CoCoGel: Controlling Colloidal Gels for Novel Sustainable Materials

CoCoGel：控制新型可持续材料的胶体凝胶

• 批准号: EP/Y03595X/1
• 负责人: John Royer
• 金额: $ 66.43万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY03595X%2F1
• 关键词: CoCoGel; Controlling; Colloidal; Gels; Novel

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.

产品配方的变革进步需要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、非平衡软物质系统——是其中许多配方的核心成分，包括建筑材料（如水泥）、能源材料（如电池和燃料电池）、消费者护理和食品以及药品。目前的工业实践需要在热力学参数（组成和相互作用）、淬火动力学和加工条件之间取得微妙的平衡，以实现具有所需材料性能（例如，机械、热学或电学性能）的凝胶结构。如果对如何控制微观结构以及微观结构与材料特性之间的关系没有强有力的物理理解，这种平衡仍然局限于反复试验。胶体凝胶物理学的最新进展有力地表明，胶体凝胶性能的合理设计是可以实现的。该设计是基于通过外部刺激（如剪切、超声波和（磁/电）场）以及添加非布朗夹杂物来调整凝胶微观结构。CoCoGel博士网络将使当前的学术水平转化为工业实践，重点关注这些控制微观结构的途径。我们将汇集6个学术和6个工业合作伙伴-一系列实验，计算和理论技术的专家-他们可以通过这些路线实现新的可持续材料和生产工艺的创造。我们的工业博士培训网络成功的关键是深化和扩展现有的合作，以及培训新一代的研究人员，他们在软材料方面具有多学科专业知识，并具有与行业接触的实践经验。这将进一步推动欧洲工业的可持续发展。