Day 2 :
Keynote Forum
Rina Singh
Biotechnology Innovation Organization(BIO), USA
Keynote: Political landscape for bioplastics and biobased materials
Time : 09:10-09:50
Biography:
Rina Singh is director of policy in the industrial biotechnology and environmental section of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). She previously served as the business development manager at Ashland Inc. She was appointed by the president and CEO as a member of an innovative 10-member team assembled to develop a new strategic direction for Ashland, identifying investment opportunities for $1.5 billion resulting from the divestiture of petroleum refining operations. She held general management positions in the technology and business development areas of Ashland, including bioproducts business development manager and platform technology manager. She started her career at The Dow Chemical Co as a senior research chemist in the Engineering Thermoplastics Group. The holder of 24 patents and publications, Singh received a BS, a doctorate in natural products (synthetic organic chemistry) and a post-doctoral degree in polymer science from McGill University.
Abstract:
There continues to be an increased interest in synthesizing renewable chemicals from renewable resources, even with the downturn in the economy, which has slowed down the time it takes to reach commercial reality, but there still continues to be partnerships and business deals in the making. As a result of the early commercialization of renewable chemicals such as 1,2-propylene glycol, 1,3-propanediol, bioethanol, polylactic acid (PLA), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), and more recently, polyethylene terephthalic acid (PET), this has encouraged interest nationally and internationally to further build on these early successes. Investments through partnerships are occurring globally involving a multitude of startup companies and amongst mature chemical companies engaged in building their product portfolios. There is interest in complementing existing product pipelines from incumbent technologies with renewably derived products from renewable sources, providing options for consumers to select sustainable products. Now there are both federal and state policies encouraging the growth in this sector, which once, were only in discussion stages. The presentation will focus on the policies impacting the growth of the sector and will provide the commercial status of building blocks for bioplastics and biobased materials.
- Biopolymer and Polymer Application | Polymer Chemistry | Biodegradable Polymers
Chair
Ari Rosling
Arctic Biomaterials LTD, Finland
Session Introduction
Ebru Gunister
Khalifa University of Science and Technology, UAE
Title: The effect of graphene oxide (GO) filler on the mechanical properties of polyethylene
Time : 10:00-10:30
Biography:
Ebru Gunister has completed her PhD from Istanbul Technical University. She is an Assistant Profesor in The Petroleum Institute as a part of Khalifa University of Science and Technology. She has over 15 years of research experience in the areas of materials science; clay modifications, rheological and electrokinetic behavior of clay and modified clay dispersions, polymer/clay composites, and biocomposites. She worked as Principal Investigator in Polymer/Clay Nanocomposite project and currently she has been working in Polymer/Graphene Composites projects as co-investigator. She has published more than 18 papers in reputed journals and book chapters.
Abstract:
Polyethylene (PE) is one of the commodity plastic used in various industry due to its good processibility, varies physical properties based on its linear or branched structure. In the past thirty years, there is a high interest to develop physical properties of polymers using low cost but effective additives. Graphite, graphene, graphene oxide (GO), carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers are some of the carbon-based fillers used to form polymer matrix composites. In this research, PE/GO composites with GO loading ranging from 0 wt.% to 2 wt.% are prepared by using a melt compounding method. The samples for characterizing and mechanical testing are shaped by injection molding machine. The mechanical properties of PE composites are investigated by tensile and fatigue test and hardness tests. The morphology and thermal characterization of PE/GO composites are determined by using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). Based on the mechanical test results; the tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and Shore D hardness value were increased by 27.4%, 31.3%, and 9%, respectively, with a GO loading. The number of cycles to failure in fatigue test for 2 wt.% GO addition to PE sample is increased up to 100 times more than pure PE. The morphological analysis via XRD and TEM indicated that GO nanolayers were well exfoliated in the PE matrix. Based on DSC analysis results, GO addition to PE has negligible effect on thermal transitions of the PE matrix.
Ari Rosling
Arctic Biomaterials LTD, Finland
Title: New era of biodegradable polymers and biocomposites
Biography:
Ari Rosling completed his PhD at the age of 35 years from Abo Akademi University (organic chemistry) after which he was appointed assistant professor at Department of Polymer Technology, responsible for the development of biomaterial research. At present he acts as Senior Research Fellow at Arctic Biomaterials, being in charge of the R&D activities at the technical site. He has published more than 42 papers and patents in reputed journals and led numerous joint research projects with industrial partners.
Abstract:
In the recent years, bio-based and biodegradable products have raised great interest because sustainable development policies tend to expand with the growing concern for the environment and the use of non-renewable resources. Arctic Biomaterials LTD (ABM) is a company producing bio-based and/or biodegradable compound and composite solutions for demanding technical and medical applications. Our in-depth and specific biopolymer knowledge is offered to our customers to develop biomaterials to meet their needs. The bioerodible glass fiber reinforced materials produced with ABM’s own technology, enables fulfilling customer needs in high demanding technical and medical applications, offer a sustainable alternative to several oil-based technical plastics. The composite materials are produced on our long-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (LFT) line. This proprietary bioerodible long glass fiber compounding technology increases the ABM composite materials heat resistance and mechanical properties to new levels and opens a variety of possible application areas in fields where durable technical plastics are being used. Along with the sustainable aspects, processability and physicomechanical properties ABM also produces the aforementioned materials with additional specific high-value functionalities, e.g. antistatic, flame resistance, antimicrobial and colored products.
Biography:
Rakkiyappan Chandran has completed his PhD at the age of 28 from Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (JSNN) at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Prior to his PhD, he did his joint Master’s Degree project from Harvard Medical School at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and further went on being a research assistant at MIT for a year. He then Joined Triad Polymers, as a Research and Development Scientist and is also a joint consortium member of JSNN. He has published more than 20 papers in reputed international scientific and peer-reviewed journals, with a book and 3 chapters on polymeric biomaterial and tissue engineering.
Abstract:
Composite surface topographies control and determine the properties of insect cuticles. In some cases, these nanostructured materials are a direct extension of chitin-based cuticles. The cellular mechanisms that generate these structures are unknown and involve complex cellular and biochemical “bottom-up” processes. A synthetic “top-down” fabrication nanosphere lithography techniques can generate surfaces of chitin or chitosan that mimic the surface of the native nanostructure of certain insect wings and eyes. Biopolymer chitin and chitosan are flexible, biocompatible and abundant in nature. The fabrication of nanostructured chitin and chitosan materials could enable the development of new properties in biopolymeric materials. Also, the ability to generate a self-masking thin film and leads to synthesis and formation of metallic nanoparticles enables a novel and powerful new tool for generating structured composite biomaterials. These crystalline metallic nanoparticles then served as seeds for the solid-state formation of nanowires within a drop-cast thin film by providing a flexible biopolymeric/metallic nanocomposite material. This information provides insight into the mechanisms that are essential for in vitro nanoscale manipulation of polymer in hydrogels and other synthetic biomaterials. The biomimetic nanostructured surfaces (NSS) formed through biopolymer scaffolds have potential applications for various defense and biomedical technologies.
Michael Lubwama
Makerere University Kampala, Uganda
Title: Mechanical and thermal properties of Bio-composite polymers reinforced with rice and coffee husks
Biography:
Michael Lubwama completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2013 from Dublin City University, Ireland. He is a lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Makerere University. He is also the Deputy Center Leader of the Africa Center of Excellence in Materials, Product Development, and Nanotechnology.
Abstract:
In this study, rice and coffee husks were incorporated with Polypropylene to form bio-composite polymers. Injection moulding technique was employed in their production process. Filler material loading varied between 0-20% and 0-10% for rice husks and coffee husks respectively. Biochemical analysis was carried out to understand the effect of the cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin in the filler material on the properties of developed bio-composite polymers. Thermal properties were determined using differential scanning calorimetry, chemical properties were determined using a burning test and mechanical properties were determined using a universal testing machine. Overall, the husks had high cellulose contents but low lignin and hemicellulose contents. For coffee husks and rice husks incorporated bio-composite polymers respectively, Young's modulus was between 1780MPa-1967MPa and 1786MPa-2248MPa, tensile strength varied between 28MPa-36MPa and 31MPa-36MPa, elongation at break ranging between 2%-11% and 5%-12%, notched impact strength varied between 1.2 kJ/m2-4 kJ/m2 and 2.2 kJ/m2–3.5 kJ/m2. Filler content had no effect on the transition temperatures. Increasing filler contents led to decreasing crystallization and melting enthalpies i.e. increase in filler content reduced the percentage of the melt-able matrix. Generally, higher filler content led to higher Young's modulus, lower tensile strength, and elongation at break, lower crystallization, and melting enthalpies. No significant correlation was observed between the filler content and the impact strength. High cellulose contents explain why the mechanical properties stayed at acceptable values. Low lignin and hemicellulose contents correspond to improved adhesion between the polymer and matrix materials owing to more exposure of the hydroxyl groups.
Alok Gupta
Malaviya National Institute of Technology, India
Title: Synthesis and characterization of emulsion polymerized polyaniline doped with DBSA
Biography:
Alok Gupta has completed his PhD in the year 1988 from Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur on the topic Modelling of Hydrolytic Polymerization of Caprolactam and Transport Processes in Nylon-6 Reactors. He is currently designated as Professor in Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. He has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and has been a reviewer of three journals namely African journal of pure and applied chemistry, Indian Chemical Engineer Journal, Indian Journal of Chemical Technology. He is also being the lifetime member of “ American Institute of Chemical Engineers” and “ Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers”.
Abstract:
In this abstract polyaniline (PANI) has been made through polymerization of aniline using emulsion polymerization technique. The polymerization is carried out in an emulsion comprising water and a non-polar or weakly polar organic solvent (Xylene) in the presence of the functionalized protonic acid dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA). It is found that using the emulsion polymerization technique, conducting PANI-DBSA complexes can be produced that exhibit high molecular weight, good conductivity and high solubility in organic solvents in the electrically conducting state. Electrically conducting polyaniline PANI-DBSA prepared by an inverted emulsion polymerization in which DBSA played both roles of surfactant and dopant. Fourier transform infrared FTIR. spectroscopy for the PANI-DBSA showed the existence of hydrogen bonding between PANI and DBSA which indicates the existence of PANI. UVV is spectra was performed to check the doping level of DBSA. The electrical conductivity measurement, TGA test, and measurement of viscosity were also studied in the paper.
Shahab Kashani Rahimi
University of Southern Mississippi, USA
Title: Graphene/hydroxyl ethyl cellulose aerogels for deformation sensing
Biography:
Shahab Kashani Rahimi is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Joshua Otaigbe research group at the school of polymers and high-performance materials of the University of Southern Mississippi. He completed his PhD thesis under Prof. Otaigbe’s supervision on developing a new technology to fabricate cellulose reinforced engineering thermoplastic composites using in situ ring-opening polymerization of cyclic monomers. He is currently working on graphene and nanofibrillated cellulose aerogels for deformation sensing and tissue engineering applications.
Abstract:
Graphene, a one-atom-thick 2-dimensional carbon nanomaterial has received considerable attention from researchers in various disciplines due to its exceptional thermal, mechanical and electrical properties owing to its unique long-ranged π conjugated structure. Due to its unique structure and properties, it has found numerous applications ranging from polymer composites, electronics, and biomedical devices to energy storage and sensors. One of the interesting applications of graphene is in flexible superelastic deformation/strain sensors. For this purpose, flexible porous graphene-based superstructures are good candidates due to their elasticity, high surface area, electrical conductivity, and low density. However, due to severe aggregation of graphene platelets, these graphene aerogels (GAs) tend to be brittle with irrecoverable deformation and properties. In order to address this issue, a number of different polymers such as polyacrylic acid and sodium alginate have been used as a component in conjunction with graphene. However, a systematic study focused on the analysis of the aerogel component variables and its subsequent effects on final structure and properties is still needed in order to get a better understanding of the processing-structure-property relationships of such aerogels. This study reports on the preparation of a series of graphene aerogels in combination with hydroxyl ethyl cellulose (HEC) building block. The effects of the molecular weight of the HEC and crosslinking of the HEC phase with glutaraldehyde and aerogel composition on the structure and properties of the final aerogels are presented. It was found that the use of low molecular weight HEC (92kDa) at the appropriate concertation can develop honey-comb porous structure with superior mechanical properties, high porosity, rapid deformation response, as well as, significantly lower deformation hysteresis.
Jorma Antero Virtanen
Tesla NanoCoatings, Inc., USA
Title: Electromagnetic properties of carbon nanotube-cellulose, or hemicellulose nanocomposites
Biography:
Jorma Virtanen has masters in Organic Chemistry, and Mathematics at University of Helsinki, and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at University of Helsinki. He has been visiting scientist at Arizona State University, and University of California in Irvine. He has about 80 papers in peer reviewed journals. He is the inventor of CNT-epoxy that was named “The Best Nanoproduct in the World” in year 2006 in Tokyo. He and the group also got Frost&Sullivan Nanotechnoogy Award 2009.
Abstract:
Cellulose and hemicellulose form a nanocomposite with doublewall (DWNT) and multiwall (MWNT) carbon nanotubes. Water dispersions of these nanocomposites are uniform and stable. Films of DWNTs-hemicellulose are electrically highly conducting, corresponding to a bulk conductivity of 2000 Scm-1. Transparent (T%>90 %) films can have the surface resistance below 100 W/â˜. Corresponding MWNT films have about 10-fold resistance. Conductivity is almost constant between 30 and 400 K. Kelvin probe force microscopy, and terahertz conductivity were used to study inter-tube charge transport. These films have good EMI shielding properties. Transparent DWNT-hemicellulose films may have 30 dB EMI attenuation in 0.1 – 10 GHz range. MWNT-hemicellulose films may be used as anti-radar stealth coatings. Also the use of these materials in supercapacitors, and 3D printing will be discussed. Overall these materials that are completely recyclable can replace many rare metals in numerous applications often with equal or better performance.
Shahab Kashani Rahimi
University of Southern Mississippi, USA
Title: The Structure, property and biocompatibility of poly (butylene adipate-coterephthalate) / cellulose whiskers nanocomposites prepared by reactive extrusion
Biography:
Shahab Kashani Rahimi is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Joshua Otaigbe research group at the school of polymers and high-performance materials of the University of Southern Mississippi. He completed his PhD thesis under Prof. Otaigbe’s supervision on developing a new technology to fabricate cellulose reinforced engineering thermoplastic composites using in situ ring-opening polymerization of cyclic monomers. He is currently working on graphene and nanofibrillated cellulose aerogels for deformation sensing and tissue engineering applications.
Abstract:
Cellulose whiskers (also known as cellulose nanocrystals) are unique rod-like nanomaterials derived from cellulose fibers which are the most abundant natural polymer. They have been the subject of extensive research efforts in the past decade due to their exceptional properties such as very high stiffness with an elastic modulus of a single crystal in the range of 100-150GPa, lower density compared to carbon or silica-based nanomaterials, bio-renewability and unique rheological and optical properties. Being a bio-based material; they have received significant attention for their potential use in tissue engineering and biomedical applications in conjunction with biocompatible polymers. However one of the challenges in the application of cellulose whiskers in polymer composites and nanocomposite is the difficulty of effectively dispersing these materials in polymer matrices especially non-water soluble polymers. This study reports on the development of a fully biocompatible poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/CNC nanocomposite prepared via reactive extrusion and investigation of the structure-property relationship in these systems. PBAT was first modified with maleic anhydride groups using an in situ melt extrusion process in order to promote the interfacial reaction with the surface hydroxyl groups of the CNCs. The nanocomposites are then prepared with up to 9% CNC in the following melt extrusion step. Analysis of the mechanical and thermal properties of these nanocomposites showed significant improvement in tensile strength, modulus and glass transition of the matrix. The 3D nanostructure of the CNC within the PBAT was studied by shear rheological techniques and the framework of scaling theory of fractal elastic gels. In vitro biocompatibility using Thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and cell adhesion studies with L929 fibroblast cells revealed no cytotoxic effect of CNCs while providing evidence for enhanced cell adhesion with the presence of cellulose nanocrystals in PBAT matrix.