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Zinchenko Lab (Sustainable Materials Lab)
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The lab studies polymers and the environment, turning waste into usable materials.
AboutAbout the lab
Turning waste into usable materials.
The Zinchenko Lab (Sustainable Materials Lab) researches how to turn waste plastics and biomass waste into materials with useful functions.
Combining polymer and colloid science with environmental engineering, the lab uses cheap, abundant waste itself as the raw material and designs practical routes to turn it into materials.
The results are materials you can hold in your hands: MOFs made from PET bottles to capture CO2, adsorbents for heavy metals made from crab shells, and soil stabilizers made from waste-derived polymers.
The lab also carries out joint research with universities and companies in Japan and abroad, and Japanese and international students work together in English and Japanese.
Key terms
- Upcycling
- Turning unwanted items into something of higher value than the original
- MOF (metal-organic framework)
- A material formed by metals and organic molecules linked in a regular arrangement, with many tiny pores. It can take in gases and separate them
- Adsorbent
- A material that removes specific substances from water or air by making them stick to its surface
NewsLab news
Paper on upcycling waste PET fibers into adsorbent materials published in Journal of Cleaner Production
Nagoya University press release on results of joint research with the Chemical Process Engineering Lab on MOF synthesis from waste PET bottles and CO2 capture
Paper on enhancing heavy metal adsorption of crab shell-derived biochar published in Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering
Paper on ground improvement, joint with the Geotechnical Engineering Lab, published in International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Paper on gold recovery from electronic waste, joint with the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute, published in Separation and Purification Technology
ResearchResearch themes
Starting from discarded items such as PET bottles, waste textiles, shrimp and crab shells, and used electronic devices, the lab studies ways to turn each into a material with useful functions. These raw materials are abundant and cheap, but they vary in composition and contain impurities, so the lab combines methods from chemistry, materials science, and environmental engineering.
*Illustrative imageUpcycling waste plastics
The lab explores routes that chemically break down PET to obtain intermediates and rebuild them into higher-value materials. Examples include MOFs for CO2 capture, hydrogels and magnetic particles that adsorb toxic metals and dyes, and fibers carrying catalytic nanoparticles.
*Illustrative imageAdsorbents from shrimp and crab shells
Shrimp and crab shells, which are discarded in large quantities, are rich in chitin. Using the properties of chitosan obtained from chitin, the lab makes hydrogels, beads, and composite adsorbents that remove heavy metals, dyes, pharmaceuticals, and radioactive cesium from water.
*Illustrative imageCarbon and adsorbents made from waste
Biomass waste and waste plastics are heat-treated into porous carbon, which is used to adsorb pollutants in water and soil. The lab has also found that treating crab shells together with added PET increases heavy metal adsorption.
*Illustrative imageStrengthening soil with biomass-derived polymers
The lab is investigating whether polymers obtained from biomass waste can be used to improve ground in place of cement. They may build a network structure in the soil that increases its strength, and they may also be able to trap heavy metals. This is joint research with the Geotechnical Engineering Lab, and it is now moving on to field tests.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Zinchenko Lab are faculty, doctoral students, and master's students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorAnatoly Zinchenko
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Plastic bottles for recycling” Radulf del Maresme / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Upcycling waste plastics: “Bales of PET bottles closeup” Grendelkhan / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Adsorbents from shrimp and crab shells: “Backwashing in a water filtration plant” Z22 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Carbon and adsorbents made from waste: “Biochar pile” Oregon Department of Forestry / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Strengthening soil with biomass-derived polymers: “Movement of soil and debris down a slope in Shasta-Trinity National Forest” Shopstone / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Hibino-Nagao Lab): “RSOC working principle” Marcofici / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Hayashi Lab (Environmental Symbiosis and Ecological Systems / Energy and Environmental Ecology Systems Cooperating Chairs)): “Solar farm at Krishnapuram Tatipudi Water Works aerial view 01” Saiphani02 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Nakamura-Miura Lab): “Santo Tomas Bypass Bridges ( ) E911a 13” E911a / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tomita-Nakamura (Shin)-Tashiro Lab (Land Design Lab)): “Santa Ana River, Lake Norconian, Prado Flood Control Basin” Dicklyon / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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