Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science Seminar Series
New materials from polysaccharides –
from the synthesis to applications
with Thomas Heinze,
Centre of Excellence for Polysaccharide Research, Institute of Organic Chemistry and
Macromolecular Chemistry, University of Jena
Friday, March 23, 2012, 9:00 - 10:30 am
ICTAS Room 310, Stanger Street
Polysaccharides are fascinating polymers with structural diversity and functional versatility and they are the most important
renewable resource. In contrast to the complete degradation to so-called biofuels and organic building blocks, the chemical
modification of the intact polymer backbone is the most promising path to take full advantage of polysaccharides. Chemical
modification reactions at the hydroxyl groups and at the C-atoms under different conditions (solvents, reagents) will be
discussed. Regioselective modification, introduction of unconventional functions like dendrons, and alternative synthesis
paths like Click chemistry allow designing the properties towards a broad variety of highly-engineered polymers based on
polysaccharides. Thus, the results discussed open new avenues both to improve present application and to establish novel
application fields for polysaccharides. Attention will be paid also to polysaccharide derivatives forming nanostructures.
Since 2002, Dr. Thomas Heinze has directed the Center of Excellence for Polysaccharide Chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) in
Germany. Dr. Heinze earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from FSU in 1989 and completed a post-doc in polymer chemistry at the Catholic
University of Lueven, Belgium, in 1995. In 2010, Dr. Heinze was appointed Finland Distinguished Professor at Åbo Akademi in the Department of
Chemical Engineering, Fibre and Cellulose Technology, Turku, Finland. Dr. Heinze holds 19 patents and has authored 330 publications including the
Comprehensive Cellulose Chemistry, published by Wiley-VCH in 1998, and Esterification of Polysaccharides, published by Springer in 2006. He is a
member of the German Chemical Society, the American Chemical Society, and the Pulp and Paper Chemists and Engineers Association of Germany.
Dr. Heinze has served as editor for Advances in Polymer Science and for Macromolecular Symposia and as associate editor for Cellulose. He is an advisory
board member for various professional journals, including Starch, BioResources, Macromolecular Bioscience, Cellulose Chemistry and Technology, and
Carbohydrate Polymers.
Professor Heinze is the 2011 winner of the Anselme Payen Award, the highest honor of the Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division of the American
Chemical Society.