Doctoral candidate Daniel Langerreiter is working with a two-fold PhD project - first he is synthesizing organic dyes with antimicrobial properties, and secondly developing a novel modification method for cellulose. This entails mechanochemical approach to functionalizing the cellulose by introducing primary amine and ester groups.
The benefits of using mechanochemistry drastically reduces the need for liquids. An extra benefit is being able to use unmodified nanocellulose. All steps happen in a solid state reaction.
Finally, in the future, he will combine these two projects in order to develop a self-sterilizing material in a more sustainable way.
