Dr. Viviana Ospina

Postdoctoral Fellow
Employed since: April 2025
Phone: +31 6 30022309
Email: v.m.ospinaguarin@uu.nl
Room: DDW 4th floor open area

Research

Research

Conventional mechanical and chemical recycling methods often yield low-quality products. For instance, pyrolysis can decompose polymers back into their original monomers for reuse in new plastics; however, this process suffers from low selectivity due to the extreme temperatures involved.

I joined the ICC as a postdoctoral researcher, involved in the ERC StG project IMPACT, which explores an innovative recycling approach that utilizes mechanochemical impact to break down polyolefins into their monomers and shorter-chain hydrocarbons. My responsibilities include operating and integrating key analytical techniques such as Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and high-temperature size exclusion chromatography (HT-SEC). Furthermore, I am actively engaged in ongoing research activities.

The proposed reaction mechanism for the polymer cleavage involves the formation of mechano-radicals, and their structural characterization is crucial for understanding the preferred cleavage points. To facilitate this, a new EPR setup was acquired, allowing for the study of these radicals at low, room, and high temperatures. This instrument also enables in-situ investigation of the thermal radical initiation process on sulfated and tungstated zirconia.

The cleavage of the polymer chains is analyzed using size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Since polyolefins are the target polymers, HT-SEC is employed and requires a specialized system that operates at 170 °C with trichlorobenzene, a solvent capable of dissolving these polymers while necessitating careful handling protocols.

CV

CV

2020 – 2024
Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biology, Polymers for the doping of semiconductors
University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy.

January – June 2018
Erasmus + ICM scholarship
University of Groningen, Netherlands.

2016 – 2018
MSc in Chemical Sciences
University of Antioquia, Colombia.

2007 – 2014
BSc in Chemistry
University of Antioquia, Colombia.

Publications

Ivaldi, Chiara; Laguzzi, Erica; Ospina, Viviana Maria; Antonioli, Diego; Chiarcos, Riccardo; Campo, Federica; Cuminetti, Nicola; Buck, Janosc De; Laus, Michele

Exploiting β-amino ester chemistry to obtain methacrylate-based covalent adaptable networks Journal Article

In: Polymer, vol. 293, 2024, (Cited by: 7; All Open Access, Hybrid Gold Open Access).

Links | BibTeX

Ivaldi, Chiara; Guarin, Viviana Maria Ospina; Antonioli, Diego; Zuccheri, Giampaolo; Sparnacci, Katia; Gianotti, Valentina; Perego, Michele; Chiarcos, Riccardo; Laus, Michele

Polystyrene Brush Evolution by Grafting to Reaction on Deglazed and Not-Deglazed Silicon Substrates Journal Article

In: Macromolecular Rapid Communications, vol. 45, no. 18, 2024, (Cited by: 2).

Links | BibTeX

Barin, Gianluca; Seguini, Gabriele; Chiarcos, Riccardo; Ospina, Viviana Maria; Laus, Michele; Lenardi, Cristina; Perego, Michele

Phosphorus activation in silicon: To deglaze or not to deglaze, that is the question Journal Article

In: Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, vol. 165, 2023, (Cited by: 3).

Links | BibTeX

Ospina, Viviana Maria; Chiarcos, Riccardo; Antonioli, Diego; Gianotti, Valentina; Laus, Michele; Kuschlan, Stefano; Wiemer, Claudia; Perego, Michele

Brush Layers of Bioinspired Polypeptoids for Deterministic Doping of Semiconductors Journal Article

In: ACS Applied Electronic Materials, vol. 4, no. 12, pp. 6029 – 6037, 2022, (Cited by: 9).

Links | BibTeX

Chiarcos, Riccardo; Antonioli, Diego; Ospina, Viviana; Laus, Michele; Perego, Michele; Gianotti, Valentina

Quantification of molecular weight discrimination in: Grafting to reactions from ultrathin polymer films by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry Journal Article

In: Analyst, vol. 146, no. 20, pp. 6145 – 6155, 2021, (Cited by: 10).

Links | BibTeX

Maniar, Dina; Silvianti, Fitrilia; Ospina, Viviana M.; Woortman, Albert J. J.; Dijken, Jur; Loos, Katja

On the way to greener furanic-aliphatic poly(ester amide)s: Enzymatic polymerization in ionic liquid Journal Article

In: Polymer, vol. 205, 2020, (Cited by: 34; All Open Access, Green Open Access, Hybrid Gold Open Access).

Links | BibTeX

Ospina, Viviana; Bernal, Claudia; Mesa, Monica

Thermal Hyperactivation and Stabilization of β-Galactosidase from Bacillus circulans through a Silica Sol-Gel Process Mediated by Chitosan-Metal Chelates Journal Article

In: ACS Applied Bio Materials, vol. 2, no. 8, pp. 3380 – 3392, 2019, (Cited by: 9).

Links | BibTeX