Akon Higuchi , National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Department of Reproduction, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, 2-10-1 Okura, Setagaya, Tokyo, JP, 157-8535 | Benny Freeman | Young Moo Lee | Anita Hill

Advanced polymer materials and their molecular design are necessary for energy saving technology and biomedical applications for several reasons: (1) As energy costs increase, membrane technology for separation gases is playing an increasingly important role in reducing the environmental impact and cost of industrial processes. Polymeric material design and characterization of membranes for gas and vapor separations are discussed in this session. (2) Fuel cells are electrochemical energy conversion devices that are environmentally-friendly and use ion conductive polymer membranes as a core technology. Polymeric material design, synthesis and characterization for ion conductive fuel cell membranes will be discussed by combining topics in polymer chemistry, electrochemistry, and membrane science. (3) Polymeric membranes used for biomedical and bioengineering have become popular in recent years. Polymer materials, their design and characterization of membranes used for stem cell separation, drug production, blood purification and other biomedical and bioengineering application are discussed in this session.