PITS3D · Polymer Informatics Tools for Sustainable 3D printing
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2024-01-01 → 2025-08-31
- EU contribution
- €137,761
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Polymer Informatics Tools for Sustainable 3D printing
The PITS3D project (Polymer Informatics Tools for Sustainable 3D printing) addresses the crucial European priority of merging digital innovation with sustainability. Specifically, it tackles the challenge of rapidly developing and optimizing materials for modern manufacturing. Additive Manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, offers significant environmental advantages, such as reducing material waste compared to older techniques. However, industry urgently needs better materials, especially biodegradable biopolymers like poly(lactic acid) (PLA). Currently, the wider use of these green plastics for durable products is hindered by their poor thermal stability and low impact resistance. Scientists and engineers lack the detailed information about the local, atomic properties of these materials needed to optimize their performance. Computational tools and the related field of polymer informatics are struggling to keep pace with industrial needs due to a lack of high-quality, detailed unbiased data. The overall goal of PITS3D is twofold: first, to create versatile and open-access computational tools for biodegradable polymers; and second, to create a bridge between computer simulations, laboratory analysis, and the final 3D printing application. The ultimate mission is to define clearly the link between the material's internal structure, its measurable properties, and its final performance.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Polymer informatics supports sustainable development goals by implementing versatile computational tools which allow users to move the polymer design from the laboratory to the digital world.To connect the links between the structure, properties and performance of the polymer materials, many pieces of puzzle need to be collected over a wide range of time and length scales, starting from the quantum and progressing hierarchically towards continuous methods. Due to their relative novelty, systematic bottom-up approaches for biodegradable polymers are in short supply. Owing to their rich structure stemming from the natural origin, they need to be simulated with a great detail, what leads to an increased computational complexity and researchers’ frustration. Consequently, the computational studies struggle to keep pace with the emerging applications and technologies such as additive manufacturing. PITS3D project aims to speed up the progress in the field by proposing a systematic bottom-up study of two biodegradable polymers widely used in 3D printing techniques. The atomistic description of the local processes of the selected samples represents the first pillar of the approach. In the second stage, the computational study is extended to longer time and length scales, while going beyond the state-of-the-art by mimicking the characteristics of commercially-produced biodegradable polymers. By providing the simulation input files as open-source starting packs, PITS3D aims to encourage the further development of these computational tools. Another objective is to bridge a gap between the theoretically studied systems and those used for the 3D printing, by establishing an iterative passage of properties between the computational and experimental techniques. The combination of both approaches optimizes the use of resources, providing economic and ecological benefits and represents a unique training opportunity for the fellow as well as for the students of the host institute.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101105208
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e50e392429&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e51fa0e489&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union