Research Group:

Polymer Science Research Group

Overview of Research Group, Goals and Purposes:

　Recent progress in the highly-accurate control of chemical defects, molecular weight and its distribution has lead to the realization of more excellent physical properties of polymer materials, as typically exemplified for such commodity polymers as polyethylene and polypropylene. The application of these polymer materials has been extended furthermore to the various fields including automobile and electric industries and so on. More advanced development of polymer materials can be attained for the first time when more precise control of polymer structure is made from the microscopic point of view. In other words, a lot of not-yet-perfectly-solved problems about the structure-physical property relationship of polymers must be clarified from the various hierarchical levels in an organized manner. The similar situations may be seen also for the biomacromolecules governing our lives and the environmentally-friendly biomass materials. The advance of analytical methods using synchrotron radiation contributes also to the development in polymer science and polymer industry. For example, it is needed to build up the new characterization systems by combining the various kinds of techniques such as infrared and Raman spectroscopy with the conventional wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering techniques. Additionally, the recent increasing usages of EXAFS, imaging method etc. in polymer experiments indicate clearly the further expansion of polymer research field. Our “polymer science research” group is characterized by its variety of members coming from the wide research fields of universities, industries, and research institutes. All of these members gather together, discuss and study the newest progress in polymer science attained by the usage of the further-modernized SPring-8 synchrotron facility with the common ambition of the building-up of new polymer science and industry.

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