Lauri Vares, Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry

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Sustainable Chemistry Lab

The aim of our research is to offer society innovative and sustainable solutions based on green chemistry.

The main focus is the synthesis of new bio-based polymers that could replace existing polymers made from fossil raw materials. There are currently few bio-based polymers in production, and the materials produced from them have limited mechanical strength and poor temperature resistance, making them unsuitable for more demanding applications.

We are working on developing novel rigid polymers from cellulose and lignin-derived platform chemicals that could replace fossil-based materials in more demanding areas such as engineering, construction, and temperature-resistant packaging. In addition, we pay attention to the entire life cycle of materials – how to design the structure of a polymer in such a way that the material can be recycled and reused as easily as possible, and its environmental footprint is small.

We are always interested in ambitious coworkers. We offer B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. projects within the area of sustainable chemistry and biobased polymers. For more information, contact Lauri Vares ([email protected]).

Keywords: sustainable chemistry, organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, bio-based materials