Presentation

The Polymer Engineering area encompasses the development of polymeric materials, of the application of these materials and of polymerization processes. Polymers are very versatile materials, which may be used in a vast array of applications. For instance, polymers can be used to produce microparticles for biomedical uses, membranes for fluid separation and purification processes, plastic films to wrap food, conductor elements for the production of sensors, among many other applications. The versatility of such materials is intimately related to the fact that several reagents (monomers) may be used as raw materials for the production of polymeric products. Besides that, the final product properties may be manipulated during the reaction and processing steps, so that one single monomer may generate a huge quantity of different materials. Finally, polymers can be produced through different transformation processes (mass, solution, suspension, emulsion, gas phase, solid state, mud, bioreactions) in very distinct operation conditions. As a result, the study of polymeric materials and of the polymerization processes demands the development of very diverse engineering tools, which makes the research in the Polymer Engineering area very active.