Rational design of high-performance polymers

I&EC 100

George B. Fitzgerald, gxf@accelrys.com, Cikui Liang, Stephen Todd, and Gerhard Goldbeck-Wood, gerhard@accelrys.com. Accelrys, 10188 Telesis Court, Suite 101, San Diego, CA 92121
The design of polymeric material requires a computational toolbox that can span problems from the atomic scale (~1 nm) through the nanoscale (10-100 nm) to the mesoscale (100-1000 nm). Methods are required that can predict the chemical and physical properties of polymers and blends; the impact of additives that make such blends possible; the morphology of the finished product; and the design of catalysts. This work will discuss the multiple steps involved when creating new polymeric material and describe how modeling - in conjunction with experiment - can play a role at each stage. This workflow will be illustrated by examples including

Functionalization of nanotubes for use in polymer composites

Design of metallocenes to create specific polymers

Determination of polymer crystal structures and prediction of morphologies

In addition, the importance of linear scaling quantum mechanical methods for performing accurate simulations on large systems will be discussed.