DrAgi Brandt-Talbot

The Brandt-Talbot research group (Green Carbon Solutions Lab) is working in the following areas:

Low-cost Renewable Carbon Fiber Composites
Petroleum is the raw material for carbon fibre, which can be used widely as a lightweight construction material, however it is currently too expensive to be used in key mass markets such cars. Lignin is a renewable feedstock that is available in large and increasing quantities as the biorefining industry develops (up to 4 mio tonnes p.a. in the UK). Lignin has a high carbon content and is inexpensive. Utilising this biopolymer as a carbon fibre precursor has the potential to lower production cost to by 75%, while making carbon fibre production sustainable. We are particularly interested in:

• Wet- and electrospinning of lignin fibres
• Materials Engineering of fibres (optimising hot-drawing and fibre cross-linking/stabilisation)
• Selecting and designing lignins for more graphitic carbon fibres and better resin matrices
• Polyfurfuryl alcohol utilisation in composites
• Lignin derived electrode materials (nanofibres and monoliths)
• Structure property relationships for lignin derived materials using state-of-the-art lignin characterisation

Solvents in Sustainable Process Development

Ionic liquids (ILs) are organic salts that have low melting temperatures. Table salt (NaCl) turns liquid only at 800 degree Celsius, while ionic liquids are liquid at or near room temperature. The low melting point makes them exciting alternative solvents for organic reactions, electrochemical transformations and solvent based separation - they provide extreme ranges of solvent polarities, interesting miscibilities with other solvents, high solvent recovery and low process pressures. My research interests include:

• Ionosolv fractionation
• Lignin purification and fractionation (including catechyl or C-lignin)
• Chemical recycling of polyesters and polyamides in ionic liquid water mixtures
• Recycling of multil-layer packaging materials using integrated mechanical and chemical recycling methods
• Examining the thermal stability of (protic) ionic liquids
• Enhancing the value of protein rich biomass such as microalgae and brewer's or distiller's spent grain (BSG/DDGS) through fractionation
• Chemical transformations of biopolymer fractions in solvents

Biopolymer materials and characterisation
Our aim is to preserve and enhance the value in purified biopolymer fractions, and using them as intermediates that can be converted into a variety of useful products. We also investigate the fundamental reactivity of biopolymers under relevant processing conditions.

• Biopolymer films and coatings (using lignin, cellulose, proteins, human-made biobased polymers such as PVA, PE and PEO and their blends)
• Advanced analysis of lignocellulosic biomass (cwet-compositional analysis, NIR spectroscopy, reaction modelling)
• Understanding pseudolignin (humin) formation
• Understanding the fundamentals of lignin reactivity during fractionatation and thermal conversation

Process development (up-scaling) and optimisation, patenting, technoeconomic and life cycle assessment

We are a Leaf Silver certified laboratory and minimise the health and environmental impact of our research activities.