SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

Teacher: Giovanni Perotto
Approaches to design polymeric materials with improved sustainability: substitution of raw materials with renewable components and strategies to improve their end-of-life: recyclability, biodegradation, composting. End of life of polymeric material and their recyclability. 
Fabrication methods: Different fabrication methods, for both lab and industrial scale production, such as spray coating, dip coating, injection molding, extrusion etc will be discussed. 
Sustainable packaging: we will discuss the development of sustainable materials and the physical properties they must possess for efficient food packaging and smart packaging (wetting properties, oxygen/water vapour permeability etc). 
Naturally-derived polymers: chemical structures and physico-chemical properties of natural polysaccharides and protein-based materials will be presented, together with their supply and extraction processes. Basic concept of polymeric chain conformation and secondary structures will be reviewed, as closely related to the processing and usage of naturally-derived materials.  A panoramic of the applications of natural polymers in various fields (such as medical, pharmaceutical, tissue engineering, biosensors, cosmetics) will be given.
Final Exam: Power Point presentation on a topic covered during the course or related to it