About this Research Topic
The rapid development of modern functional polymers renders thetheiroad applications in many aspects, such as optoelectronics, photocatalysis and separation technology. These emerging polymers possess features like easy processing, light weight and flexibility. Such properties open broad prospects for future multi-functional purposes of these polymers. This Research Topic aims to bring together active researchers, focusing on materials/device design/processing, to discuss the key challenges in this field. We believe the brainstorm in this community can lead to future breakthrough as to realize our know-how in this field into practical applications.
Functional polymers have been receiving wide research interest due to their attractive properties, including low-cost preparation, mechanical flexibility, light weight and molecular design-dependent functions and beyond. They have been widely applied for diverse cross-field applications. Importantly, these polymers are playing a critical role in determining the performance of corresponding devices/systems. Diverse synthetic approaches and processing technologies can significantly influence the functions of those polymers, resulting in different behaviors of the target performance even for the same materials prepared by the fixed processing recipes. Hence, it is of great interest to present a special issue collecting the most recent works in these functional polymers, providing a comprehensive overview for the community to understand the latest development of these emerging polymeric materials.
The aim of this Research Topic is to address the key challenges of emerging functional polymers among various applications, such as optoelectronics and photocatalysis and beyond, regarding the following aspects but not limited to:
1) Novel molecular design and synthesis of functional polymers
2) Physical chemical characterization of polymers in solution and solid states
3) Scalable processing of polymers in thin film application
4) Tailored properties of surface/interface/bulk of polymer-based hybrid and nanocomposites
5) Functionality of polymer in optoelectronics/photocatalysis/energy/separation technology
6) Advanced computations and structure characterization in polymer chemistry
Functional polymers have been receiving wide research interest due to their attractive properties, including low-cost preparation, mechanical flexibility, light weight and molecular design-dependent functions and beyond. They have been widely applied for diverse cross-field applications. Importantly, these polymers are playing a critical role in determining the performance of corresponding devices/systems. Diverse synthetic approaches and processing technologies can significantly influence the functions of those polymers, resulting in different behaviors of the target performance even for the same materials prepared by the fixed processing recipes. Hence, it is of great interest to present a special issue collecting the most recent works in these functional polymers, providing a comprehensive overview for the community to understand the latest development of these emerging polymeric materials.
The aim of this Research Topic is to address the key challenges of emerging functional polymers among various applications, such as optoelectronics and photocatalysis and beyond, regarding the following aspects but not limited to:
1) Novel molecular design and synthesis of functional polymers
2) Physical chemical characterization of polymers in solution and solid states
3) Scalable processing of polymers in thin film application
4) Tailored properties of surface/interface/bulk of polymer-based hybrid and nanocomposites
5) Functionality of polymer in optoelectronics/photocatalysis/energy/separation technology
6) Advanced computations and structure characterization in polymer chemistry
Keywords: Synthetic chemistry of polymer, physical chemistry of polymers characterization, solid state morphology control, advanced computation in polymer chemistry, functional polymers in devices
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