Athina Anastasaki Wins ERC Starting Grant
Athina Anastasaki, head of Polymeric Materials has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant worth of 1.5 Million. This will allow her group to develop depolymerization strategies that are based on controlled radical polymerization.
Polymers (also referred to as plastic) are long molecules consisting of smaller parts (i.e. monomers) connected to each other through a process known as polymerization. Fully reversing the polymerization and re-obtaining the starting material would allow the possibility to re-use the monomer and form either the initial polymer or alternatively an entirely new polymer with completely different properties tailored to a new application. Athina Anastasaki, Professor of Polymeric Materials, will use the ERC Grant to develop new depolymerization strategies that are based on controlled radical polymerization with an ultimate aim to produce advanced polymer recycling methods.