The research activities that more specifically address environmental issues concern topics related to the Recycling of Polymeric Materials, including the more general aspect of promoting techniques or technologies that involve the reduction of plastic waste through the development of New Biodegradable Polymeric Materials from Renewable Sources. Other research works concern the development of materials for sensor applications, such as Chemical sensors with high sensitivity and selectivity for real-time determination of heavy metals in water.
Feasibility studies of fractionation and analysis of plastics from recycled materials
The Materials Science and Technology group has recently dedicated itself to the problems concerning the recycling of plastics, a theme that has been addressed for years in the courses offered to students by the teachers of the group. The activity, developed in collaboration with companies and consortia in the sector, involves the development of techniques for the separation and analysis of mixed plastic fractions, reactive compounding of homogeneous and/or heterogeneous plastics, morphological, thermal, mechanical and rheological characterization of secondary raw materials in order to identify the most appropriate field of application.
New biodegradable polymeric materials from renewable sources
The unconditional use of materials of petrochemical origin can represent a limit for environmental sustainability, as they are made with non-renewable raw materials and generate, at the end of their useful life, huge quantities of post-consumer products to be disposed of. Proper waste management also requires the construction of collection, disposal and recycling centers with costs that affect the entire community. The scientific and industrial community still devotes significant activities to the search for economically and technologically satisfactory solutions.
In this regard, the Materials Science and Technology group has been dedicated for several years to the development and optimization of biotechnological properties of new biodegradable and/or compostable materials with specific functional properties starting from industrial waste, exhausted materials and slags. Several materials have been designed and patented, being useful for example in packaging or in agriculture for the control of weeds, with the aim of developing sustainable systems without generating waste at the end of their useful life.
In collaboration with small and medium-sized companies, the industrial development of these materials has also been initiated.
Highly sensitive and selective (bio)chemical sensors for real-time determination of trace analytes
This research refers in general to the development of modified piezoelectric sensors for the detection of analytes in fluids, with the aim of realizing new devices for their monitoring.
In particular, sensors obtained by chemical grafting of appropriate multifunctional polymers on commercial piezoelectric supports have allowed to realize dynamic systems characterized by high sensitivity and selectivity that allow to perform in real time, easily and at very low cost the monitoring of heavy metals, such as Cr, Pb, Sn, Cu, Ni, Hg, in civil and industrial waters. These systems have great potentialities also in the field of biosensors, for example in the recognition of DNA, drugs or active principles, thanks to the possibility of properly selecting the chemical structure of the polymer to be grafted on the piezoelectric support.