Biqiong Chen is a Professor of Polymer Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. Her current research interests mainly focusses on (1) smart sustainable polymers and (2) multifunctional polymer nanocomposites. For the former, her research aims to create novel biobased polymers with targeted properties and/or with self-healing or stimuli-responsive behaviour for healthcare, energy, packaging, coating, textiles and other applications. For the latter, her research aims are to develop advanced polymer nanocomposites with controllable morphologies and attractive functionality for applications such as transport, energy storage, sensing, actuation, wearable medical devices, tissue engineering and drug delivery, whilst also gaining a sound scientific understanding of their formation mechanisms and process-structure-property relationships.   

To achieve these aims, Biqiong's research takes a holistic approach, encompassing the design, synthesis, functionalisation, processing, characterisation and application of polymers, nanoparticles (e.g., clay, cellulose, graphene, gold) and polymer nanocomposites (e.g., bulk materials, foams/scaffolds, hydrogels, fibres, particles). Her current research activities include:

• Sustainable Manufacturing of Self-healing Circular Economy Polymer Products
• Biomimetic Polymers and Nanocomposites for Soft Tissue Engineering
• Biobased Elastomers and Nanocomposites for Stretchable Electronics
• Multifunctional Polymer Nanocomposites for Energy Storage
• Stimuli-responsive Polymers and Nanocomposites for Transportation Vehicles
• Novel Sustainable Polymers for Packaging and Medical Devices