Unnimaya Thalakkale Veettil
About me
PhD Student in the Sustainable Materials Chemistry (SUSMATCHEM) research group at the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry (MMK) in Stockholm University, lead by Assistant Professor Mika Sipponen. The research area is "Biocatalytic membranes based on lignin nanoparticles" (Starting Grant, Vetenskapsrådet). She obtained master's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Pau and the Adour Region (UPPA), France in the year 2020-2021. She holds a second master's degree in Chemistry, Specialization in Polymer Science from Mahatma Gandhi University, Priyadarshini Hills, India, obtrained in the year 2018-2020. She received Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Kannur University, India in the year 2015-2018.
During the year 2020 she worked as a project intern at Mahatma Gandhi University, Priyadarshini Hills by collaborating with Indian Institute of Technology, Patna under the project titled " Novel carboxylated acrylonitrile butadiene rubber - Fuller's earth clay nanocomposites", supervised by Prof. Sabu Thomas and co-supervised by Dr. Dinesh Kumar Kotnees. In the year 2021, she worked at IPREM - UMR 5254 UPPA/CNRS, in MANTA (MAriNe maTeriAls) group lead by Dr. Susana De Matos Fernandes in the project titled "Marine polymer hydrogels: Preparation, Characterizations and Applications on Dye adsorption and Drug release". She received DST-INSPIRE Scholraship from Central Government of India during the year 2015-2020. Also, she has awarded with E2S-Talents Academy Fellowship 2020 from E2S (Energy and Environmental Solutions) UPPA, France.
Research
Melt-spun lignin esters and their magnetic hybrids as dye sorbents
This project started from an idea that why can’t we use a cotton candy machine for the production of lignin microfibers as we make sugar candy out of it. The cotton candy machine works under the principle of centrifugal melt-spinning. To renders lignin to melt-spin using a cotton candy machine, we need to improve its thermoplastic behaviour, viscoelasticity and thereby improving lignin’s processability. Commonly used method for the modification of lignin’s esterification, which improves the above-mentioned requirements to make lignin suitable for melt-spinning. Esterification significantly reduce the glass transition temperature of lignin and we get modified lignin having a significant melting point. We have also demonstrated the possibility of hybrid fiber production using the same method by incorporating iron oxide nanoparticles. These materials demonstrated good adsorption capacity towards cationic and non-ionic dyes in water. Moreover, they are recyclable and magnetically recoverable. The reusability and magnetic and mechanical recyclability of these fibers make them promising candidates for circular lignin-based materials.
