Heiskanen, Juha

Associate professor Juha P. Heiskanen is the leader of Organic Functional Materials (OFM) team at the Research Unit of Sustainable Chemistry. The research of the team focuses on the development of novel biomass-based chemicals and materials such as furfural-based monomers, resins, and thermoplastic polymers. Especially, the furan-based renewable polyesters developed by OFM team have shown highly interesting properties such as intrinsic UV-blocking and high gas barrier functionalities. The team has strong synthetic chemistry skills and solid experience in the field of Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. Especial focus has been addressed to development and utilization of Suzuki-Miyaura and C-H activated direct coupling protocols which are efficiently exploited in the syntheses of novel organic compounds and materials.