As part of an undergraduate research program funded by the Vicerrectoría de Investigación at Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC) and supported by the Centro de Investigación en Protección Ambiental (CIPA), our group is thrilled to announce the acceptance of a research paper in the journal Gels.

This study represents the work of Tatiana Alpízar-Rojas, a Materials Science Engineering student at TEC, who synthesized and characterized a hydrophobic silica aerogel as a carrier for a plastic degrading enzyme. Using a combination of advanced techniques—such as FT-IR, TEM, nitrogen sorption experiments, and ¹³C, ²⁹Si, and hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe NMR—the team demonstrated how the LCC ICCG enzyme can be successfully encapsulated within the aerogel. The findings show great potential for future environmental applications, particularly on microplastic pollution issues.

This research is the result of an excellent collaboration with Prof. Erik Castellón from the School of Chemistry at Universidad de Costa Rica and the group of Prof. Jörg Matysik from the Institut für Analytische Chemie at Universität Leipzig. Special thanks go to CIPA and the School of Chemistry at TEC for their invaluable support.

Gels is an open-access journal from MDPI, ranked in Q1 for polymer science, and we warmly invite anyone interested to access and explore our publication.

Link: https://www.mdpi.com/2310-2861/11/2/92