Polymer Physics Group

LATEST NEWS

TO THE NEWS PAGE

Recyling solution for multilayer plastic packaging

Hot off the press in the high-impact Elsevier journal, Sustainable Materials and Technologies, the latest article from the MANDALA Project describes a solution for separating multilayer packaging materials using a remotely-triggered radiation absorbing thermoreversible adhesive. More HERE

Image (C): The MANDALA concept

Enzymatic biodegradation of biopolyester coatings & films

Dr. Araceli Flores coauthored an article in the specialist journal Polymer Degradation & Stability on the tunable enzymatic biodegradation of biobased coatings and self-degradable films. More HERE

Manu's French Connection

With support from the CSIC via the iMOVE call, Manuel Prieto returns for a 10-week stay at the laboratory of Dr. Nicolas Brun at the CNRS Institut Charles Gerhard Montpellier (ICGM), to work on the characterization of the internal structure of porous carbons derived from cellulose modified with inorganic nanosheets. More HERE

Long time collaborator retires

Dr. Enrique Morales of the Energy Applications Group in our Department recently retired. From FISPOL we wish him all the best for his new projects, full of sustainable energy!

Horacio is the new Head of Department

After approval by the staff members of the Polymer Physics Group, Elastomers Group and Energy Applications Group, and ratification by the ICTP Director, Dr. Horacio Salavagione has become the new Head of Department and will represent us in the ICTP Board for the next two years.

iLINK kick-off in Braga

At the end of this month, Horacio Salavagione and Marian Gómez-Fatou travelled to the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory in Braga, Portugal for the first meeting of the CSIC iLINK international collaboration project entitled "Sustainable nanocomposites for lightweight energy storage in portable devices". More HERE

Erasmus+ student joins us from Naples

Simone Greco, joins us from the Department of Chemical Science of the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy for a 6-month stay under the supervision of Horacio Salavagione and Gary Ellis. He will work on the preparation and characterization of graphene-based nanocomposites with novel polyethylene block copolymers. More HERE

Young technician joins FISPOL

Paula Pereira has joined our group with a 2-year contract as a lab technician through the Youth Employment Programme of the Madrid Community, supported by the European Social Fund. She will work on the operation and maintainence of lab infrastructure, particularly vibrational spectroscopy techniques. Welcome Paula! More HERE

Cheap sustainable adsorbents for hazardous dyes

Hot off the press in the journal Environmental Research, we report results from sustainable mesoporous carbons as alternative for the adsorption of bulky reactive azo dyes that are difficult to remove from wastewater streams. More HERE

Senior scientist from the Ukraine joins FISPOL

We are very proud to announce that at the end of December 2022, Dr. Vitaliy Budarin joined our research group. Vitaliy has collaborated with us for many years and he will spend the next 2 years with us working on sustainable polymeric materials and their applications. More HERE

Tuning viscoelastic properties of new PUR adhesives

A report on the viscoelastic properties of reversible polyurethane adhesives for sustainable multilayer packaging developed in the MANDALA project has been published in the journal Polymer. More HERE

School students get recycling skills at the library

Dr. Araceli Flores met with a group of young secondary school students at the Gerardo Diego Library within the “Catálogo de Conferencias Científicas del CSIC dirigidas al Sistema Educativo de la CAM” programme. More HERE

Alternative nylon-6 intercalation into clays for enhanced nanocomposites

A recent publication in the journal Polymers in collaboration with researchers at the American University in Cairo describes a new approach for strong nylon 6 / montmorillonite clay nanocomposites. More HERE

SOME OF OUR RESEARCH

(mouse over images)


Polymer nanocomposites	Graphene and other 2D materials



Chemical Functionalization	Mesoporous carbons and their NCs



Blends, multilayer films, fibres and laminates	Advanced characterization techniques

OUR MISSION

The main activity of the group is fundamental and applied research in polymeric materials in the areas of polymer blends, composites, hybrid and nanocomposite materials incorporating graphene and other 2D materials to produce multifuncional materials with improved performance for applications in diverse areas.

Our more recent goals are focused on actions to tackle fundamental societal needs using sustainable materials and strategies. These include the conversion of food waste into value-added materials, the replacement conventional solvents with bio-sourced solvents in materials synthesis and processing, the push towards biopolymers as substituents of crude-oil derived polymers, and the development of new recycling scenarios to bring multilayer packaging and other multimaterials into a circular economy.

LINKS

DESTACAMOS...

Articles One of the group's most highly cited manuscripts, a feature article with over 260 citations, was published in Macromolcular Rapid Communications, and decribed advances in the covalent modification of graphene with polymers. Link here
Books The book chapter "Graphene-Based Polymer Nanocomposites" has been downloaded more than 19,570 times. More here
Reviews According to SCOPUS, our revision article "High-performance nano-composites based on polyetherketones" has more than 195 citations. More HERE.