Dr Vipul Agarwal’s research is focused on the development of bioimplants for the regeneration of injured tissues which lack an innate ability to repair after injury. He is currently developing neuro-bionic implants for spinal cords made from electrically conductive polymer nanocomposites. These implants can be used to electrically stimulate damaged neuronal cells to promote their repair and regeneration, and ultimately reverse paralysis. This will greatly enhance the outcomes of spinal cord injury patients, reducing associated healthcare costs, and improving their psychological well-being.
Recently, Dr Agarwal has also developed a novel waste plastic recycling technology. The developed technology has the potential to recycle virtually all kinds of waste plastics including currently non-recyclable soft plastics. The new recycling technology overcomes the limitations of multi-level contamination such as the potential to segregate different kinds of plastics, remove dyes and additives widely used by plastic industry to yield a virgin-like clear recycled polymer. In the case of soft plastics, the invented technology can be tuned to produce recycled polymer particles akin to pellets used in the industry. The technology has been shown to retain the crystallinity in recycled polymer which remains a challenge in existing recycling approaches.
2024