Expert Talk on “Biobased, recyclable and/or degradable polymers for environmental, biomedical and packaging applications” by Professor Minna Hakkarainen, Polymer Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm Sweden

20 Oct 2021

An Expert Talk on “Biobased, recyclable and/or degradable polymers for environmental, biomedical and packaging applications” was organized by the Department of Chemistry, Manav Rachna University on 20th Oct, 2021. Professor Minna Hakkarainen, Polymer Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm Sweden delivered the talk which was attended by students of M.Sc., Ph. D Scholars and faculty members from the various universities.

Dr. Arpit Sand Associate Professor Chemistry welcomed the guest and the audience and introduced the guest speaker and talked about the degradable polymers for environmental, biomedical and packaging applications. More than 50 participants joined the session.

Minna Hakkarainen is professor in Polymer Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. She got her M.Sc. in Polymer Chemistry from University of Helsinki in 1992 and Ph.D. in Polymer Technology from KTH in 1996. Since 2011 she is full professor and since 2012 the head of the Division of Polymer Technology at KTH. Her research interest is sustainable polymers including biobased, degradable and/or recyclable polymers for packaging biomedical and environmental applications. She has expertise in degradation of polymers and the interaction of polymers with different environments as well as chromatographic and mass spectrometric analysis of polymer degradation and degradation products. Recent years her main research focus was valorization of polymer waste and biomass to functional chemicals and carbon materials, and further utilization of these products for design of new materials and products. She has participated in or led several national, bilateral and EU-funded projects. She published ~200 papers in international journals and has >7200 citations, h-index 47 and i10-index 143 (google scholar). She is in the Editorial Advisory Board of several journals (e.g. Biomacromolecules, Polymer Testing, SN Applied Sciences, Advances in Polymer Technology).

She initiated her talk by Development of sustainable materials from commodity products to advanced materials required for e.g. healthcare is a challenge facing our world today. This challenge includes not only production of new materials from biobased resources but also turning our waste products into new useful materials as well as making sure the materials developed have no negative impact on us or on our environment during their service life or after disposal. These challenges are the core of my research interests, which include: Recycling of polymers and biomass to value added products, including green chemicals, carbon nanospheres and graphene oxide, and further utilization of these products to design new functional materials, development, characterization and testing of degradable polymers, renewable materials, nano/biocomposites, biomedical materials and environmentally friendly plasticizers The lecture was very informative and beneficial to the students as well as faculty. The session ended with a note of thanks by Dr. S.K. Shukla Head Chemistry Department. Few Photographs of the session are enclosed.