2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
(2gl) Bio Soft Materials for Advance Applications
Research Interests
My research has focused on interfacial interactions of cellulose nanomaterials and molecules, nanoparticles, or polymers of interest to improve water remediation, controlled release, tissue engineering, and biosensing. In addition, I have improved the processing of these biomaterials to form structured films, fibers, composites, and gels to solve pressing health and industrial issues like malaria control or fiber composite recycling. My career goal is to develop new materials with soft materials 3D printing which surface and mechanical properties are tunable to address the needs of the selected tissues and other high-end applications. For this, cellulose can be dissolved into NaOH/Urea cold solutions and regenerated in gel-based viscous acid medias. Diffusion rates will influence the stiffness and shape, while suspended molecules in the regeneration bath can adsorb or integrate into the cellulose matrix to add functionality. As cellulose is insoluble in water, green modifications are possible to immobilize proteins of interest such as growth factors, collagen, or laminin, as well as other polymers of interest. Likewise, I aim to develop conductive and bioactive nanostructured biopolymeric membranes for applications such as separation, tissue engineering, and slow release. These membrane can be generated by breath figure methods or by spin coating when controlling formation parameters like relative humidity, speed, and initial concentrations.