Maria Coleman

The growing use of plastic packaging combined with the current low rate of recycling of plastic packaging has resulted in growing volume of plastic waste in the environment.  This talk will focus on work in our group to develop a circular economy for packaging polymers through integration of bio-renewable copolymers of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) with chemical recycling processes to recover monomers and reduce the need for virgin polymer.  The synthesis, processing and characterization of copolyesters of renewable monomers with PET will be discussed.   Recoverable, reusable catalysts were developed for hydrolysis of copolyesters to allow recovery and recycle of high value monomers.

Link to ZOOM 
PW: UBCBE1

Maria Coleman is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Toledo.   She received her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin.  Her work focuses on synthesis, structure-property relationships for glassy polymers and nanocomposites with applications in barrier polymers and membranes.   As the Associate Director of the Polymer Institute, she coordinates an industrial based research consortium working on challenges to sustainable barrier packaging.

• Time: 11:30 AM
• Location: 206 Furnas Hall
• Seminar Flyer