Andreia Fernandes de Sousa

Principal Researcher

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  • Chemistry
  • 29.3.32

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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

Feriel Abid

PhD Student

Mariana I. S. Aguiar

PhD Student

Paula Sofia Sarrico Lacerda

Researcher

Simão Vidinha Pandeirada

PhD Student

Tânia Teixeira Gonçalves Dinis

Science and Technology Manager

Vinícius de Paula

PhD Student

Projects

ABSolEU: closing the loop on ABS plastics recycling  (ABSolEU)

Local CoordinatorEuropean Comission
At least 85% of end-of-life ABS plastic, found in durable products ranging from toys to automotive components and daily-use items such as shavers, ends up in landfills or being incinerated. The ABSolEU project aims to develop and mature a technology for the physical recycling of ABS, providing a clean and safe recyclate that is free of additives...

Green Plastic recycling: Additives removal THrough renewable solvents to enhancing the enzymatic depolymerization (GreenPATH)

PartnerFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
GreenPATH aims to develop a sustainable pretreatment process that combines high-pressure solid-liquid extraction (HP-SLE) with low-cost, renewable solvents, namely biosolvents and deep eutectic solvents (DES), to extract the additives in a key step prior to enzymatic depolymerization. The focus of this initiative is on the removal of organic and...

European network of FURan based chemicals and materials FOR a Sustainable development (FUR4Sustain)

CoordinatorEuropean Comission
Modern society relies on a huge quantity of polymeric materials. However, today, these materials are still almost exclusively based on fossil-resources and evolution to a more sustainable model of development is required. In this perspective, biomass and, in particular carbohydrates from, for example, low value biomass wa...

ILLIANCE (ILLIANCE (WP4 - OLI Health))

PartnerIndustry National
ILLIANCE Agenda embodies a complex ecosystem of integrated projects which aims at addressing the goal of carbon neutrality of the buildings sector, which represents 40% of global CO2 emissions. The adopted approach adopted is based on the development of complementary technologies associated with 3 core pillars, i.e.: health, comfort and sustaina...

Rational design of a thermostable esterase for the production of highvalue bioplastics for biomedical applications (ThermoEst)

Local CoordinatorFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
This project is focused on the design of customized thermostable enzymes to produce highvaluebiopolymers for biomedicalapplications.We are living a new industrial production paradigm era, where biocatalysis is becoming increasingly competitive and replacingtraditional chemical synthesis. Nowadays, ...

Publications

The Evaluation of Eutectic Solvents as Catalysts for Mediating the Greener Synthesis of Poly(alkylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate)s

Beatriz Agostinho, Vinícius de Paula, Armando J. D. Silvestre, Andreia F. Sousa
2026, Molecules, 31, 1.

Breaking the cycle: A novel eco-friendly strategy for poly(hexamethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) synthesis and recycling

Feriel Abid, Paula S.S. Lacerda, Vinícius de Paula, Catarina F. Araújo, Fabio Aricò, Armando J.D. Silvestre, Andreia F. Sousa
2026, Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, 50.

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.

Unveiling the uncommon crystallization features of 3, 4-PEF, a thermal and DFT study

Simão V Pandeirada, Catarina F Araújo, Mariela M Nolasco, Pedro D Vaz, Svemir Rudić, Armando JD Silvestre, Nathanael Guigo, Paulo Ribeiro-Claro, Andreia F Sousa
2025, Polymer, 320.

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

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.

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

Polyethylene Terephthalate: Copolyesters, Composites, and Renewable Alternatives

In P. M. Visakh Mong Liang (Eds.), Poly(ethylene Terephthalate) Based Blends, Composites and Nanocomposites.
Andreia F. Sousa, Carla Vilela, Marina Matos, Carmen S.R. Freire, Armando J.D. Silvestre, Jorge F.J. Coelho
2015, 111-139, Elsevier Science Ltd.
ISBN: 9780323313063

Development of more sustainable polymers and composites materials based on 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid

Marina Matos
2019, supervised by Armando Jorge Domingues Silvestre and Andreia Fernandes de Sousa.

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