Esakkiammal Sudha Esakkimuthu

InnoRenew CoE · Renewable Materials Composites (RMC)

Electrochemical supercapacitors are energy storage systems that exhibit high-power density, high cycle stability, and fast charge–discharge capacity. Carbon-based electrodes have been extensively used for supercapacitors due to their excellent porosity, mechanical properties, and large surface areas. However, these carbons are produced from fossil-...

Forest-based industries produce huge quantities of bark during their primary processing activities. In Nordic pulp and paper industries, where a wet debarking process is used for bark removal, toxic debarking water and bark press water are produced as a by-product. However, polyphenols represent an important fraction of the debarking water and bark...

Lignin is the most abundant aromatic biopolymer with many promising features but also shortcomings as a filler in polymer blends. The main objective of this work was to improve the processability and compatibility of lignin with poly (lactic acid) (PLA) through etherification of lignin. Commercial kraft lignin (KL) and oxypropylated kraft lignin (O...

The determination of the true molar mass distribution (MMD) of lignin is highly important to understand the physicochemical characteristics for lignin-based value-added applications. It is imperative to develop a universal method to quantify accurate MMD of lignin using size exclusion chromatography (SEC), as the conventional method with polymer st...

Olive oil production using three-phase decanter systems creates olive oil and two by-products: olive mill wastewater (OMWW) and pomace. These by-products contain the highest share of polyphenolic compounds that are known to be associated with beneficial effects on human health. Therefore, they are an attractive source of phenolic compounds for furt...

Electrodes are the fundamental components in lithium-ion batteries to develop high-performance device systems. The fabrication process of electrodes involves a mixing of active materials, a nonconductive polymeric binder material, and an electrically conductive additive. Binders play a critical role during the electrochemical process, which tightly...

Lignin is an aromatic biopolymer derived from lignocellulosic biomass. Providing a comprehensive structural analysis of lignin is the primary motivation for the quantification of various functional groups, with a view to valorizing lignin in a wide range of applications. This study investigated the lignin fluorobenzylation reaction and performed a...

Lignin is the second most abundant biopolymer on earth and it consists of highly-branched, three dimensional aromatic structures with variety of functional groups, mainly phenolic and alcoholic functions. This research work was focused on derivatization methods to quantify hydroxyl groups in lignins and to determine lignin molar mass distribution b...

Papers from recycled fibers are known to have poor mechanical and barrier properties due to reduced interfiber bonding capability. To create attractive products from this kind of paper, coating is a way of interest. An oxypropylated lignin-based coating was tested on 100% recycled paper. Propylene carbonate (PC) which is a non-volatile and biodegra...