At the invitation of AISMST, Prof. Yongfeng Men from Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry visited us and gave a talk titled “Microscopic mechanism of the mechanical behavior of crystalline polymers” on the afternoon of 26th. Nov.

Prof. Yongfeng Men has focused on the study of structure-property relationship of semi-crystalline polymers. He has done extensive excellent work on the polymer crystallization, mechanical relaxation of semi-crystalline polymers, and the structural deformation mechanism using X-ray and neutron scattering techniques. As introduced by Prof. Men, most polymer materials are semi-crystalline and oten used in the presence of external force as structural materials. Thus, understanding the mechanical deformation mechanism of semi-crystalline polymers is essential for the safe services of polymer products.

During the talk, Prof. Men provided several examples about the research of his group about understanding the structural evolution of semi-crystalline polymers during tensile deformation, and proposed a structural model on basis of the experimental results. As was pointed out by Prof. Men, most semi-crystalline polymer materials can be considered as an interpenetrating network composed of crystalline (hard skeleton) and entangled amorphous network. This model can well explain the microscopic mechanism of the structural evolution of polymers during tensile deformation, including the critical deformation behavior, plastic flow, cavitation and so on. In the meantime, he also explained the structural evolution pathway and the microscopic origin of the yielding, fibrillation and stress whitening.

Prof. Men once worked as Physicist in BASF, and joined Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry in 2005. His academic researches also have strong connection with the industry. He also shared a lot of his personal thoughts on academic and industry with the students and faculties, providing new insights for the application of fundamental researches in industry.