Minna Hakkarainen

Development of sustainable and circular materials from commodity products to advanced materials is a crucial challenge facing our world today and it is also the core of my research interest. This includes both production of materials from sustainable biobased resources and designing them for application dependent managed and circular end-of-life.  More specifically my research interests includes:

●Design for mechanical and/or chemical recycling by e.g. utilizing dynamic covalent chemistries. Vitrimers and covalent adaptable networks.

●Design for (bio)degradation in specified environment. Degradation testing, environmental interactions and impact of polymer materials

●Recycling and valorization of polymers and biomass to value added products, including green chemicals and carbon products, and further utilization of these to design of new functional materials.

●Design of thermoplastics, thermosets and hydrogels from biobased monomers and biopolymers for applications in e.g. 3D printing and light processing, biomedical applications, packaging and others.

●Development of microwave-assisted processes for carbonization, extraction and chemical modification