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Professor Antoine Buchard

Royal Society University Research Fellow

Professor of Sustainable Polymer Chemistry

Overview

Antoine is Professor of Sustainable Polymer Chemistry and a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York.

His research focuses on the development of polymers derived from renewable resources (e.g., carbohydrates, CO2, vegetable oils, terpenes, amino acids). The ultimate goal of this research is to produce more sustainable polymers, to address the challenges associated with the intensive use of non-degradable polymers derived from fossil fuels.

Research in the team is interdisciplinary, combining experimental and computational work, and has recently involved the synthesis of monomers from sugars, controlled (de)polymerisation catalysis, the structure-property relationship of polymers, and their applications as commodity plastics (packaging, elastomers, coatings) and specialty functional molecules (liquid formulations, electrolytes for batteries, sensors for health).

Please see our group website for regular updates and news about our team’s research, publications, members, and opportunities.

Biography

Biography

Antoine Buchard is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of York, where he and his team moved in April 2024. Prior to this position he was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bath. He began his independent research career at Bath as a Whorrod Research Fellow in 2013, before being awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2017 and promoted to Reader (2019) then Professor (2023). While at Bath Antoine was also one of the Associate Directors (Sustainable Chemical Technologies) of the University of Bath Institute for Sustainability.

Originally from France, Antoine graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, where he also completed his PhD, under the supervision of Prof. Pascal Le Floch (2009). He then moved to the UK and worked at Imperial College London as a postdoctoral research assistant in the group of Prof. Charlotte K. Williams FRS. Antoine returned to France in 2011 and gained industrial R&D experience, working for Air Liquide on Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilisation (CCSU) projects. 

Research

Overview

Because of their environmental persistence and dependence on fossil-based resources, the intensive use of most polymers currently on the market is viewed as unsustainable. One vision for more sustainable polymers is that of materials, derived from renewable feedstocks, which exhibit closed-loop life cycles. 


Figure 1. Strategies towards more sustainable and circular polymers, derived from renewable feedstocks.

Bio-derived polymers

Research in our team involves the development of bio-derived polymers with targeted properties, which can be applied as commodity plastics (packaging, elastomers, coatings) and speciality functional molecules (liquid formulations, electrolytes for batteries, sensors for health). To that effect, we have for example recently incorporated monosaccharide units into synthetic polymer backbones, to imbue the resulting materials with the desirable attributes of sugar feedstocks: abundance, renewability, diversity, functionalisability and degradability.

This has led our team to make scientific discoveries across chemistry and materials science. We have thus pioneered the synthesis of polycarbonates from sugars and CO₂ (Gregory et al. 2016 Macromolecules; McGuire et al. 2019 J. Am. Chem. Soc.) and demonstrated the potential of synthetic carbohydrate polymers for tuneability (McGuire et al. 2021 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and Macromolecules) and applications, e.g. as plastics films with gas-barrier properties (Piccini et al. 2021 ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.), or as battery electrolytes (Oshinowo et al. J. Mater. Chem. A). Our group has also devised methods to incorporate sugar units into commercial polymers (PLA, PMMA…) to enhance their degradability to light (Hardy et al. 2022 Chem. Commun.) and/or hydrolysis (Hardy et al. 2023 ACS Macro Lett.). We also work with Dr Hannah Leese (University of Bath) towards the development of bio-derived polymer sensors for health (biomarker detection) and environmental applications (PFAS remediation).
 

Figure 2. Selected examples of novel sugar-derived polymers and their applications, developed in the team.

(De)-polymerisation catalysis, modelling and automation

Catalysis is at the heart of polymer production, but its role in the chemical recycling of polymers into their monomers has recently attracted a lot of attention. Indeed, when mechanical recycling is not possible anymore, chemical recycling to monomer (CRM) is ideal to minimise waste and energy input. In collaboration with Prof C. K. Williams FRS (University of Oxford), we for example have reported polymer CRM catalysts operating on neat polymer films. This strategy has been applied to the chemical recycling of commercial PLA (McGuire et al. 2023 J. Am. Chem. Soc.) and emerging polycarbonate materials (McGuire et al. 2022 J. Am. Chem. Soc.) but more research is still needed. The ability to create a selective catalytic chemical sorting of intractable mixed plastics waste, based on catalyst selectivity, is also the focus of a collaboration with Prof. A. P. Dove (University of Birmingham).

On all (de)polymerisation catalysis projects, our team routinely uses Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations in parallel with experimental work, to aid the elucidation of reaction mechanisms and obtain insight towards the design of better catalysts (Buchard et al. 2023 ACS Catal.; Deacy et al. 2022 J. Am. Chem. Soc.). To intensify the production of renewable polymers we are also investigating the use of flow chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis, in collaboration with Prof T. Junkers (Monash University, Australia).


Figure 3. Selected polymerisation and depolymerisation catalysis activities within the team.

Research projects in the group

  • Small molecules (e.g., CO2) activation and transformation.
  • Synthesis of novel monomers and polymers from renewable resources (e.g., sugars).
  • Carbohydrate chemistry and catalysis.
  • Organic and inorganic catalyst design.
  • Polymerisation and depolymerisation catalysis.
  • Computational chemistry (Density Functional Theory Modelling) for mechanistic studies.
  • Application of sustainable polymers (3D printing, packaging, elastomers, battery electrolytes, macromolecular catalysts, metal scavenger membranes, sensors for health...).

Publications

Selected publications

Find out more about my research

Contact details

Professor Antoine Buchard
Professor of Sustainable Polymer Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
University of York
Heslington
York
YO10 5DD

Tel: +44 (0)1904 32 5539

https://www.buchardgroup.org/