1. Enviornment-friendly Flame Retarding Polymer Nanocomposites. Low toxicity and low smoke halogen-free flame retardants have attracted much attention. The intumescent flame retardant (IFR) is prove to be an environmental friendly flame retardant. Developing thermally stable and trifunctional (source of acid, carbon and sparkle) IFR systems is the trend of IFR. The creative idea of our research are: (1) Setup the mechanism of novel synergistic IFR containing nano-magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)₂). (2) Preparation of trifunctional IFR, such as melamine phosphate borate (MPB), glycerol diphosphonate of melamine (GDM), pentaerythritol diphosphate of diethylamine (PDD), melarnine salt of starch phosphate (SPM), macromolecular IFR modified intercalation HTLcs, and so on. These IFRs exhibit excellent flame retading performance and good compatibility with polymer. (3) IFR containing modified solid waste are applied to the polymers (such as PVC, epoxy resin and rubber). Realize the commercialization of these products.

2. Environmental Functional Nanocomposites. Disinfection by-products (DBPs) are formed in the chlorine disinfection process by humic acid. Photocatalytic oxidation is prove to be a effective method for water treatment. The modification of catalysts and their supports can improve the photocatalytic performance of catalyst. The creative idea of our research are: (1) Removal of humic acid (HA) in water by adsorption and photocatalytic oxidation methods. Realize the controlling of the elemental composition and crystal form of TiO₂/Si (Fe, I, Cu₂O,SeO₃, Zn, Ag) nanocomposites. These nanocomposites exhibit wide light adsorption and strong photoelectric effect. (2) Set up the adsorption (using hydrotalcite-like compounds, HTLcs)- photocatalysis (using TiO₂ nanocomposites)-UV/O₃ oxidation combination technique for removal of HA and benzene series. The HTLcs are prepared using solid waste as raw material, which comes from flue gas desulfurization by magnesium oxide (MgO). Realize the commercialization of this research findings. (3) Novel starch-based flocculant-inorganic flocculant composites exhibit high performance and potential application in the field of waste water treatment.

3. Photoelectric Polymer Nanocomposites. Conductive polymers and inorganic nanoparticles exhibit colour tenability and high quantum efficiency, respectively. The more recent approaches of developing organic-inorganic nanocomposites (NCs) optoelectronic devices combine the advantages of both polymer and inorganic semiconductors. These devices have the potential for light emitting diodes, photovoltaics and non-linear optics (NLO). Poly(3-alkylthiophenes) (P3ATs) and Poly(3-alkoxythiophenes) (P3AOTs) are of the most promising conducting polymers because of their interesting electronic and optical properties, also because of their processability and chemical stability. The creative idea of our research are: (1) Control of the content, size and crystal form of CdS (ZnS) in the P3ATs-CdS (ZnS) nanocomposites. The magnetic nano particles and magnetic field also were introduced to control the spatial structure of polymer nanocomposites. (2) Set up the charge-transfer mechanism for P3ATs-CdS (ZnS), which is determined by the valence band offset and conduction band offset of nanocomposites. (3) Synthesis of some novel thiophene-based alternating donor–acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymers, realize the efficiency conjugated sequence length (ECSL), solubility, processability, bandgap, NLO performance and thermostability of P3AOT can be adjusted by their sidechains. (4) Amphipathic polymer nanocomposites have been synthesized by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Realize the controlling of semiconductor content and size, photoluminescence (PL) and third-order NLO of the nanocomposites by the RAFT polymerization.