Sustainable Hydrogels: Synthesis, Properties and Applications highlights the development of sustainable hydrogels from various perspectives and covers a range of topics, including the development and utilization of abundant and/or inexpensive biorenewable monomers to create hydrogels; the mimicry of variable properties inherent to successful commercial hydrogels; and the creation of bio-based hydrogels that are functional equivalents of fossil fuel-derived hydrogels with respect to their properties, yet are capable of benign degradation over much shorter timescales. Some of the challenges facing sustainable polymer chemistry are also discussed.
Prof. Sabu Thomas is a Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering and the Director of the School of Energy Materials at Mahatma Gandhi University, India. Additionally, he is the Chairman of the Trivandrum Engineering Science & Technology Research Park (TrEST Research Park) in Thiruvananthapuram, India. He is the founder director of the International and Inter-university Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Mahatma Gandhi University and the former Vice-Chancellor of the same institution.
Prof. Thomas is internationally recognized for his contributions to polymer science and engineering, with his research interests encompassing polymer nanocomposites, elastomers, polymer blends, interpenetrating polymer networks, polymer membranes, green composites, nanocomposites, nanomedicine, and green nanotechnology. His groundbreaking inventions in polymer nanocomposites, polymer blends, green bionanotechnology, and nano-biomedical sciences have significantly advanced the development of new materials for the automotive, space, housing, and biomedical fields. Dr. Thomas has been conferred with Honoris Causa (DSc) by the University of South Brittany, France.
Dr. Bhasha Sharma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Shivaji College, University of Delhi, India. She received her BSc (2011) in Polymer Sciences from the University of Delhi, and completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2019. Her research interests revolve around sustainable polymers for packaging applications, environmentally benign approaches for biodegradation of plastic wastes, fabrication of bionanocomposites, and finding strategies to ameliorate the electrochemical activity of biopolymers.
Dr. Purnima Jai is an Associate Professor in Department of Chemistry in Netaji Subhas University of Technology. She is the founder of laboratory “Advance Centre for Polymer Science in Department of Chemistry in NSUT. She has completed her M. Tech and Doctorate from Centre for Polymer Science & Technology, IIT Delhi. Besides teaching chemistry her general research interests are development and characterization of blends, alloys and nanocomposites of polymers.
Shashank Shekhar
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Netaji Subhas University of Technology, Delhi, India
Dr. Shashank Shekhar is currently an Assistant Professor at Netaji Subhas University of Technology and is also associated with the Quantum Research Centre of Excellence as Associate Director in the Department of Renewable Energy. He completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Delhi. Dr. Shekhar has been working on biopolymers and Schiff base metal complexes for the last 5 years and has published articles in reputed international journals.
