In the UK, the plastic industry alone employs >170,000 people and has an annual sale turnover of >£23.5 billion, it is also one of the top 10 UK exports. Worldwide polymer production volumes exceed 300 Mt/annum, with CAGR of 5-10%. Today almost all polymers are sourced from oi/gas and are neither chemically recycled nor biodegradable. Existing polymer manufacturing plants are optimized for a single product and because of the very high capital expenditure required to build plants their lifetimes must be as long as possible. One drawback of existing processes designed for a single product is that they hinder innovation and slow the introduction of step-change products. In this proposal a new manufacturing process allows monomer mixtures to be selectively polymerized to selectively deliver completely new types of sustainable materials. The process requires just one reactor which is re-configured to dial-up multiple combinations of desirable products with controllable structures and compositions. This fellowship allows time for detailed investigation and development of the manufacturing concept as well as new research into product applications in three high-tech, high-value sectors, namely as recyclable and biodegradable thermoplastic elastomers, shape-memory plastics for robotics and delivery agents for biomolecule therapies. The research is underpinned by the efficient use of renewable resources, such as carbon dioxide and bio-derived monomers, and the polymers are designed for efficient end-of-life recycling and biodegradation. By applying existing commodity monomers, such as propene oxide and maleic anhydride, industrialization and translation of the results is accelerated. The fellowship allows the PI to learn new skills and build collaborations which will be realized through regular sabbaticals and secondments. It also allows the close industrial collaboration and oversight to re-configure polymer manufacturing to produce sustainable, high value materials to meet existing and future industrial needs.

Our society is completely dependent upon polymers (plastics) in every facet of our lives; from clothes to computers to novel composites, cars and cosmetics. A key question is how can we continue to use and consume polymers in the future? In 2010 every citizen of the USA discarded 140 kg of plastic into land-fill and those figures are similar and rising in many other societies around the globe. As more economies move towards Western levels of consumption, we simply will not be able to continue to use polymers in the same way. There are alternative polymers that are derived from renewable resources, and learning to make and use these will have a significant positive impact and will help to alleviate the issues of landfill, particularly when the renewable polymers are degradable. But despite all the hype and expectation, renewable polymers currently account for less than 5% of all polymers produced commercially. This figure is growing but the problem is that most renewable polymers simply do not perform as well as the traditional commodity polymers that are derived from oil. In this proposal we focus upon utilising terpenes to form a range of valuable new polymers. Terpenes are derived from citrus waste ( eg. d-limonene from orange peel) and from wood waste (eg. the alpha- and beta-pinenes) and are already available on the multi-tonne scale and sold into markets from fragrances to aromas and healthcare. There have been significant efforts in the past to create polymers directly from terpenes because their structures contain alkene moieties that appear to offer the opportunity for polymerisation via free radical routes under simple, readily accessible conditions that could easily be scaled. Unfortunately, extensive studies have yielded only poor quality low molecular weight or cross-linked polymers that have not found commercial utility. Now, we will build on recent proof of concept studies at Nottingham that could overcome this log-jam. We have developed a simple and versatile approach to produce new terpene based monomers that can be easily "dropped-in" to existing commercial polymerisation processes. Our approach offers the possibility to use readily available free radical and controlled polymerisation routes to create new polymers and co-polymers that can be tailored for application across the commodity and specialty plastics landscape. To achieve these goals we have assembled a multidisciplinary academic team that brings together all of the key skills and expertise needed to deliver these new monomers and polymers, and to characterise their properties to determine suitable application areas. In addition, we will utilise strong input, support and advice from industry partners from across the polymer sector to target the new materials towards focussed potential applications and products.

This Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is in the field of Polymers, Soft Matter and Colloids. This area of science deals with long-chain molecules, gels, particles, pastes and complex fluids. It is of fundamental importance for many commercial sectors, including paints & coatings, home & personal care products, agrochemicals, engine oils & lubrication, enhanced oil recovery, biomedical devices & drug delivery. Thus substantial EPSRC investment in this industrially-relevant field will directly support the UK economy and enhance its competitiveness over the longer term, as well as contributing to our scientific capacity to address important technical challenges and major societal problems such as sustainability and energy security. Sheffield Polymer Centre academics have a wealth of research experience in the areas of polymer chemistry, polymer physics, colloid science, soft matter physics and polymer engineering. This breadth of expertise is unique and is certainly unrivalled anywhere in the UK. Between us, we offer a superb range of research facilities and state-of-the-art instrumentation that provide excellent postgraduate training opportunities. We have also run a popular annual industrial training course and three relevant taught MSc courses for many years. Thus the logistical experience of our current administrative staff and existing teaching infrastructure will provide invaluable support in running this new CDT. Moreover, this prior activity underlines our institution's deep commitment to this important interdisciplinary field. Our vision is to engage closely with a wide range of companies, e.g. AkzoNobel, Lubrizol, P & G, Cytec, Synthomer, Scott Bader, GEO, Wellstream, LBFoster, Philips, Ossila, Syngenta, DSM, Ashland, BP and Unilever, in order to provide the next generation of highly skilled PhD scientists with high-level technical skills, intellectual rigour, excellent communication skills, flexibility and business acumen. This is essential if we are to produce the creative problem-solvers that will be required to tackle the many formidable technical and societal challenges now facing mankind. Our ambition is to secure at least £2.0 million from our industrial partners in order to support fifty CASE PhD projects over five years. Six PhD studentships p.a. (i.e. thirty in total) are requested from EPSRC, which will be supplemented by a substantial institutional contribution of three studentships p.a. (i.e. fifteen in total). This institutional commitment is in recognition of the continuing strategic importance of this research area to the University of Sheffield. An additional studentship p.a. (i.e. five in total) will be funded by top-slicing the enhanced CASE contributions from our industrial partners to make up the annual cohort of ten students. EPSRC investment in this CDT is warranted given our substantial institutional portfolio of many active EPSRC grants (including Programme and Platform grants), plus a £2.0 M ERC grant. Our CDT training programme will include the following highly distinctive features: (i) our unrivalled breadth of academic knowledge and experience; (ii) a choice of research projects for our PhD students prior to their enrolment; (iii) an initial two-week training course on the basic principles of polymer science and engineering; (iv) a monthly seminar programme led by industrial scientists to expose our students to a wide range of commercially-relevant topics; (v) a six-month secondment with the industrial partner in the latter part of the research programme, which will provide our students with invaluable experience of the workplace and hence prepare them for their industrial and/or managerial careers; (vi) a 'business enterprise' course led by an external consultant (Jo Haigh) and one of our industrial partners (Synthomer) to develop and encourage entrepreneurial flair in each PhD cohort; (vii) a visit to an overseas academic laboratory to facilitate international collaboration.