Two doctoral dissertations defended

Robert Gleuwitz defended his doctoral dissertation entitled “Impact of Lignin on the Mesophase and Structural Relaxation Behavior of a Cellulosic Liquid Crystalline Polymer”. Robert Gleuwitz joined the Chair of Forest Biomaterials as a polymer engineer graduate from the university of Bayreuth in April 2015. At the Chair of Forest Biomaterials, he served as  the principal research assistant for the project “Nutzung von Lignin als Ausgangsmaterial für einen biologisch basierten Kunststoff“ funded by the “Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg” and conducted within the “Leistungzentrum Nachaltigkeit Freiburg” and the Freiburg Materials Research Center.

In his dissertation, Robert demonstrated that organosolv lignin stabilizes the shear-induced band texture of hydroxypropyl cellulose and unraveled the molecular origin of this effect. He further demonstrated the possibility to implement these blends in direct ink writing.

Jamerson Carneiro de Oliveira defended his dissertation aiming to implement the Diels-Alder reaction between cellulose nanocrystals.  After his Master degree at the Federal University of Bahia, Jamerson joined the Chair of Forest Biomaterials in June 2015 as a doctoral fellow thanks to a scholarship from the Barbara and Elisabeth Grammel Foundation. His dissertation was partly conducted at the University of Haute-Alsace and co-supervised by Prof. Vincent Roucoules.

His dissertation proposes new approaches to describe the kinetics of the Diels-Alder reaction for materials applications and open avenues to implementing this chemistry on cellulose nanocrystals. Currently, Jamerson is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Haute-Alsace, where he continues to advance the material science around the Diels-Alder chemistry.