Sustainable Materials Lab

Our Lab

Welcome to the Sustainable Materials Laboratory (SusMatLab), where our mission is to advance sustainable technologies through innovative materials design. We are dedicated to addressing environmental challenges by transforming biomass and plastic waste into functional materials that contribute to a circular economy.

Our research integrates polymer and colloid science with principles of environmental engineering to develop technologies for water purification, metal recovery, catalysis, sensing, materials reinforcement, and more. We utilize abundant biomass-derived feedstocks such as cellulose, chitosan, and their derivatives, and pioneer chemical pathways to upcycle plastic waste into novel, high-value precursors for functional material design.

Through our research and education efforts, we aim to lay the foundation for sustainable resource management and the development of next-generation materials that support a cleaner, more resilient future.

 

Recently published
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PET fibers upcycling

Design of catalytic material by aminolysis and metallization a waste PET fibers and fabrics with Au, Au, and Pd NP.

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Mixed chars

Screening of mixed biomas and plastic waste chars for pharmaceutical adsorption application.

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Magnetic adsorbent

Design of magnetic adsorbent using waste PET bottle and bentonite clay for ceasium removal.

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News

2025.04.01 New members, Hao WANG (D1), Yuiko FUKUMAN (M1), Shotaro ISHIGURI (M1), Hiyu KASHIWAGI (M1) have joined us. Xin LIN (D1) is back to us as a doctoral course student and Dalu LIU (M1) started his master's course.

2025.03.22 The paper of Miku (M2) on the upcycling of waste PET fibers to catalytic material was published in Chemical Engineering Journal.

2025.03.01 The paper of Khonekeo on the application of mixed waster biomass and plastic hydrochar adsorbents for pharmaceuticals removal was published in Waste Management journal.

2025.02.14 Kayee (D3) Has succesfully defended her doctoral dissertation. Congratulations, Dr. Chan!

2025.01.16 Khonekeo (D2) gave an oral presentation at the 8th International Conference on Materials Engineering and Applications (ICMEA 2025) in Bangkok, Thailand.

2025.11.11-25 Miku had a Global Research Intership (GRI) in Poland Academy of Science.

2024.10.10 The paper of Xin (2024 graduate) on the design of hydrochar adsorbents from chitosan and chitin for pharmaceuticals removal was published in Bioresource Technology journal.

2024.10.01 New members, Hanan AHMAD (D1, Forefront program) and Dalu LIU (research student) have joined us.

2024.09.23 The paper of Taisei (2024 graduate) on hydrogels of biomass nanofibers in collaboration with Prof. Yuichi Masubuchi was published in Gels.

2024.07.04 Kayee (D3) gave an oral presentation at 7th International Conference on Green Energy and Environment Engineering in Seoul. Prof. Zinchenko delivered an invited talk.

2024.04.10 Kayee (D3) gave an oral presentation and recieved "Best Presentation Award" at 7th International Conference on Materials Design and Applications in Tokyo. Prof. Zinchenko delivered an invited talk.

2024.04.01 New members: (M1) Mamika HOBO, Chang SHU, Ruoming CHENG have jouined us.

Contact

Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Chikusa-ku, Furo-cho, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

Tel: +81-52-789-4771

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Access

Graduate School of Informatics building, 7th floor, rooms 701 (Zinchenko), 703, 705, 711 (student's room), 724

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