For the Master Course AMM Organic Materials & Polymer Science course (5 ECTS within the CSE master's program), Rakine Mouhoubi, Merel Lasschuijt, and Salma Ramon Carrasco did their challenged-based learning assignment so well that it resulted in a publication in the scientific journal “Waste Management”. Their unique overview article demonstrates an excellent link between education and research.
During the AMM OMPS course, students are challenged to search for literature on a relevant and current topic in polymer science and write a literature review on it. The main topic of last year’s course was sustainable polymers and their end-of-life options.
New overview helps design new biodegradable plastics
Rakine, Merel, and Salma tackled the challenge of designing compostable polymers and wrote a beautiful overview of the state-of-the-art on how composting of polymers can be assessed in simulations or by real-life scenarios. Such a comprehensive overview had not been available in the current literature and shall help others to design new biodegradable plastics. From this review, it becomes clear that composting shows promise for polyester waste management.
The article by the student team was published entitled “End-of-life biodegradation? How to assess the composting of polyesters in the lab and the field”, in the scientific journal Waste Management.
More information
Waste Management is a leading interdisciplinary journal in the presentation and discussion of end-of-life scenarios of certain materials and addresses waste management in general. The author team was supervised and supported by Hubert Gojzewski and Frederik Wurm from the Sustainable Polymer Chemistry Group in the Department of Molecules and Materials at the TNW faculty.
