Title: Opuntia (Cactaceae) as sustainable feedstock for ecological and green materials

Abstract:

Bio-based materials from biomass resources generated a wide use of industrial crops in recent years, and have received potential applications in several sectors, due to the human desire to consume sustainable and ecological products. Opuntia (Cactaceae), were mainly studied as cellulosic resources for their sustainability and cellulose content richness. Cellulosic fibres from Opuntia feedstock was exploited for value-added applications such as (i) fibrous-network reinforcement in composites and paper manufacturing (ii). A green process for cellulosic fibrous-network extraction was used and their morphology, fundamental properties, chemical and structural compositions, was studied. The obtained fibrous-networks were incorporated into PVOH and SBR thermoplastic polymers; their properties towards enhancement, swelling and biodegradability have been studied.

Biography:

Faten Mannai is a Doctor in chemistry, and has a post-doctoral position and one of the researcher members in Materia, Environment and Energy Laboratory in the faculty of Science of Gafsa, Tunisia. She has many scientific papers and chapters in the polymer and bio-based material fields published in international journals and/or with different publisher. Faten has 3 years of professional experience as a professor: (i) 1 year in the faculty of science of Gafsa and (ii) 2 years in preparatory institute for engineering studies of Gafsa, University of Gafsa, Tunisia. He has presented more than abstract on national and international congress, symposium and seminars.