Profile

A researcher of epoxidation modification of Eucommia rubber and photo-thermal shape-memory composites.

Story

Du Aihua is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology. Early on she participated in the national 863 Program project on applications of high trans-1,4-polyisoprene (synthetic Eucommia rubber) led by Huang Baochen, and later led a National Natural Science Foundation of China project on the mechanism by which trans-polyisoprene improves the dynamic properties of styrene-butadiene rubber - an important inheritor of applied research on Eucommia rubber/trans-isoprene rubber.

In recent years she led her team to epoxidize Eucommia rubber and build a dynamic beta-hydroxy ester bond crosslinked network, compounded with cuttlefish eumelanin to prepare recyclable bio-based rubber materials combining highly efficient photo-thermal conversion with shape-memory function. The materials achieve shape fixity and recovery ratios both above 96% and enable ice-melting and remotely controlled reconfiguration. Published in Composites Part B and ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, the work opens a new direction of green smart materials for Eucommia rubber.

Milestones

• In 2024, the team's series of achievements on Eucommia rubber-based photo-thermal conversion materials received special coverage on the Qingdao University of Science and Technology website
• Has long taught national-level courses such as Rubber Technology and Rubber and Humanity, training rubber engineering talent

Key Contributions

• Participated in the national 863 Program project 'Applied research on high trans-1,4-polyisoprene' (synthetic Eucommia rubber applications)
• Led the National Natural Science Foundation of China project 'Improvement of the dynamic properties of styrene-butadiene rubber by trans-polyisoprene and its mechanism' (51073085)
• In 2024, her team developed eumelanin/epoxidized Eucommia rubber photo-thermal shape-memory composites with shape fixity and recovery ratios both exceeding 96%, heating to 110 degrees C within 100 seconds under a 0.5 W/cm2 laser; published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
• Published over 50 SCI papers as first or corresponding author; conducted more than 30 industry-funded projects with companies such as Solvay and ARLANXEO (including 9 military projects)
• A renowned teacher of Shandong Province; lectures the national first-class undergraduate course Rubber Technology