TIME：10:00, Jan. 9, 2026
VENUE：Room A5, Zhenhai Main Campus, NIMTE
Abstract:
Network polymers are an important class of materials ranging from thermosets, elastomers and gels, which have found a wide range of applications in microelectronics, construction, aerospace, automative, energy, food and biomedical industries due to the unique and versatile structural and functional properties. This presentation discusses our recent work on moving beyond the obsession of pursuing the increasing high temperature rating of network polymers, i.e., increase glass transition temperature and thermal degradation temperature. The design principle of combining high temperature resistance, excellent mechanical properties and functional properties, such as 3D photo-printing or vat printing functions for precision microfabrication. Then, discussion will be focused on the waste plastic derived vitrimers. A new approach is proposed to depolymerize waste plastics such as PET waste to oligomers of defined structures and molecular weights via controlled partial depolymerization (CPD), These oligomers are then used as building blocks for vitrimers a sub-class of the covalenadaptive network polymers, which have better recvclability than conventional network polymers.
Speaker Biography:
Xiao Matthew HU is a professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, a founding member of its top-ranked School of Materials Science and Engineering. He is the Director of the Environmental Chemistry and Materials Programme (ECMP) at the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute and served as the Founding Co-Director of the RGE-NTU Sustainable Textile Research Centre (SusTex) (Now serving as its scientific advisor). He also served as a member of the Innovation Committee of Taiwan Textile Research institute (TTRI). He gained his BEng from TsinghuaUniversity and PhD from the University of Manchester. He is a Councilor of the Pacific Polymer Federation (PPF) and served as its President. Currently he serves as the President of the Federation of Asian Polymer Societies (FAPS). Professor Hu is the advisor for a number of companies including two high-tech startup companies in Singapore. He is on the editorial board of several journals and is an editor of Polymer (Elsevier), His group conducts use-inspired and cross-disciplinary by studying the underlying principles for new materials design, synthesis, processing and fabrication for targeted end uses. His latest passion in the past decade has been tackling challenges concerning materials circularity, sustainable agriculture environment and affordable and safe drinking water. He has contributed to more than 400 international journal papers.
