Dr. Aysel Mammadova is a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS), Azerbaijan. She holds a degree in chemistry and received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Hungary, in 2023. Her research covers biodegradable functional polymers and hydrogels, in two main areas:
release kinetics of macromolecular drugs from hydrogels, with a long-term aim of developing gene delivery systems;
polymer-based materials for wastewater treatment, including biodegradable flocculants and immobilised-enzyme systems for degrading persistent organic pollutants.
Dr Mammadova co-founded the start-up Climasel. She has twice received grant funding from the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan (KOBÄ°A). At BHOS, she teaches chemical thermodynamics and materials chemistry for chemical engineers. She supervises MSc dissertations and undergraduate research projects on polymer synthesis and water treatment. Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals.
Synthetic polymers are used throughout water and wastewater treatment as flocculants, adsorbents and carrier materials. Many of them, such as conventional polyacrylamide flocculants, persist in the environment after use and add to the pollution they are meant to remove. Biodegradable polymers are a sustainable alternative, provided they can match the performance of conventional materials.
This presentation focuses on poly(aspartic acid), a biodegradable polyamino acid. It is made from aspartic acid through its precursor, polysuccinimide. Opening the polysuccinimide ring with different amines produces a family of functional polyaspartamides, with charge density, hydrophilicity and crosslinking that can be tuned for a specific application. Dr Mammadova’s research uses this platform to develop materials for environmental technologies.
The talk will cover the full pathway from molecular design and synthesis to structural characterisation and application testing. Special attention will be given to cationic polyaspartamide-based flocculants for water treatment, including their performance and their biodegradation in the environment, as shown in recently published work. Ongoing research will also be presented on enzymes immobilised on polysaccharide carriers coated with cationic polyaspartamides. These systems are used for the biocatalytic degradation of persistent dye pollutants in wastewater. The presentation will close with the main challenges and future directions for designing functional polymers that are efficient in use and harmless after use.
Biodegradable Materials for Water and Environmental Sustainability: From Synthesis to Application