N. J. Van Zee

This 16-month postdoctoral project focuses on improving the circularity of polyolefin-containing plastic waste through reactive processing and the development of a new generation of grafting agents. The work is hosted at the C3M laboratory of the Ecole supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris in collaboration with the industrial high-throughput screening partner Xplore s.r.l. near Naples, Italy. The research combines organic synthesis, high-throughput experimentation, and polymer processing. In the laboratory, the postdoctoral researcher will synthesize molecular building blocks for grafting-agent design. These compounds will then be evaluated in screening experiments at Xplore to identify the most promising candidates. The strongest candidates will be synthesized on a larger scale and tested by reactive extrusion at laboratory scale at C3M. The project also includes extensive materials characterization across multiple length scales. The resulting structures and properties will be studied using molecular-level and polymer-level techniques such as NMR, UV/Vis, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, SEC, DSC, processing studies, microscopy, rheology, and mechanical testing. The topic sits at the intersection of polymer chemistry and materials development, with a clear application to recyclable and hierarchically structured materials.