CoCoGel: Controlling Colloidal Gels for Novel Sustainable Materials

需要在产品配方方面取得变革性的进展，以满足广泛的欧盟优先工业领域对可持续性的需求。胶体凝胶--复杂的、不平衡的软物质体系--是其中遇到的许多配方的核心成分，包括建筑材料(例如水泥)、能源材料(例如电池和燃料电池)、消费者护理和食品以及药品。目前的工业实践要求在热力学参数(组成和相互作用)、淬火动力学和工艺条件之间进行精细的平衡，以获得具有所需材料性能(例如，机械、热或电性能)的凝胶结构。如果没有对微观结构如何控制以及这种结构如何与材料性能相关联的可靠物理理解，这种平衡仍然局限于试错。胶体凝胶物理学的最新进展有力地表明，胶体凝胶性质的合理设计是遥不可及的。这种设计是基于通过外部刺激，如剪切、超声波和(磁场/电场)来调整凝胶的微观结构，以及添加非布朗夹杂物。CoCoGel博士网络将使从当前最先进的学术状态转化为工业实践成为可能，专注于这些控制微观结构的途径。我们将汇集6个学术合作伙伴和6个工业合作伙伴--一系列实验、计算和理论技术的专家--他们可以通过这些途径实现新的可持续材料和生产工艺的创造。我们工业博士培训网络成功的关键是深化和扩大现有的合作，以及培养具有软材料多学科专业知识和与工业接触的实际经验的新一代研究人员。这些将推动欧洲广泛行业的进一步可持续发展。

Transformative advances in product formulation are required to meet the demand for sustainability across a wide range of EU-priority industrial areas. Colloidal gels - complex, out-of-equilibrium soft matter systems - are core components in many of the formulations encountered therein, including building materials (e.g., cement), energy materials (e.g., batteries and fuel cells), consumer care and food products, and medicine. Current industrial practice requires delicate balancing between thermodynamic parameters (composition and interactions), quenching kinetics, and processing conditions to achieve gel structures with the desired material performance (e.g., mechanical, thermal, or electrical properties). Without a robust physical understanding of how the microstructure can be controlled and how this links to material properties, this balancing remains limited to trial and error. Recent advances in colloidal-gel physics strongly imply that the rational design of colloidal gel properties is within reach. This design is based on tuning gel microstructure via external stimuli, such as shear, ultrasound, and (magnetic/electric) fields, and the addition of non-Brownian inclusions. The CoCoGel doctoral network will enable the translation from the current academic state of the art to industrial practice, focusing on these routes to controlling microstructure. We will bring together 6 academic and 6 industrial partners - experts in a range of experimental, computational, and theoretical techniques - who can realize the creation of new sustainable materials and production processes via these routes. Key to the success of our industrial doctoral training network is a deepening and extending of existing collaborations, as well as the training of a new generation of researchers with both multi-disciplinary expertise in soft materials and practical experience engaging with industry. These will drive further sustainable development over a wide range of European industries.