Dr. Shahrooz Zargarian, a Materials Engineer with a PhD in Polymer Engineering, has been working at IPPT PAN since 2020. His expertise lies in sustainable design for high-performance environmental solutions. Now, as a recipient of both the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF) and the Bekker NAWA scholarship, he is set to push the boundaries of sustainability-driven research even further.
His MSCA PF project focused on developing multifunctional, eco-friendly air filters. At the heart of the design was an unexpected player: trash coffee! With more than 2 billion cups of coffee consumed worldwide every day, an astonishing 6 million tons of trash coffee accumulate annually, much of it ending up in landfills where it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Seeking to turn waste into worth, he devised a minimal intervention approach to repurpose trash coffee into a stable suspension of microparticles. Using advanced fabrication methods such as electrospinning (a process that creates nanofibrous membranes using electric forces) and electrospraying (which allows controlled deposition of fine particles), he engineered a micro-nano structured membrane capable of simultaneously capturing both toxic gases and particulate matter. Additionally, he used the intrinsic photothermal properties of the trash coffee to impart antibacterial functionality. Photothermal materials efficiently absorb light and convert it into heat, which, in turn, raises the platform temperature, ideal for eradicating bacteria on demand.
In the midst of his air filtration research, Dr. Zargarian stumbled upon an astonishing serendipitous discovery. When exposed to sunlight, a coating made purely from trash coffee exhibited a remarkable transition from hydrophilicity (water-attracting) to superhydrophobicity (extreme-water-repelling). The mechanism? Sunlight induces heat, which triggers the migration of naturally occurring fatty acids in the trash coffee to its surface, dramatically lowering surface energy. So, without the use of harmful fluorine-based chemicals or destructive physical treatments like pyrolysis, the trash coffee coating allows water droplets to effortlessly roll off, just like on a lotus leaf.
Building on this discovery, Dr. Zargarian is now preparing to take his research to the next level with the support of the Bekker NAWA scholarship. In few months, he will embark on a new chapter at Humboldt University of Berlin, where he aims to transform the trash coffee coating into a stimuli-responsive surface. The goal? To achieve reversibly switchable wetting properties, enabling the coating to shift from superhydrophobic to hydrophilic on demand. Such a development has immense applications in water purification, water manipulation, and self-cleaning materials.
Dr. Zargarian’s journey exemplifies how scientific research can lead to tangible, environmentally impactful innovations. From air filtration to smart coatings, his work marks the power of scientific creativity in addressing sustainability challenges, one cup of coffee at a time!
