Breaking FROntiers for advanced engineering of bespoke, functional Biopolymer COmposite materials (FROBCO)

突破 FROntiers，实现定制功能性生物聚合物复合材料 (FROBCO) 的先进工程

• 批准号: EP/V002236/3
• 负责人: David Xie
• 金额: $ 72.11万
• 依托单位: University of Bath
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FV002236%2F3
• 关键词: Breaking; FROntiers; advanced; engineering; bespoke

This fellowship programme will take a circular economy (CE) approach and unlock the huge potential of renewable biomass, which can be easily sourced from agriculture/aquaculture/food industry as byproducts or wastes. The biomass contains biopolymers cellulose, chitin/chitosan, starch, protein, alginate and lignin, which are valuable resources for making environmentally friendly materials. Moreover, these biopolymers have unique properties and functions, which make them highly potential in important, rapidly growing applications such as therapeutic agent delivery, tissue engineering scaffolds, biological devices, green electronics, sensing, dye and heavy metal removal, oil/water separation, and optics. However, enormous challenges exist to process biopolymers and achieve desired properties/functions cost-effectively; these valuable biomass resources have long been underutilised. This proposed ambitious and adventurous research will focus on the smart design of materials formulation and engineering process from an interdisciplinary perspective to realise the assembly of biopolymer composite materials under a single flow process. This will eventually lead to a reinvented, cost-effective engineering technology based on 3D printing to produce a diverse range of robust, biopolymer composite materials with tailored structure, properties and functionality. Due to the versatile chemistry of biopolymers for modification, the bespoke 'green' materials are expected to outperform many synthetic polymers and composites for specific applications such as tissue engineering and controlled release. The outcomes of this transformative project will not only provide fundamental knowledge leading to a completely new line of research, but also deliver ground-breaking technologies that will impact the UK's plastic industry by providing truly sustainable and high-performance options for high-end technological areas (e.g. healthcare and agriculture).

该奖学金计划将采用循环经济（CE）方法，释放可再生生物质的巨大潜力，这些生物质可以作为副产品或废物轻松地从农业/水产养殖/食品工业中获取。生物质含有生物聚合物纤维素、甲壳素/壳聚糖、淀粉、蛋白质、藻酸盐和木质素，是制造环保材料的宝贵资源。此外，这些生物聚合物具有独特的性质和功能，这使得它们在治疗剂输送、组织工程支架、生物器件、绿色电子、传感、染料和重金属去除、油/水分离和光学等重要、快速增长的应用中具有巨大潜力。然而，加工生物聚合物并经济有效地实现所需的性能/功能存在巨大的挑战；这些宝贵的生物质资源长期以来一直没有得到充分利用。这项雄心勃勃且富有冒险精神的研究将从跨学科的角度重点关注材料配方和工程过程的智能设计，以实现在单一流程下组装生物聚合物复合材料。这最终将带来一种基于 3D 打印的、经济高效的工程技术的重新发明，以生产具有定制结构、特性和功能的各种坚固的生物聚合物复合材料。由于生物聚合物的改性化学性质多样，定制的“绿色”材料预计将在组织工程和控释等特定应用中优于许多合成聚合物和复合材料。这一变革性项目的成果不仅将为全新的研究领域提供基础知识，还将提供突破性技术，通过为高端技术领域（例如医疗保健和农业）提供真正可持续和高性能的选择，从而影响英国的塑料行业。