Lead: Professor Frank Ko, University of British Columbia

The polymeric products theme will produce a variety of materials both from lignin and from the monomers and oligomers formed by thermochemical and catalytic processing. Products of interest are lignin-derived mesophase carbon fibres, electrospun lignin nanofibres and lignin-based carbon aerogels. These nanostructured fibrous materials will be combined with various thermoplastic polymers in reinforced biocomposites. Monomers from thermochemical or catalytic processing of lignin will be used to make novel peptide or conducting polymers. Finally, lignin as isolated will be incorporated into plasticized lignin/polymer blends.

The Team

A multidisciplinary team of investigators has been assembled from across Canada. The theme leader is Professor Frank Ko, the Canada Research Chair Tier I in Advanced Fibrous Materials and director of the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory at the University of British Columbia. He is an expert in textile structural composites and nanofibre technology.

Professor Amar Mohanty is the Premier’s Research Chair in Biomaterials and transportation and is the Director of the Bioproducts Discovery & Development Centre at the University of Guelph. He is an international leader in the field of biomaterials and biocomposites for automotive applications.

Professor Bruce Arndtsen is an Associate Professor and Dawson Scholar (a McGill CRC Tier II equivalent) in the Department of Chemistry at McGill University. He is recognized as an expert in discovery of new approaches using metal catalysis in synthesis.
 

Dr. Suzana Straus is Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), membrance protein structure and function, NMR methods development and biological/biophysical chemistry.

 

 

Projects

Project ID Project Name
1-1 Method Development for Analysis of Lignin Carbon Fibre Quality (S. Straus, UBC)
1-2 High performance lignin nanofibre by electrospinning (F. Ko, UBC)
1-3 Lignin-based carbon aerogels (F. Ko, UBC)
1-4 Renewable green composites from bioplastics and lignin based carbon fibres(A. Mohanty, University of Guelph)
1-5 Novel peptidic and conducting polymers (B. Arndsten, McGill University)