Processing Beyond Plastics: Hierarchical Bio-based materials through Interfacial and Colloidal Engineering

The future of polymer processing extends beyond conventional thermoplastic manufacturing toward sustainable fabrication routes that taked advantage of molecular interactions, hierarchical assembly, and renewable feedstocks to generate materials with unprecedented functionality. Nature provides remarkable examples of efficient processing through self-organization across multiple length scales, inspiring new approaches that combine bottom-up assembly with scalable manufacturing.
This talk will present recent advances in the processing of renewable polymeric materials, with emphasis on cellulose, lignin, proteins, and other bio-derived building blocks. New fabrication strategies based on colloidal engineering, interfacial phenomena, and controlled solvent environments enable the formation of highly organized architectures ranging from nanofibrillar networks and adaptive hydrogels to porous monoliths, structural films, fibers, foams, and multifunctional composites. Particular attention will be given to processing pathways that minimize energy consumption while maximizing material performance through precise control of interfaces, confinement, supramolecular interactions, and hierarchical organization.
Examples will illustrate how these emerging fabrication concepts lead to advanced materials with optical, mechanical, electrical, barrier, and responsive properties suitable for applications in sustainable packaging, soft electronics, energy harvesting, biointerfaces, environmental remediation, and circular manufacturing. Rather than viewing processing as a final manufacturing step, these examples demonstrate how processing itself can be designed as a powerful tool to direct structure formation and ultimately determine function.
The talk concludes by discussing future opportunities where polymer processing converges with colloid science, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing to accelerate the transition from fossil-derived polymers toward circular, high-performance materials engineered from renewable resources.