Avik De

Avik De is a research and development engineer at MoRe research. He works with the development of green insulation materials for buildings. As part of his project, he is currently working at Luleå University of Technology as a visiting researcher. His project is an industrial project WISE (Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability) funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Avik works with Farid Akhtar from Luleå University of Technology and Sara Wallstén from MoRe as his supervisor.

He has many years of research experience in the field of organic-inorganic hybrid materials & porous materials for various applications. He also has experience in crystallography, electrochemistry and other analytical techniques. He completed his PhD in Chemical Sciences from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata, India. Before starting MoRe research, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow with André Ohlin at Umeå University, Sweden. His hobbies include travel, photography and cooking.

The research project proposes new bio-based and circular inorganic-organic hybrid materials to process thermal insulation of various forms suitable for new and old buildings.

The project aims to improve energy efficiency while replacing fossil-based and hazardous materials in the construction sector. In Sweden, the construction sector accounts for the majority of energy consumption and the majority of greenhouse gas emissions. The conventional materials we mostly use for building insulation are based on fossil-based compounds. We need to replace them with greener alternatives.

During the 1960s and 1970s, more than one million buildings were built under the Million Program over 10 years. These buildings were made very quickly and have poor insulation. Our goal is also to rebuild these old buildings with efficient and recyclable insulation materials, which we will develop during this project at a low cost.

This project is an industrial project from  WISE  (Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability) funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. This project is carried out together with Luleå University of Technology.