Education

BSc in Chemistry, March 2017 – December 2021 Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Department of Chemistry Brazil.
High School Diploma with Integrated Technical Course in Chemistry, March 2013 – December 2016 Federal Institute of Santa Catarina (IFSC), Brazil.

Research

October 2023 – Present: R&D Innovation Researcher at Duas Rodas S.A
Duas Rodas S.A. is Brazil's largest house of aromas, specializing in manufacturing flavors and ingredients for the food and beverage industry. This project aims to use food industry waste and agro-byproducts as raw materials for developing products lined up with responsible production processes.
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Designed experiments to use guarana waste and guarana shell as lignocellulose sources to synthesize new chemicals, such as vanillin from lignin (for producing vanilla aroma), by lignin oxidation in an alkaline medium.
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Optimized the process to obtain a caffeine-rich product from guarana seed shell.
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Prepared texture agents from the industry wastes as substitutes for methylcellulose in hamburger plant-based formulation.
March 2017 – October 2021: Undergraduate Researcher at Laboratory of Catalysis and Interfacial Phenomena (LACFI), Chemistry Department UFSC.
Worked with PhD students in two major projects focused on synthesizing highly functionalized materials, including polymers and polymer-coated iron magnetic composites, as heterogeneous catalysts for organophosphate degradation. These catalysts accelerated substrate degradation by at least 100 times compared to spontaneous hydrolysis and could be reused for up to nine cycles without significant loss of catalytic activity.
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Used post-modified polymerization to functionalize a commercial polymer with imidazole groups by opening the anhydride ring.
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Synthesized polymer-coated iron magnetic nanocomposites by coprecipitation, stabilized with potassium oleate, and copolymerized with glycidyl methacrylate. Functionalized them with different amines by opening the epoxide ring.
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Produced iron core-shell magnetic composites by dispersion polymerization of 4-nitrophenyl methacrylate in the presence of magnetite nanoparticles stabilized by oleic acid.
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Monitored the hydrolysis kinetics of the substrates under a pseudo-first-order regime, with degradation rate determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy.
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Determined the first-order observed rate constant from absorbance versus time data fitted using a first-order rate equation in Origin Lab.
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Tested the recyclability of the catalyst.
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Characterized the catalysts by FTIR spectroscopy, 1H 13P 12C NMR spectroscopy, TGA, TEM and Zeta potential.
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Participated regularly in lab meetings, presenting results quarterly.

Sustainable Catalysis

Polymer Recycling

Publicaciones