Abstract: 

Leather-like materials derived from non-animal sources have emerged as a sustainable response to the environmental and ethical concerns associated with conventional leather production, including high greenhouse gas emissions from raw hides, hazardous chemical residues and animal welfare issues. However, widely used synthetic alternatives, such as polyurethane- and polyvinyl chloride-based materials, remain constrained by complex manufacturing, volatile organic compound emissions, and poor biodegradability. In this talk, I will present our recent development of three classes of biomass-based leather-like materials derived from mushrooms, seaweed, and bacterial cellulose. By integrating renewable biological resources with scalable materials processing, we are dedicated to creating sustainable leather alternatives which are compatible with continuous production, as well as subsequent finishing treatment and design flexibility, offering promising applications not only in niche fashion, but also functional and staple products.

Biography:

Wei Lin received her Ph.D. in Leather Chemistry and Engineering at Sichuan University (Chengdu) in June 2000. She moved to University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei) in September 2000 as a postdoctoral fellow for two years in Dr. Qingshi Zhu and Dr. Chi Wu’s research groups. After an additional postdoctoral research associate in Professor Michal Borkovec’s group in the Department of Inorganic, Analytical and Applied Chemistry at University of Geneva during April 2003 to August 2005, she returned to the Department of Leather Chemistry and Engineering at Sichuan University, and promoted to Full Professor in June 2006. Her research interests center on Green and low-carbon leather-making. She focuses on studying macromolecular structure and properties of collagen and its interactions with tanning substances, as well as biomass-derived leather-like materials. She also focuses on cdesigning and developing environmental-friendly leather chemicals, and life cycle assessment-based carbon footprint accounting for leather industry. She is responsible for the Committee Chair of Sichuan Province Leather Society since December 2017, and the President of Leather Science and Engineering Press since June 2019.