Symposium B 452.89 Kb

The symposium “Renewable polymers as multifunctional materials: properties, processing, applications” focuses on materials produced from renewable resources (natural polymers or biobased plastics) with special attention to their applications, stemming from their intrinsic multifunctional nature and the challenges related to their processing, modification, characterization.

Scope:

Natural macromolecules carry a higher grade of complexity than manufactured ones. This is the result of nature’s long evolution in terms of material and molecular design, which is of key importance for several applications. Natural materials have several positive properties as compared to synthetic materials that make them ideal candidates for food, textile, cosmetics and biomedical applications.  

Biodegradable polymers from renewable resources are designed to degrade after use by the action of living organisms. Biodegradable polymers have been demonstrated to be capable of being processed by most conventional plastics processing techniques. As a result, a myriad of smart products is potentially available as materials for packaging, in the medical field or for energy applications.

In recent years, important research efforts have been recently devoted to the modification of polymers for example using signaling proteins or peptides to prepare bioactive materials for tissue engineering applications. Reactive moieties can be generated by chemical or physical treatment, co-polymerization, blending or adsorption.

The scope of the symposium is to bring together the expertise of leading scientists inside and outside Europe, from academia and industry, to discuss the most promising scientific approaches in developing bulk or surface engineered materials generated by the use of renewable resources in high added value end-uses such as technical, biomedical, textile, and sensor applications. Materials preparation, bulk or surface modification or functionalization at the meso or nanoscale realised by the use of biocatalytic methods in addition to advanced or nature-inspired physico-chemical tools (plasma treatment, molecular imprinting, template polymerization.) will be presented. Using of advanced analytical techniques to characterize either different processing steps during materials engineering or their final properties, will be discussed.

Hot topics to be covered by the symposium:

1. Biodegradable polymers from biomass
2. Bio-based composites
3. Biocatalytic functionalization
4. Advanced production, processing, characterization techniques
5. Bioinspired multifunctional renewable polymers
6. Biomedical polymers for drug delivery, temporary implants and tissue engineering
7. Fibers from renewable polymers
8. Bio-based packaging and coatings

Tentative list of invited speakers:

• Catia Bastioli, Novamont SPA, Novara (Italy)
• Stefano Cavallo, NatureWorks LLC (Italy)
• Philippe Dubois, Université de Mons (Belgium)
• Ian W. Hamley, University of Reading, (UK)
• Janez Štrancar, JoŽef Štefan Institute, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
• Gleb Sukhorukov, Queen Mary University, London (UK)
• Martin Koller, TU Graz (Austria)
• Richard A. Gross, Polytechnic Institute of NYU (USA)
• Syed Imam, Bioproduct Chemistry and Engineering Research Department of Agriculture (USA)
• Andreas Greiner, Philipps-Universität Marburg (Germany)
• Andrzej Galeski, Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)

List of scientific committee members:

1. Jürgen Andreaus, Universidade Regional de Blumenau (Brazil), Chemistry Department
2. Simona Bronco, CNR-Pisa (Italy), IPCF
3. Johanna Buchert, VTT Biotechnology (Finland)
4. Gisela Buschle-Diller, Auburn University (USA) Department of Polymer and Fiber Engineering
5. Artur Cavaco-Paulo, University of Minho (Portugal) Textile Engineering Department
6. Federica Chiellini, Università di Pisa (Italy) Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry
7. Giuliano Freddi , Stazione Sperimentale per la Seta (Italy)
8. Aaron Gedanken, Bar-Ilan University (Israel) Department of Chemistry
9. Ian Hardin University of Georgia (USA) Textile science
10. Vanja Kokol, University of Maribor (Slovenia) Institute for Engineering Materials and Design
11. Joao Mano, University of Minho (Portugal) 3B's Research Group
12. Vincent Nierstrasz, University of Boras (Sweden), Swedish School of Textiles
13. Ipsita Roy, University of Westminster (UK), Department of Molecular and Applied Biology
14. Ramune Rutkaite, Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) Department of Organic Technology
15. Stanislaw Slomkowski Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies (Poland), Department of Engineering of Polymeric Materials
16. Tzanko Tzanov, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain), Department of Chemical Engineering
17. Manfred Zinn, University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, Biotechnology (Switzerland)

Symposium organizers:

Gianluca Ciardelli
Politecnico di Torino
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24
10129 Torino
Italy
Phone: +39 011 0906919
Fax: +39 011 0906999
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Wolfgang Zimmermann
University of Leipzig
Dept. of Microbiology and Bioprocess Technology
Johannisallee 23
04103 Leipzig
Germany
Phone: +493419736781
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Georg Guebitz
TU Graz 6530
Institut für Umweltbiotechnologie
Petersgasse 12/I
8010 Graz
Austria
Phone: +43(0)316 873 8312
Fax: +43(0)316 873 8815
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