From lignocellulosic compounds to vegetable oils, proteins and lipids: whatever biobased raw material you're working with, Materia Nova brings you advanced expertise to characterize, valorize, and functionalize it. What sets us apart: going beyond standard analyses, with precise, quantified, and rapid data — even on small exploratory samples, ahead of any certification process.

  • In-depth structural analysis: formulation studies: composition, purity, degradation products, storage conditions… using a comprehensive analytical toolkit (FTIR, NMR, TGA, XPS, XRD, SEM). Application examples: confirming supplier product quality, raw material analysis, contaminant identification, validation of storage or use conditions, process validation, establishing purification protocols, identifying chemical components affecting properties, proposing alternatives.
  • Characterization: mechanical, thermal, moisture-related, insulating, fire behavior, resistance to micro-organisms, morphology, accelerated aging, particle size, surface properties… Application examples: product pre-certification, quantification and comparison against commercial benchmarks, exploring the potential of new products or applications, identifying defects and areas for improvement, stability in aqueous media, determining the processability window, dimensional variations, life cycle assessment (LCA) to highlight biobased alternatives.
  • Shaping: thermopressing, molding, injection, extrusion, granulation, cutting, grinding… Application examples: validating thermoformable or injectable formulations, developing processable and dosable materials, manufacturing prototypes and demonstration samples (films, test specimens, plates), incorporation testing for composites (ground plant fillers, natural polymer matrices).
  • Treatments: thermal, moisture-related, chemical, pressure, mechanical, solubilization, fractionation — our equipment is made available to you. Examples: controlled drying in ovens, mixing/kneading, extrusion, UV treatment, sieving, filtration, centrifugation, high-pressure/autoclave treatment, controlled-humidity chamber, cleaning/degreasing.
  • Chemical and physico-chemical modification by reactive extrusion: we transpose proven batch/solvent-based chemistry into continuous, solvent-free processes via reactive extrusion: nucleophilic additions with biobased amines, grafting and functionalization of fibers.
  • Improving processability: using biobased additives to improve flow; chemical and physico-chemical modifications to adjust solubility or hydrophobicity; compatibilization.
  • Optimizing existing processes: studying process parameters to best valorize the various constituents of a formulation (e.g. starch treatment, stability–reactivity trade-off).

Our strengths

  • A flexible service offer, from exploratory scale (a few grams) to scale-up.
  • Fast turnaround, with no certification requirement, delivering usable data from the earliest project phases.
  • A complete chain: analysis → characterization → shaping → treatment → chemical modification.
  • Expertise applicable to a broad range of materials: lignocellulosic compounds, proteins, lipids, vegetable oils, fibers, aromatic compounds — and transferable to other reagents and polymers.
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