Since 1 January 2011, the Centre for Polymer and Carbon Materials of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Zabrze has been an Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The Centre was established on 1 January 2007 as a result of the merger of the Centre for Polymer Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Zabrze and the Department of Carbon Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice – two institutions of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which for years had been conducting systematic work on the production and properties of macromolecular materials – polymer and carbon.

The initial period of the history of both institutions is common and dates back to 1954, when the first institution of the Polish Academy of Sciences with a chemical profile in the then Katowice province was established in Gliwice. It was the Petrochemistry Laboratory of the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, headed by Professor Włodzimierz Kisielow, specializing in crude oil technology. The rapid development of science, as well as the growing interest in macromolecular compounds, resulted in the fact that on 29.10.1968, by resolution of the Polish Academy of Sciences, this institution was transformed into a new unit called the Department of Carbon Chemistry and Polymers operating within the Scientific Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Katowice province. In 1971, thanks to the efforts of Professor Zbigniew Jedliński, two research and development departments were established: the Department of Petro- and Carbon Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice and the Department of Polymers of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Zabrze, which until 1974 operated within the Scientific Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and then as independent units of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1988, the name of the Department of Petro- and Carbon Chemistry was changed to the Department of Carbon Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, while the Department of Polymers of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Zabrze was renamed in 1992 to the Centre of Polymer Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In the early 1990s, there was a gradual reorientation of the research topics of the Carbon Chemistry Department, in which increasing attention was paid to the study of carbon materials, while at the same time developing studies on new polymer materials with controlled structure and catalysts, which were to serve to reduce the emission of pollutants harmful to the environment, generated in the processes of energy use of fossil fuels. The subject of materials research dominated the research conducted in the Department until its merger with the Polymer Chemistry Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Throughout the existence of the Polymer Department, and then the Polymer Chemistry Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the scientific work conducted there was both in the nature of basic research covering the synthesis of new polymers and studies of the relationship between chemical structure and their chemical and physical properties, as well as application research related to the development of technology for the production of new polymers. In the early 1990s, the work was focused on the study of biodegradable polymers for applications in medicine, the packaging industry and in environmental protection, and bioresorbable polymers for medical purposes, mainly drug carriers. In 1998, the Solid State Physics Department of the Polish Academy of Sciences was incorporated into the structure of the Polymer Chemistry Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a facility operating in Zabrze since 1968 and dealing with the technology of obtaining crystals of semiconductor compounds and photovoltaic cells, the technology of deposition of thin layers of crystalline and amorphous semiconductors and research on their structure, electrical, magnetic and optical properties. The inclusion of the Solid State Physics Department of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Centre allowed for the expansion of the scope of research to new polymers with potential applications in electronics and optoelectronics.

The growing importance of interdisciplinary research, which uses the achievements of individual scientific disciplines and creates new fields of science and technology, has led to the fact that facilities that in the past separated from one research institution to focus on the development of a specific field of science, merged in 2007 into the Polymer and Carbon Materials Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in order to conduct interdisciplinary research, combining, among others, elements of chemistry, physics, biology and medicine. These works are consistent with the research priorities of the European Union in the fields that form the foundations of the knowledge-based economy. They include research on the synthesis of new polymer materials with controlled structure and their application: for the construction of nano- and microdevices, in the processes of selective transport and controlled release of biologically active substances, for the construction of materials for optoelectronics and molecular electronics, as well as research on the technology of applying thin layers and the synthesis of monolithic, porous carbon materials as precursors of ecological materials, catalyst carriers and catalysts themselves, and obtaining polymer materials from renewable raw materials and biodegradable materials.