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Polymer Institute Set to Cast New Initiatives |
| By
Deanna Lytle |
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Jun 29, 2004 |
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| Dr. Saleh Jabarin, center, posed for a photo with Quan Fu, left, and Haibing Zhang, both graduate students in the College of Engineering who help with research at the Polymer Institute. |
On Westwood Avenue across from the College of Engineering buildings sits a plain structure called the Westwood Annex. It doesn’t have the fancy stone architecture of University Hall or the glassy elegance of Nitschke Hall. But inside part of this building, test tubes are bubbling, machines are humming, and the smell of plastic is in the air as students and faculty members conduct polymer research to the tune of thousands of dollars of grants from internationally known companies.
This is The University of Toledo Polymer Institute and it’s beginning a new phase of research initiatives.
Founded in 1987, the institute has received more than $12 million in research funding from companies and government agencies and has graduated nine doctoral and 36 master’s students. According to Dr. Saleh Jabarin, professor and director of the Polymer Institute, researchers at the institute primarily do work for the PET Consortium or they do contract proprietary research. The PET Consortium, begun in 1994, is a group of national and international companies that provide funding for researching polyester materials. “This work is usually performed by graduate students,” Jabarin explained. Currently, there are 16 members of the PET Consortium, including companies in the food, beverage, manufacturing, resin and machinery industries. Members are Amcor PET Packaging, Dow Europe S.A. (Switzerland), Coca-Cola Co., BP Chemicals, Voridian Co. Division of Eastman Chemical, M & G Polymers (Italy), SK Chemicals, Pepsi-Cola Co., Graham Packaging Co., Associated Packaging Enterprises, Kosa, Constar International, SABIC (Saudi Arabia), Wellman Inc., Buhler AG (Switzerland) and UOP.
An example of a PET Consortium project was working with polyester/polyamides blends and polyester/polyester blends for improved barrier and UV resistance for use in food and medical packaging. Contract proprietary research, on the other hand, is specific work that companies ask the research faculty to do, according to Jabarin. An example of this type of research is use of solid-state polymerization conditions to improve properties and processing of polyesters.
“All of the things we do are practical and are needed by the industry,” Jabarin said. The research also helps the graduate students. “Many of them end up working for the companies in the consortium,” he explained.
The new initiatives the institute has planned should further help these students and contribute to the body of research. “I think it’s the right time” for these new initiatives, Jabarin said. One of the new projects at the institute will involve synthesis and polymerization. The institute’s clients have become increasingly interested in melt-phase and solid-state polymerization, and Jabarin and others want to respond to this by obtaining a state-of-the-art laboratory scale reactor. They also want to work with nanocomposites — tiny particles that can be added to plastics — and do some active packaging research for food, beverage and brewing companies, according to Jabarin. Finally, institute officials are proposing various types of automotive-related research, including tackling hydrogen fuel storage, improving polyethylenes for fuel tanks, and working on high-strength polymeric membranes for air bags.
These initiatives will require the purchase of new equipment, and in the case of the automotive research, a new lab. “The companies will be paying for most of it, though,” Jabarin said. “We hope to start automotive research in the next six months."
The Polymer Institute also will become a place where undergraduate students can do research. “We currently have an undergraduate student working here and want to emphasize inclusion of additional honors research in the future,” Jabarin said.
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