Andreia Fernandes de Sousa

Principal Researcher

       

Short CV

ANDREIA F SOUSA is a Principal Researcher at CICECO, the University of Aveiro Institute of Materials, Portugal, since 2024, where she leads a multidisciplinary team on the design of sustainable polymers (renewable, biodegradable, recyclable & recycling), within a circular economy mind-set. Her background is in Polymer Chemistry and sustainable chemistry, having completed a PhD in Chemistry (2011).

Sousa is a distinguished scientist with >60 papers, 2 are actually Highly Cited, 5 are covers and 2 are 2022 HOT Green Chemistry papers, accumulating over 2900 citations. Also based on her scientific contributions, she became Associate Editor for Reactive and Functional Polymers (Elsevier) besides being member of several other editorial boards (such as Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy and, Sustainable Chemistry for the Environment, both from Elsevier). Very recently, Sousa was distinguished, from hundreds of applications, as an Early Career Board member of the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering journal.

She coordinates/participates in several EU projects focusing different aspects of her research interests, including Hop On ABSolEU HE, CEEC Grant (2020.02322.CEECIND), CICECO award (POWER, 2022) MIT- Portugal project (MIT¬EXPL/ISF/0021/2017). Since 2019, she Chairs the European interdisciplinary network FUR4Sustain (CA18220) with >100 experts, 59 institutions and 30 countries.

Finally, she is the proud mother of 3 young children!

Collaborations

I have the pleasure to collaborate with a wide number of renown Researchers worldwide. A non-exhaustive list includes Prof. Katja Loos (University of Groningen, The Netherland), Prof. Anna Szymczyk and Prof. Magdalena Kwiatkowska (West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland), Prof. Nathanael Guigo and Prof. Nicolas Sbirrazzuoli (Université Côte d'Azur), Dr. Shanmugam Thiyagarajan (Wageningen University & Research, The Netherland), Prof. Dr. Michael A. R. Meier (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), Dr. Tobias Robert (Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Germany), Prof. Tobias Stern (University of Graz, Austria), Prof. Rupert Kargl (Graz University of Technology, Austria), Prof. Abid Majdi (Jouf University, Saudi Arabia), Prof. Prof. Ruoyu Zhang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), among many other international collaborations. I also collaborate, for a long time now, at National level, with Prof. Jorge Coelho and Prof. Ana Clotilde Fonseca (University of Coimbra), Prof. Paulo Ribeiro-Claro (CICECO, University of Aveiro) and Dr. Teresa Rocha Santos (CESAM, University of Aveiro).

Selected Publications

We have a large number of publications in each of the outlined R&D focus areas, including numerous highly-cited review articles.

B Agostinho, AJD Silvestre, JAP Coutinho, AF Sousa,* Synthetic (bio)degradable polymers - when does recycling fail?, Green Chem., 2023, 25, 13-31 (DOI: 10.1039/d2gc02726g)

2022 HOT Article for Green Chemistry


 

K Rihab, A Bougarech; S Zaidi, I. O. Althobaiti, M Abid, AJD Silvestre; AF Sousa,* S Abid, ACS Sustain Chem Eng, 2023, 11, 28, 10344–10351 (DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c01301)

B Agostinho, AJD Silvestre, AF Sousa,* From PEF to rPEF: disclosing the potential of deep eutectic solvents in continuous de-/re-polymerization recycling of biobased polyesters, Green Chem, 2022, 24, 3115-3119 (DOI: 10.1039/d2gc00074a)

2022 HOT Article for Green Chemistry


 

AF Sousa,* R Patrício, Z Terzopoulou, DN Bikiaris, T Stern, J Wenger, K Loos, N Lotti, V Siracusa, A Szymczyk, S Paszkiewicz, KS Triantafyllidis, A Zamboulis, MS Nikolic, P Spasojevic, S Thiyagarajan, DS Van Es, N Guigo, Recommendations for replacing PET on packaging, fiber, and film materials with biobased counterparts, Green Chem, 2021, 23 (22), 8795- 8820, (DOI: 10.1039/d1gc02082j)


 

AF Sousa,* AC Fonseca,* AC Serra, CSR Freire, AJD Silvestre and JFJ Coelho, New unsaturated copolyesters based on 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid and their crosslinked derivatives, Polym Chem, 2016, 7, 1049-1058 (DOI: 10.1039/c5py01702e)


 

AF Sousa,* C Vilela, AC Fonseca, M Matos, CSR Freire, G-JM Gruter, JFJ Coelho and AJD Silvestre, Biobased polyesters and other polymers from 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid: a tribute to furan excellency, Polym Chem, 2015, 6, 5961-5983 (DOI:10.1039/C5PY00686D)

Highly cited paper


 

 

Ongoing Supervisions

Projects

Publications

Closing the Loop: Greener and Efficient Hydrolytic Depolymerization for the Recycling of Polyesters Using Biobased Eutectic Solvents

Vinícius de Paula, Simão V. Pandeirada, Paulo J. A. Ribeiro-Claro, Armando J. D. Silvestre, Andreia F. Sousa
2025, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Enhancing plastic waste recycling: Evaluating the impact of additives on the enzymatic polymer degradation

Aguiar, MIS; Sousa, AF; Teixeira, G; Tavares, APM; Ferreira, AM; Coutinho, JAP
2024, CATALYSIS TODAY, 429.
ISBN: 1873-4308

Unraveling The Impact of Isomerism on Enzymatic Polymerization of Furanic Polyesters

Silvianti, F; Maniar, D; Agostinho, B; de Leeuw, TC; Pelras, T; Dijkstra, L; Woortman, AJJ; van Dijken, J; Thiyagarajan, S; Sousa, AF; Loos, K
2024, ADVANCED SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS, 8, 5.

Enzymatic Synthesis of Copolyesters with the Heteroaromatic Diol 3,4-Bis(hydroxymethyl)furan and Isomeric Dimethyl Furandicarboxylate Substitutions

Silvianti, F; Maniar, D; Agostinho, B; de Leeuw, TC; Woortman, AJJ; van Dijken, J; Thiyagarajan, S; Sousa, AF; Loos, K
2024, BIOMACROMOLECULES, 25, 5, 2792-2802.
ISBN: 1526-4602

Beyond 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid: status quo, environmental assessment, and blind spots of furanic monomers for bio-based polymers

Annatelli, M; Sánchez-Velandia, JE; Mazzi, G; Pandeirada, SV; Giannakoudakis, D; Rautiainen, S; Esposito, A; Thiyagarajan, S; Richel, A; Triantafyllidis, KS; Robert, T; Guigo, N; Sousa, AF; García-Verdugo, E; Aricò, F
2024, GREEN CHEMISTRY, 26, 16.
ISBN: 1463-9270

Enzymatic synthesis of biobased aliphatic-hetero-aromatic furanic copolyesters: Influence of furan dimethyl ester isomerism

Silvianti, F; Maniar, D; Agostinho, B; Leeuw, TCD; Lan, XH; Woortman, AJJ; van Dijken, J; Thiyagarajan, S; Sousa, AF; Loos, K
2024, POLYMER, 309.
ISBN: 1873-2291

Crystal structure of poly(trimethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) redux - a new model supported by computational spectroscopy

Araújo, CF; Pandeirada, SV; Oliveira, IM; Rosa, GB; Agostinho, B; Silvestre, AJD; Sousa, AF; Rudic, S; Vaz, PD; Nolasco, MM; Ribeiro-Claro, P
2024, POLYMER CHEMISTRY, 15, 42, 4349-4363.
ISBN: 1759-9962

The key role of pretreatment for the one-step and multi-step conversions of European lignocellulosic materials into furan compounds

Kammoun, M; Margellou, A; Toteva, VB; Aladjadjiyan, A; Sousa, AF; Luis, SV; Garcia-Verdugo, E; Triantafyllidis, KS; Richel, A
2023, RSC ADVANCES, 13, 31, 21395-21420.

Highly Flexible Poly(1,12-dodecylene 5,5' -isopropylidene-bis(ethyl 2-furoate)): A Promising Biobased Polyester Derived from a Renewable Cost-Effective Bisfuranic Precursor and a Long-Chain Aliphatic Spacer

Zaidi, S; Bougarech, A; Abid, M; Abid, S; Silvestre, AJD; Sousa, AF
2023, MOLECULES, 28, 10.

Biobased Semi-Crystalline Polyesteramides from 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid and 5,5′-Isopropylidene Bis(2-furfurylamine): Synthesis toward Crystallinity and Chemical Stability

Rihab, K; Bougarech, A; Zaidi, S; Althobaiti, IO; Abid, M; Silvestre, AJD; Sousa, AF; Abid, S
2023, ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING, 11, 28, 10344-10351.

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