KTH Royal Institute of Technolgy, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, and Eka Chemicals

Tell us something about yourself.
I am a PhD student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, employed by EKA Chemicals, just about to graduate in the field of Fibre Technology. My research is about the preparation, characterization and use of polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs). The specific PECs that I am working with are nanometer-sized polymer structures that, if cleverly produced, possibly could play a lot of interesting roles in the paper industry e.g. as strength additives.

What is the golden nugget of your presentation?
I will show how PECs can be produced in a fast, convenient and controlled way, using a new technique that we call jet mixing. I will also show that PECs can be used to molecularly tailor the fibre surface, in order to get exactly the fibre-fibre joint properties that you want.