Collection
Polymers and Bio-Inspired Materials for Sustainable Built Environment
Nurturing the long-term sustainability in our built environments is becoming a cause for concern, given the huge disruptions in the supply chain and associated logistics for procurement of modern building materials across the globe, especially in recent years, owing to political uncertainties and unsolicited pandemic strikes. Concomitantly, we are facing an added uncertainty in terms of energy production and conservation for our dwellings, particularly, in an era of severe and unpredictable weather patterns spanning across the globe. Therefore, it is highly prudent to engage our capacities and in making a concerted effort, especially, for formulating novel bio-inspired and environmentally-friendly materials for the building sector. This could involve, for example, the use of recycled materials as the primary starting materials, thus upholding the ethos of circular economy. In this context, an adequate emphasis should be also laid on bio-sourced precursors, as far as possible, thus paving the way for, and reinvigorating, the basic principles of sustainability.
Through the current Topic Collection of Discover Materials, we aim to unravel the research carried out in the vital areas of sustainable materials and circular economy, by providing a platform for dissemination of the fruitful results accrued, especially, in the subject areas of modern and bio-inspired materials. The primary aim is, therefore, to identify novel and hybrid materials as well as in unravelling the salient properties of these materials. Here the main emphasis will be the formulation strategies, especially, in arriving at hybrid materials with synergistic combination of desirable properties, particularly, in the context of circular economy.
Keywords:
Novel and Hybrid Materials; Sustainable Building Materials; Recycling of Building Materials; Materials With Lower Carbon Footprint; Circular Economy; Energy Conservation in Built Environments
Editors
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Paul Joseph
Dr. Paul Joseph is a chemist specialising in polymer science and combustion chemistry, with more than 24 years of experience, and with a track record of publishing and securing research funding. After obtaining PhD in Polymer Science from Lancaster University, UK, Paul worked at Lancaster and Sheffield Universities as a Research Associate before taking up a Research Fellowship at Ulster University, UK. Subsequently, he was promoted to Lecturer, and then Senior Lecturer, before securing the current position of Associate Professor of Material Science at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
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Svetlana Tretsiakova-McNally
Dr Svetlana Tretsiakova-McNally, BSc, MSc, PhD, MRSC, FHEA, is a Lecturer in Chemistry at Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Ulster University, with more than 13 years of research experience in polymer chemistry. She had extensively studied fundamental physico-chemical phenomena and mechanisms pertaining thermal/thermo-oxidative degradation/decomposition, flammability, flame retardation and fire chemistry of a wide range of polymers. Her research interests focus on synthetic and natural polymers, material science, plastic waste recycling, and environmental chemistry.
