Md Shafi Alam

Md Shafi Alam received his bachelor's degree in June 2018 in Chemistry from AKI'S Poona College of Arts, Science & Commerce, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India. In June 2020 he successfully defended his master's thesis and received his master's degree in Organic Chemistry from the Savitribai Phule Pune University, India. He joined POLYMAT for his Ph.D. in Jan 2024, under the supervision of Dr. Ainara Sangroniz Agudo He conducted his Master's research project at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) Pune, Maharashtra, India, on "Synthesis of phosphine-sulphonamide and Palladium complexes for ethylene polymerization" under the supervision of Dr. Samir H. Chikkali, Senior Principal Scientist and Professor (AcSIR). Then he joined the group of Dr. Ashootosh V. Ambade, Senior Principal Scientist, as a Project Associate at CSIR-NCL. He worked in the area of polymer chemistry, specifically on the "Development of functional polymeric materials using cyclic carbonate and CO₂" and the "Development of polymers for adhesive applications" from July 2021 to Jan 2023. After successful completion of these projects, he worked on another project, "Synthesis of functionalized styrene-based random and block copolymers." He has hands-on experience in multi-step organic synthesis of functional monomers, purification by column chromatography, and handling gaseous monomers such as butadiene and ethylene oxide, as well as highly moisture-sensitive initiators such as n-butyllithium and sec-butyllithium, and metals such as sodium and lithium. He also has hands-on experience in the synthesis of polymers via various techniques such as free radical, step-growth, and anionic polymerization, as well as in the characterization of organic molecules and polymers using melting point, FT-IR, NMR, UV-visible spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, viscosity, GPC, DSC, TGA, DLS, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and tensile (UTM).