Multiphase Bioplastics as a Route to Sustainable Next-Generation Materials

The Department of Bioresource Engineering invites you to a special seminar by Professor Basil D. Favis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal. Professor Favis is currently on sabbatical leave and serves as a Visiting Professor in the Department.

Although the use of biopolymers in the plastics industry has seen dramatic growth in the last decade, there is an important need to develop next generation of high value-added applications for these materials. The goal of this work is to develop high performance biopolymer blend materials based on renewable resources with entirely novel phase structures at the nano- and micro-scale. The sophisticated morphological manipulation of these microstructures can result in fully biobased materials possessing ultra-high mechanical properties.  The materials also have important potential in a variety of applications such as: scaffolds for tissue engineering, drug delivery and conductive applications. In addition, a novel approach to recycling mixed plastic waste through multi-phase morphology control will also be presented.