Lennart Bergström
About me
I am professor of Materials Chemistry at Stockholm University since 2004. I currently serve as member of the Scientific Council for Natural and Engineering Sciences at the Swedish Research Council, as University reference Group (URG) member for the Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability (WISE), and as deputy director for the MISTRA Safechem programme. I am also programme responsible for the Master of Science program in Sustainable Chemistry at Stockholm University.
My research revolve around chemistry and materials science for sustainability, including development of thermally insulating foams based on waste and biobased components, upcycling of textile fibres into high perfomance materials, and developing and applying X-ray and neutron scattering methods to understand heat and mass transfer in biobased and waste-based materials.
I was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) in the class of chemical engineering in 2013 and served as deputy chairman 2015-2017. I am academician of the World Academy of Ceramics and a fellow of three scientific societies; two in ceramics (Fellow of the European Ceramic Society and American Ceramic Society) and one in chemistry (Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry). In 2011, I received the Humboldt Forschungspreiz (Senior Research Award) in materials science for my research that “bridges deep, basic, knowledge-driven science with applications for a more sustainable society” (quote from laudation at award ceremony, Bamberg, Germany, March 23, 2012) and in 2015 I was awarded the Norblad-Ekstrand medal from the Swedish Chemical Society. I am proud that 14 of my former co-workers are now professors in universities all over the world and that 60 of my former PhD students and postdocs now have positions in academia, industry and research institutes.
I have published more than 250 papers and my work has been cited more than 22000 times; H-index 72 (Google Scholar).
Research group
Elisabetta Nocerino (Postdoc)
Jingjing Pan (Postdoc)
Maria-Ximena Ruiz-Caldas (Postdoc)
Jiali Guo (Postdoc)
Agnes Åhl (PhD student)
Alumni
Former PhD students:
H. Guldberg-Pedersen, 1998; Vice president, Haldor Topsoe A/S, Denmark
Peter H.F. Hansen, 2000; Senior Researcher, RISE, Sweden
Eric Laarz, 2000; Germany
Anders Meurk, 2000; Quality specialist and team leader quality engineering, Scania Group, Sweden
Karin M. Andersson, 2004; R&D Manager performance testing, Sandvik Coromant AB, Sweden
Pär Wedin, 2004; Staff Researcher, Nynäs AB, Sweden
Petr Vasiliev, 2009; CEO, Neonest AB, Sweden
Jovice B-S. Ng, 2009; Research Director Saab-Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore
Linnéa Andersson, 2011: Materials and reliability engineer at HP Inc., Corvallis, OR, USA
Christian Mille, 2013; Project Manager, ABB, Sweden
Bertrand Faure, 2013; Project Manager, XENOCS, Grenoble, France
Erik Wetterskog 2013; Pedagogic developer in technology and physics, Vetenskapens Hus, Sweden
Neda Keshavarzi, 2014: Research and Development Specialist, FTFT Capital Investments LLC, Dubai, UAE
Arto Ojuva, 2015: Head of Laboratory, ColloidTech Oy, Tampere, Finland
Christina Schütz, 2015; Project Manager, ChemStream, Antwerp, Belgium
Arnaud Mayence 2016; Principal Scientist, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Belgium
Michael Agthe 2016; Beamline scientist, EMBL, Hamburg, Germany
Yingxin Liu 2018; Scientist, SABIC, Netherlands
Korneliya Gordeyeva 2018; Postdoc, KTH, Sweden
Martin Kapuscinski 2020; Project leader, Silex Microsystems AB, Sweden
Konstantin Kriechbaum 2020; Development engineer sustainable materials, Tetrapak AB, Sweden
Pierre Munier 2021; Process Engineer, RenFuel AB, Sweden
Varvara Apostolopoulou-Kalkavoura 2021; Postdoc, Stockholm University
Ehsan Seyed Hadi 2024; postdoc, KTH
Carina Schiele 2024; project leader, Silex Microsystems AB, Sweden
Former post-docs, researchers and visiting scientists:
Farid Akhtar (2009-2014), Prof., Materials Technology, Luleå University of technology, Sweden
German Salazar-Alvarez (2009-2010), Assoc. Prof. Uppsala University, Sweden
Andi Di (2020-2022), Assoc. Prof., Dalian University of Technology, China
Alexander Holm (2021-2023), Ass. Prof., Linköping University, Sweden
Hasan Göcmez (2004), Prof., Metallurgical and Materials Eng. Depart., Dumlipinar University, Turkey
Jens Weber (2008-2009), Prof., Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz, Germany
Nathalie Lavoine (2016-2018), Ass. Prof., North Carolina State University, USA
Motoyuki Iijima (2011), Assoc. Prof., Yokohama National University, Japan
Takamasa Mori (2011), Prof., Hosei University, Japan
Jing Sun (2000-2001), Prof., Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Shanghai, China.
Satoshi Tanaka (2007-2008), Assoc. Prof., Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Japan.
Nozomu Uchida (1996-1997), Assoc. Prof., Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan.
Dong Wang (2011-2012), Assoc. Prof., Northeast Electrical Power University, Jilin, China.
Aygul Yeprem (2019-2020), Prof., Yildiz Technical University, Turkey
Anwar Ahniyaz (2005-2007), Senior Scientist, RISE, Sweden.
Nelson Bell (1998), Staff scientist, Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque, USA.
Marta Estrader Bofarull (2011-2012), Researcher. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Tamara Church (2019-2021), Scientist, Cambrex Karlskoga AB, Sweden
Andreas Fall (2014-2015), Senior Research Associate, RISE Bioeconomy, Stockholm, Sweden
Richard Greenwood (1995-1996), Industrial Tutor, Birmingham University; Birmingham, UK.
Robert Hodgkins (2005-2007), Senior Scientist, Aramco, Saudi Arabia
Yuji Hotta (2001-2002), Research Scientist, Ceramic Research Institute, AIST, Japan.
Mukta Limaye (2011-2012), INSPIRE Faculty, IIS Bhopal, India
Ranjith Krishna Pai (2007-2009), Principal Scientific Officer, Ministry of Science & Technology, India.
Peter Lipowski (2007), Project leader, Siemens, Munchen, Germany
Zhong-Peng Lyu (2017-2019), Postdoc, Aalto University, Finland
Julien Navarro (2013-2015), Researcher, University of Hamburg, Germany
Vitaliy Olinyk (2009-2010), Technical specialist, JPK Instruments, Berlin, Germany
Dilshod Shakarova (2013-2014), Researcher, Tashkent State Technical University, Uzbekistan
Daniela Stoeckel (2015-2016), Germany
Brian Sundlof (1997-1998), Manager Semiconductor Packaging Develop., IBM Systems Group, USA.
Subhasis Rana (2007-2008), Fellow scientist, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, India
Kimiyasu Sato (2008-2009), Senior Research Scientist, Structural Materials Research Institute, Japan
Mo Segad (2018-2019), IT consultant, Sweden
Hugo Voisin (2016-2018), Postdoc, France
Bernd Wicklein (2012-2014), Researcher, ICMM-CSIC, Madrid, Spain
Joseph Yanez (1997-1999), Senior manager operations, Accenture, Chicago, USA.
Boris Zhmud (1998-2000), CTO Applied Nano Surfaces AB, Sweden.
Teaching
Program responsible for the Master program in Sustainable Chemistry
Introduction to Sustainable Chemistry, KZ7012, 7.5 ECTS
Advanced Materials Chemistry, 15 ECTS (PhD course)
Research
My research activities in materials chemistry currently focus on processing, characterisation and optimisation of biobased and waste-based materials.
Sustainable materials for thermal insulation
Funding: WISE, SwedNESS (SSF)
The energy needed to construct buildings and to maintain a pleasant interior environment accounts for more than 30% of the world´s total energy consumption and generates a significant part of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Decreasing heat transfer through better insulation is essential to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. We develop thermally insulating materials based on renewable or widely abundant raw materials with superinsulating properties and investigate fundamental aspects of heat transfer including phonon scattering and moisture-dependence.
Selected publications:
V Apostolopoulou-Kalkavoura, P Munier, L Bergström, "Thermally Insulating Nanocellulose-Based Materials", Advanced Materials, 2001839 (2020)
B Wicklein, A Kocjan, G Salazar-Alvarez, F Carosio, G Camino, M Antonietti, L Bergström, “Thermally insulating and fire-retardant lightweight anisotropic foams based on nanocellulose and graphene oxide”, Nature Nanotechnology, 10, 277-283 (2015)
A. Di, C. Schiele, S.E. Hadi, L. Bergström, "Thermally insulating and mositure-resilient foams based on upcycled aramid nanofibres and nanocellulose", Advanced Materials, 35, 2305195 (2023)
V Apostolopoulou-Kalkavoura, S Hu, N Lavoine, M Garg, M Linares, P Munier, I Zozoulenko, J Shiomi, L Bergström, “Humidity-Dependent Thermal Boundary Conductance Controls Heat Transport of Super-Insulating Nanofibrillar Foam” Matter, 4, 1, 276-289 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.11.007
V. Apostolopoulou-Kalkavoura, P. Munier, L. Dlugozima, V-L. Heuthe, L. Bergström, ”Effect of density, phonon scattering and nanoporosity on the thermal conductivity of anisotropic cellulose nanocrystal foams”, Scientific Report, 11:18685 (2021)
B Wicklein, D Kocjan, F Carosio, G Camino, L Bergström, “Tuning the nanocellulose-borate interaction to achieve highly flame retardant materials” Chemistry of Materials, 28, 1985-1989 (2016)
Z-L Yu, N Ying, V Apostolopoulou-Kalkavoura, B Qin, Z-Y Ma, M-Y Xing, C Qiao, L Bergström, M Antonietti, S-H Yu, “Fire-retardant and thermally insulating phenolic-silica aerogels”, Angewandte Chemie, 57, 4538-4542 (2018)
Colloidal processing of bio-based nanomaterials
Funding: WISE, Swedish Research Council
Colloidal processing of nanoparticles based on renewable and Earth-abundant resources and self-assembly of nanoparticles to form novel nanostructured materials with useful properties are at the core of our activities where the fundamental activities aim to generate a better understanding of the molecular or mesoscopic assembly mechanisms. Biomimetic synthesis which involves the integration and assembly of inorganic materials with polymers and biomolecules is another closely related field of interest.
Selected publications:
J P. F. Lagerwall, C Schütz, M Salajkova, J Noh, J H Park, G Scalia, and L Bergström, “Cellulose nanocrystal-based materials: from liquid crystal self-assembly and glass formation to multifunctional thin films”, NPG Asia Materials, 6, e80 (2014)
Y Liu, S-H Yu, L Bergström, “Transparent and flexible nacre-like hybrid films of aminoclays and carboxylated cellulose nanofibrils”, Advanced Functional Materials 28, 1703277 (2017)
N Lavoine, L Bergström, “Nanocellulose-based foams and aerogels: processing, properties and applications”, J. Mater. Chem. A, 5, 16105-117 (2017)
H P. Voisin, K Gordeyeva, G Siqueira, M K. Hausmann, A R. Studart, L Bergström, “3D printing of strong lightweight cellular structures using polysaccharide-based composite foams”, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering 6, 17160-17167 (2018)
K Kriechbaum, V Apostolopoulou-Kalkavoura, P Munier, L Bergström, “Sclerotozation-inspired aminoquinone cross-linking of thermally insulating and moisture-resilient biobased foams”, ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 8, 47, 17408-17416 (2020)
K Kriechbaum, L Bergström, “Antioxidant and UV-blocking leather-inspired nanocellulose-based films with high wet strength”, Biomacromolecules, 21, 5, 1720–1728 (2020)
Nanoparticle self-assembly
Funding: Swedish Research Council (VR)
This project aims to generate a deeper understanding of the formation of complex and multicomponent nanostructured materials by tunable assembly of bio-based and inorganic nanoparticles. We study in real time how nanoparticles assemble to form mesocrystals with complex structures and multicomponent compositions using e.g. time-resolved QCM-D and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) in levitating drops and customized measurement cells.
Selected publications:
Z-P Lv, M Kapuscinski, L Bergström, “Tunable assembly of truncated nanocubes by evaporation-driven poor-solvent enrichment”, Nature Communications, 10, 4228 (2019)
A. Di, J. Xu, T. Zinn, M. Sztucki, W. Deng, A. Ashok, C. Lian, L. Bergström, "Tunable ordered nanostructured phases by co-assembly of amphiphilic polyoxymethalates and Pluronic block copolymers", Nanoletters, 23, 1645-1651 (2023)
M Kapuscinski, P Munier, M Segad, L Bergström, “Two-Stage Assembly of Mesocrystal Fibres with Tunable Diamaters in Weak Magnetic Fields”, Nano Letters, 20, 10, 7359–7366 (2020)
M Kapuscinski, M Agthe, Z-P Lv, M Segad, L Bergström, “Temporal Evolution of Superlattice Contraction and Defect-Induced Strain Anisotropy in Mesocrystals during Nanocube Self-Assembly”, ACS Nano, 14, 5, 5337–5347 (2020)
Y Liu, C Schütz, G Salazar-Alvarez, L Bergström, “Assembly, Gelation and Helicoidal consolidation of nanocellulose dispersions”, Langmuir, 35, 3600-3606 (2019)
P. Munier, A. Di, S. E. Hadi, M. Kapuscinski, M. Segad, L. Bergström, ”Assembly of cellulose nanocrystals and clay nanoplatelets studied by time-resolved X-ray scattering”, Soft Matter, 17, 5747-5755 (2021)
M Agthe, T S. Plivelic, A Labrador, L Bergström, G Salazar-Alvarez, “Following in real-time the two-step assembly of nanoparticles into mesocrystals in levitating drops”, Nano Letters, 16, 6838-6843 (2016)
