Beijing Key Laboratory of Special Elastomer Composite Materials
? Profile
Beijing Key Laboratory of Special Elastomer Composite Materials is a key laboratory accredited by the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and was officially established in June 2011. The laboratory is dedicated to the research and development of green, low-carbon, high-performance novel elastomeric materials, as well as the development of production processes and industrial technologies for these products. It aims to produce a variety of high-end rubber and specialty elastomer products, promote the high-end application of rubber and specialty elastomeric materials, and enhance China's international competitiveness in the synthetic rubber industry as well as its capability for innovation in novel elastomeric materials. The laboratory is directed by Professor Wu Yibo, with Professor Qiao Jinliang from Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry serving as the Chairman of the Academic Committee.
? Research Team
The laboratory has 38 full-time members, including one Beijing Outstanding Talent, one Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star, nine senior professional-title holders, twenty associate senior professional-title holders, and nine intermediate professional-title holders. The team covers research areas including polymer materials, organic optoelectronic functional materials, biomedical materials, and related fields.
? Research Directions
(1) Controlled Cationic Polymerization: establishment of novel living/controlled cationic polymerization methods, molecular-level design of macromolecular chains, and preparation of fully saturated specialty elastomeric materials.
(2) Specialty Elastomer Development: molecular structure design as the main thread to elucidate the structure-property relationships among molecular structure, intrinsic properties, and macroscopic performance of composites, with a focus on breakthroughs in synthesis technologies for star-branched butyl rubber and brominated butyl rubber, and the development of proprietary process packages to break foreign monopolies.
(3) Bio-based Elastomer Materials: novel green polymerization methods for bio-based monomers, precise regulation of molecular chain structures and performance enhancement of polyester copolymers, and pilot-scale engineering scale-up and industrial demonstration.
? Research Facilities
The laboratory occupies research space in Building 3C and Building 3A of Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, with a total area of 1,800 square meters. It is equipped with key instruments and equipment including low-temperature refrigeration glove boxes, gel permeation chromatographs, torque rheometers, in-situ real-time monitoring low-temperature polymerization reactor systems, combined laser light scattering–gel permeation chromatography systems, fully enclosed temperature controllers, and multi-angle laser light scattering instruments, with an original value of over RMB 45 million.
? Research Achievements
Supported by the National Key R&D Program projects, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Major Improvement Program of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, the Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star Program, the Beijing Natural Science Foundation, the Joint Funding Projects of the Beijing Natural Science Foundation and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, and other initiatives, the laboratory team has long been engaged in innovative research on high-end elastomers and functional polymer materials, and has accumulated substantial achievements in polymer molecular design, polymerization process innovation, material performance regulation, and industrial applications.
The team has innovatively developed the preparation technology for star-branched butyl rubber, invented novel branching agents with independent intellectual property rights and highly efficient preparation technologies, and successfully established China's first industrial production line for star-branched brominated butyl rubber, providing significant independent innovation capability for China's rubber industry. It has also overcome the thermal stability enhancement technology for copolyoxymethylene, developed a novel heteropolyacid initiator system, and built China's first pilot-scale production line, breaking the "bottleneck" problem of high-end polyoxymethylene. Furthermore, the team has developed medical-grade polyisobutylene-based thermoplastic elastomers, precisely regulated the material microstructure, collaborated to overcome the preparation technology for medical glaucoma drainage tubes, completed product trial manufacturing and animal experiments, and simultaneously completed the reserve of core industrial raw materials.
The laboratory has received awards including the Second Prize and Third Prize of the Technical Invention Award of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, the Patent Gold Award of the China Petroleum and Chemical Automation Application Association, and the Second Prize of the Innovation Award of the China Association of Inventions.
