Polymer Synthesis and Processing in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

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The work in our group is centered in the development of new polimeric materials with higher performance for a defined application and regarding product safety and special effort on the development of more environmentally benign technology. In the field of composites, it is crucial to achieve perfect mixing and the surface design migth be a key factor, supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) technology has an important role to improve the processing techniques.

Polymer synthesis and processing undergoing works envisage:

1. Substitution of organic solvents by replacing with supercritical fluids.

2. The development of innovative synthetic strategies and new chemical reactions, particulary in scCO₂.

3. Use of novel building blocks for synthesis, such as CO₂ (also CO₂ capture).

4. The development of polymer nanostructure used as nanoreactors.

5. Combinations of naturally occuring polymers and biomaterials, as well as synthetic polymers and biomaterials, which display a rich variety of complex structural and dynamic behaviour. Other examples are the design of new multicomponent materials and network polymers with materials such as chitosan and other in-situ synthesised polymers.

As long term research priorities it is crucial the development of base sciences and fundamental research on phase behaviour and microscopic characterisation of target systems in scCO₂ and other alternative solvents.

Supercritical's research group. From left to right: Vanessa Correia, Vasco Bonifacio, Rita Restani, Eunice Costa, Raquel Viveiros, Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, Teresa Casimiro, Mara Silva, Margarida Coelho and Telma Barroso.

We are located at Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Campus de Caparica, on the other side of the river Tagus. Coming from Lisbon, the campus can be reached by car or by public transportation:

option 1:

Boat from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas (12 min.) and South subway from Cacilhas to Universidade (19 min.)

option 2:

Train from Entrecampos to Pragal (14 min.) and South subway from Pragal to Universidade (5 min.)

Cais do Sodré (green line) and Entrecampos (yellow line) are Lisbon subway stations.

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