Bio

Cátia Afonso holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, completed in 2016 and 2018, respectively. During her master’s studies, she worked on the extraction of bioactive compounds from natural cork using supercritical CO₂, as well as on the evaluation of their retention in molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). She started her research fellow activities in February 2021 at the Institute for Polymers and Composites (IPC) of the University of Minho, within the Factory of the Future: Intelligent Manufacturing initiative, where she collaborated with BOSCH on the development of thermoelectric composite materials. In February 2022, she continued as a research fellow at the Physics Department of the University of Minho under the NanoAir project, focusing on the development and optimization of semiconductor materials for photocatalytic air purification applications. In January 2023, she joined CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials at the University of Aveiro as a research fellow, working in collaboration with Amorim Cork, S.A., on the GCORK project "Development of agglomerated cork stoppers with Bio adhesives and surface treatments, produced by greener and more sustainable processes," under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Silva and Prof. Inês Portugal at the Department of Chemistry and CICECO, University of Aveiro. She is currently a PhD student in Chemical Engineering focused on the sustainable recovery of metals from electronic waste, under the supervision of Dr. Cláudia Batista Lopes and Prof. Carlos M. Silva.

Posters

C. Afonso, C.M. Silva, C.B. Lopes. Can organic acids replace traditional leaching agents in e-waste recycling?, XXIX Encontro Luso-Galego de Química, Braga, 10th - 12th November, 2025.

C. Afonso, C.M. Silva, C.B. Lopes. Optimizing metal oxide dissolution in organic acids for e-waste recycling, Jornadas CICECO 2025, Aveiro, 9th October, 2025.

Presentations

C. Afonso, C.M. Silva, C.B. Lopes. Sustainable recovery of metals from e-waste: Optimizing metal oxide dissolution in organic acids, Research Summit 2025, Aveiro, 16th - 18th July, 2025.

C. Afonso, C.M. Silva, C.B. Lopes. Supercritical CO2 extraction as an option for the recovery of transition metals from end-of-life smartphones, Research Summit 2024, Aveiro, 2024, 16th - 19th July, 2024.