Integrating Biopolymers, Chitin, and Ionic Liquids
for Sustainable Material Innovation

My research focuses on leveraging biopolymers to develop high-value products, chemicals, and fuels while promoting their environmental and economic benefits. Achieving success in this field requires advancements in material performance, scalability, and disruptive technologies to overcome challenges related to economics, life-cycle sustainability, and supply chains. Major research thrusts include:

    Biotechnology – Developing biomaterials for medical applications, including tissue engineering and drug delivery.

    Functional Materials – Creating advanced composites from bio-renewable resources and bio-waste to enhance sustainability.

    Separations – Implementing novel strategies to refine value-added products from biomass efficiently.

Our group works at the intersection of materials, chemistry, and agriculture, with the goal of building a practical circular bioeconomy. The work is supported by NSF, USDA, industry partners, and TTU translation funds, and it’s designed as a connected system rather than a set of standalone projects.

I want to start with something very concrete: the biomass we actually have in this region. In Texas, we generate large amounts of biological material every year that is underused or treated as waste. This includes cotton byproducts (it is not just a fiber), crustacean shell waste from food systems, and other agricultural residues. These materials already exist. They’re local. And they’re produced at meaningful volumes. So the real question for us – can we use the specific biomass we already have here to create real value?

When we talk about creating value, we don’t just mean finding another use for existing materials. We mean expanding what biomass can actually do. The value isn’t in the biomass itself — it’s in the new functions we can create from it. That could be new performance, new applications, or new ways materials behave that don’t exist today. This is about expanding the value of agricultural systems, not just improving efficiency. We’re taking materials that traditionally sit at the low end of the value chain and using new technologies to move them upstream into higher-value roles.

Even if a material works well in the lab, that’s still not enough. If it can’t be made at scale, it won’t be adopted. Scale is what turns a good idea into a real material — it’s where cost, consistency, and reliability all come into play, That’s why scale isn’t something we think about at the end. Scalability shapes how we design the material and the technology from the beginning.

And once scale becomes the goal, this brings us back to the agricultural back loop: we don’t just take biomass as given. We use what we learn downstream—performance requirements, failure modes, and product specifications—to inform upstream decisions in breeding, agronomy, and crop chemistry, so the next generation of biomass is better aligned with end-use performance and value.

So when we talk about a circular economy here, we don’t mean it as a slogan. We mean a system where regional biomass becomes a reliable raw supply, new technologies turn it into competitive [new] materials, scale makes those materials usable, and what we learn at scale feeds back into agriculture to improve the next cycle. In that sense, circular economy isn’t the starting point — it’s the outcome of designing the system correctly.

CHITIN

Chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide on Earth, after cellulose, with an estimated global production of around 0.15 megatons per year. It is primarily sourced from the shells of crustaceans like shrimp and crabs, which are abundant in marine ecosystems and are often considered waste byproducts. This makes chitin a sustainable and renewable resource, which can help address environmental issues related to waste management. Chitin and its derivatives, such as chitosan, have shown great promise in biomedical applications. They can be used in wound healing, drug delivery, tissue engineering, and as antimicrobial agents. Understanding chitin’s biological interactions and its potential for functionalization is key to advancing these applications, particularly in creating biocompatible materials. Chitin has potential as a renewable source of bio-based materials for use in biodegradable plastics. By studying the processing and modification of chitin, we can develop new, sustainable materials that are both effective and environmentally friendly, reducing the dependence on fossil fuels.

IONIC LIQUIDS

Ionic liquids (ILs) consist of both organic and inorganic ions, with electrostatic interactions between them. The diversity of ions in ILs is further complicated by the fact that there is no single characteristic that applies to all ILs, except for their melting point. As a result, no single model can comprehensively describe the entire family of ILs. Ionic liquids serve as an ideal medium for a wide range of engineering applications, from solvents to biological compounds. My research has focused on studying the fundamental properties of IL systems and their structure-property relationships, including stoichiometric ILs, non-stoichiometric ILs, proton transfer room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) systems, and eutectic mixtures. I have also worked on the preparation of energetic materials in IL form for advanced propulsion systems in space and missile applications, with funding from US AFOSR and NASA. Additionally, I have explored the use of ILs to improve the delivery and bioavailability of pharmaceuticals. Ultimately, my work has led me to focus on the use of ionic liquids in the processing of biopolymers, an area I am currently developing further.