R. Stam

Rachel Stam is a PhD researcher in the Circular Plastics team of professor Kim Ragaert. She joined the Circular Plastics group in January 2023. Her research is about the closed-loop recycling of aged, long lifetime post-consumer thermoplastics. When long lifetime plastics are up for recycling, they mostly present a certain level of degradation and contamination. Both degradation and contamination could impede closed-loop recycling. Within her research, Rachel will investigate the polymers ageing, their degradation and stabilization and also asses the effect that different kinds of contaminants have on the degradation of the polymers.