Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Reducing the energy required to move people and products is one of the biggest long-term challenges that the transportation industry faces in Canada and worldwide. High-performance polymer nanocomposite materials reinforced with inorganic nanofillers have attracted tremendous attention from the transportation industry as a novel class of lightweight yet strong structural materials to replace metals for energy savings. However, the performance and broad technological utilization of polymer nanocomposites have been restricted by the lack of effective methods to achieve uniform nanofiller dispersion and strong nanofiller-polymer interactions, which are key to nanocomposite performance properties. This proposed project is aimed at improving Canada's competitive position in the development and utilization of lightweight polyolefin nanocomposites for the transportation industry. The anticipated outcome of this project is an advanced polyolefin nanocomposite technology, surface-initiated living olefin polymerization technology, for making high-performance polyolefin nanocomposites of outstanding mechanical performance. This technology will provide nanocomposites featured with more uniform nanofiller dispersion and stronger nanofiller-polymer interactions. If successful, these value-added nanocomposite materials are anticipated to have wide applications in the transportation industry. This research is also anticipated to result in valuable fundamental knowledge on nanocomposite structure-performance relationships, which Canadian nanocomposite manufacturers can utilize for developing better polymer nanocomposite materials. In addition, the new surface-initiated living olefin polymerization technology to be developed is believed to be of great technological significance to the area of olefin polymerization and may provide Canadian polyolefin industry a key to more valuable products. Furthermore, this strategic project will provide excellent training opportunities to postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, who will constitute the nation's future high-tech workforce in the strategic area of nanocomposite materials.