Polymer reaction engineering studies the design

operation

and optimization of reactors for industrial scale polymerization

based on the theory of polymerization kinetics and transfer processes (

e.g.

flow

heat and mass transfer). Although the foundation and development of this discipline are less than 80 years

the global production of polymers has exceeded 400 million tons per annum. It demonstrates that polymer reaction engineering is of vital importance to the polymer industry. Along with the maturity of production processes and market saturation for bulk polymers

emerging industries such as information technology

modern transportation

biomedicine

and new energy have continued to develop. As a result

the research objective for polymer reaction engineering has gradually shifted from maximizing the efficiency of the polymerization process to the precise regulation of high-end product-oriented macromolecules and their aggregation structures

i.e

.

from polymer process engineering to polymer product engineering. In this review

the frontiers of polymer reaction engineering are introduced

including the precise regulation of polymer chain structure

the control of primary aggregation structure

and the rational design of polymer prod

ucts. We narrow down the topic to the polymerization reaction engineering of vinyl monomers. Moreover

the future prospects are provided for the field of polymer reaction engineering.