Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing of hyper petroleum degraders from oil-polluted Niger Delta Soil

Microbial diversity profiles of two crude oil-polluted soils in the Niger Delta

Advances in Recycling of Thermoplastics and Fiber-Reinforced Thermosetting Composites: Overview of West Virginia Approaches

n this presentation, I will introduce the future development of chemical recycling as an initiative to solve the plastic problem.　In particular, I will introduce the outline of the actual chemical recycling process and explain the necessity of fusion of the arterial industry and the venous industry for the future based on the case of the technological development.

Integration of arterial and venous industries & promotion of chemical (feedstock) recycling

Flexible electronics are of critical importance for medical devices, portable electronics, smart textiles, energy storage, communication and sensor systems [1,2]. However, the lifetime of electronics is becoming shorter, which poses a growing ecological problem. Therefore, it is urgent and necessary to find sustainable and cost-efficient materials to replace the crude oil-derived polymers that are commonly used in flexible electronics. To this end, fish gelatin (FG) extracted from fish scales could provide an eco-friendly and biodegradable alternative to plastic for use in flexible electronics. Fish scales are inedible and malodorous kitchen waste, and >2 million metric tons of fish scales are discarded each year. This talk will introduce our recent works on FG-based flexible electronics, including flexible electroluminescent devices and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) [3-6]. The properties of FG films, the structure design and the performance of flexible electronic devices will be briefly discussed. These works may pave a new way to green and sustainable flexible electronics.

References
1. S. Xu, A. Jayaraman, J. A. Rogers. Skin sensors are the future of health care. Nature, 2019, 571, 319-321.
2. G.-H. Lee, H. Moon, H. Kim, G. H. Lee, W. Kwon, S. Yoo, D. Myung, S. H. Yun, Z. Bao, S. K. Hahn. Multifunctional materials for implantable and wearable photonic healthcare devices. Nat. Rev. Mater., 2020, 5, 149–165.
3. X. P. Zhang, T. Y. Ye, X. H. Meng, Z. H. Tian, L. H. Pang, Y. J. Han, H. Li, G. Lu, F. Xiu, H. D. Yu, J. Q. Liu, W. Huang. Sustainable and transparent fish gelatin films for flexible electroluminescent devices. ACS Nano, 2020, 14, 3876-3884.
4. T. F. Jiang, X. H. Meng, Z. Zhou, Y. Y. Wu, Z. H. Tian, Z. D. Liu, G. Lu, M. Eginlidil, H. D. Yu, J. Q. Liu, W. Huang. Highly flexible and degradable memory electronics comprised of all-biocompatible materials. Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 724-729.
5. Y. J. Han, Y. F. Han, X. P. Zhang, G. Lu, H. D. Yu, W. Huang. Fish gelatin-based triboelectric nanogenerator for harvesting biomechanical energy and self-powered sensing of human physiological signals. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2020, 12, 16442-16450.
6. Q. Z. Sun, H. C. Wang, L. Wang, X. P. Yue, L. R. Zhang, G. Z. Ren, D. H. Li, Y. J. Han, L. L. Xiao, G. Lu, H. D. Yu, W. Huang. Fully sustainable and high-performance fish gelatin-based triboelectric nanogenerator for wearable movement sensing and human-machine interaction. Nano Energy, in revision.

Sustainable Flexible Electronics Based on Fish Gelatin

Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer, after cellulose. It is present in the shell of crustaceans, in the cuticle of insect and even in some fungi. Chitin can be converted into chitosan, a highly praised material in the biomedical sector for its antibacterial properties, which finds also important application as a fertilizer, water treatment flocculant and food additive. Yet today's technologies for chitosan production from biomass rely on the use of corrosive treatments, high energy input and large quantities of by product effluents. Herein we are presenting our group's effort to tackle this question. We showed that mechanochemistry and aging could be used effectively for the deacetylation of chitin.1 This process yielded high molecular weight chitosan with minimal use of energy and solvent. This method is versatile and applicable to a number of chitin sources, including crude crustacean and insect shells, yielding deacetylation up to 98% and remarkably high molecular weights. This process affords chitosan in a safer fashion and with less materials and energy usage compared to the classic hydrothermal one. We have also extended this method to the fabrication of chitosan nanocrystals from chitin nanocrystals.2 Chitin and chitosan nanocrystals featured enhanced properties are nanocatalysts supports.3,4 We have also developed hydrogels from chitosan and chitin nanocrystals, with exceptional gelling properties and demonstrated their applicability for slow drug release.

Upcycling biomass: from crustacean waste to functional materials

The increasing contamination of organic micropollutants in environmental and biological systems is one of the serious issues faced by humanity. The potentially harmful effects of organic micropollutants (pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and dyes) on human health and aquatic ecosystems have raised worldwide concerns. The releasing of organic micropollutants to freshwater causes serious health hazards because most of them are mutagenic or carcinogenic in nature. Comparing with absorbents, membrane technology possesses merits of high separation performance, low energy consumption, mild operation temperature, cost efficiency, and no cross-contamination, etc.
Here, we propose 2D covalent organic framework (COF) membranes for molecular separation. Azobenzene derivatives act as linkers, which can be photo-switched between trans- and cis-isomers by irradiation under ultraviolet (UV) or visible light. The resultant smart COF membrane has nanopores that can be switched between On- (big pores) and Off-state (small pores) valves for molecular separation. The COF membranes were tested in different organic solvents and exhibit permeances as high as 56.7 L m-2 h-1 bar-1, in the following order: acetonitrile > acetone > methanol > ethanol > isopropanol > DMF. Interestingly, the smart cis-COF membranes with Off-state valves under UV show higher rejection for dye molecules than the trans-COF analogue with On-state valves. Different from the traditional membranes with immutable pore channels, the pore size of COF membranes can be remotely tuned by controlling the trans-to-cis isomerization of azobenzene via UV/Vis light, therefore, the permeance and separation factor can be adjusted as needed.
The ingenious design strategy endows traditional membranes with new fascination and opens up new perspectives for separation science and technology. The development of COF based smart membranes with a periodic honeycomb lattice could be a promising solution for a wide variety of separations such as catalyst and solvent recycle, wastewater treatment (organic micropollutant or heavy metal removal), valuable drug purification from organic solvents in pharmaceutical industry (vitamin or antibiotic refinement), oil extraction and purification in food industry, and other challenging separations (hemodialysis or chiral pharmacology separation).

Smart light-responsive COF membrane for molecular separation

Composites, and especially carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP), have impressively demonstrated their mechanical performance in several applications in the last years, starting from aerospace, finding their way into sports and commodities and just recently having a significant increase in the wind energy sector. These materials are often referred to as “a material with high potential”. The question is: potential to what? The potential to be a solution to the CO2-problem due to lightweight construction capabilities and the possibility to contribute to fuel savings during the lifetime of an aircraft, a truck or a car, to provide clean energy with more efficient next-gen wind turbines? Or is it the potential to be part of the problem, as the material is very difficult to recycle and currently causes trouble in waste incineration plants and in many cases just ends up in landfills. The presented talk will address the state of the art of recycling CFRP-materials: in a first step the different components of the materials (fibres and plastics, the so called matrix) need to be separated. This can be done via pyrolysis on a commercial scale, or by different alternatives with lower TRL levels. After that the recovered fibres are processed into semi-finished products, such as nonwovens, that are suitable to replace the first-gen materials in terms of handling and processing. All along the way, it is necessary to monitor the properties of the materials, in order to be able to identify correlations of process-parameters and resulting properties, both for quality assurance in a future supply chain, as well as identification of further demand for continuing R&D-activities. Finally, the stakeholders in a circular economy are adressed: why should a company invest in the improvement of recycle-ability of their products? This discussion is not limited to CFRP-materials only, but is open to interaction with other material classes with emerging circularity.

Recycling of fibre reinforced plastics - state of the art and outlook

1) Lignin is a complex polymer found in plants as well as a common by-product from the paper mills. Due to its abundant phenol groups, lignin is often exploited for UV capabilities1,2 . 2) Nanodiamonds (ND) are the result of controlled explosion that were discovered to have promising potential. 3) Lignin and ND were functionalised and coupled as a complex for sunscreen actives (Fig. 1). The relationship and enhanced performances were investigated.

Exploiting industrial waste for UV blocking applications

1) Traditional Thermosets:
Excellent mechanical strength,
Thermal stability,
Solvent resistance.
2) Vitrimers (recyclable thermosets)
Excellent mechanical strength,
Good recyclability
Self-healing and repairing

Catalyst-Free Epoxy Vitrimer for Recyclable and Self-Healing Solid Polymer Electrolytes

Conventionally, mechanical-recycled plastics have been irreversibly deteriorated in mechanical properties due to chemical degradation accompanied by molecular chain breakage, and it has been said that they can be applied to almost one-time downgrade recycling. On the other hand, we have found that the main cause of this deterioration of mechanical properties is physical degradation due to structural deformation inside of the plastic, and it is possible to improve the mechanical properties by using self resilience ability of plastic. Furthermore, it has been clarified that the mechanical properties can be improved efficiently by using a newly designed extruder with a molten resin reservoir used when repelling waste plastic.

Self Resilience ability of Waste Plastics

Our group has optimised and performed the pyrolysis of PE, PP and PS plastics alongside 2 commonly found waste plastic with good conversion rates and selectivity. The incineration ash and pyrolysis oil generated will be characterised and attempts will be made to functionalise them into specialty chemicals. 

Underline digital video library

Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing of hyper petroleum degraders from oil-polluted Niger Delta Soil

Microbial diversity profiles of two crude oil-polluted soils in the Niger Delta

Advances in Recycling of Thermoplastics and Fiber-Reinforced Thermosetting Composites: Overview of West Virginia Approaches

Integration of arterial and venous industries & promotion of chemical (feedstock) recycling

Sustainable Flexible Electronics Based on Fish Gelatin

Upcycling biomass: from crustacean waste to functional materials

Smart light-responsive COF membrane for molecular separation

Recycling of fibre reinforced plastics - state of the art and outlook

Exploiting industrial waste for UV blocking applications

Catalyst-Free Epoxy Vitrimer for Recyclable and Self-Healing Solid Polymer Electrolytes

Self Resilience ability of Waste Plastics

Catalytic pyrolysis of plastic waste with incineration fly ash into fuels for upcycling

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