt processing
Rolf Mülhaupt Alexander Kurek, Markus Stürzel, Fan Zhong
and
Timo Hees
Freiburg Materials Research Center, FMF, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany
Rolf Mülhaupt Alexander Kurek et al., Polym Sci, Volume 4
DOI: 10.4172/2471-9935-C1-008