Feevale University professor, Vanusca Dalosto Jahno, was invited to participate in the I Encontro Nacional de Biocelulose. Vanusca will give the lecture Evaluation of the degradation of materials in different environments - from "in vitro" to weathering. In addition to the subject, the professor will present the Clean Technologies Research and Development Center of Feevale University and will talk about the research on degradation of materials for biomaterials and materials which are exposed to weathering conducted in partnership with Häme University of Applied Sciences (Hamk), Finland.The event will take place in Araraquara, São Paulo, from June 4 to 6.

Natural weathering refers to the environmental exposition of materials, whose purpose is to verify the level of degradation due to radiation, temperature, humidity and seasonality. Therefore, the objective of the study is to expose a material with satin vinyl foam (EVA) and 7% post-consumer plastics to environmental conditions evaluating the effects of the weather on its natural degradation.

The study methodology relies on the natural exposure of samples in panels located in both institutions. Finally, before and after a natural exposure period the samples were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Optical Microscopy (OM) and Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy. The results demonstrated that the degradation was more pronounced in the samples exposed in Feevale compared to those exposed in Hamk.