HEDoctoral network2024–2027

CoCoGel · Controlling Colloidal Gels for Novel Sustainable Materials

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration: 2024-01-01 → 2027-12-31
EU contribution: €3,409,898
Participants: 22
Scheme: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN-ID

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Project objective

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.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS · IRAKLEIOCoordinatorGreece
ADVENT TECHNOLOGIES AS · AalborgDenmark
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisFrance
ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE DE LYON · LyonFrance
EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH · ZuerichSwitzerland
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY NON PROFIT CORPORATION · Washington DcUnited States
HEINRICH-HEINE-UNIVERSITAET DUESSELDORF · DusseldorfGermany
HOLCIM INNOVATION CENTER SAS · SAINT QUENTIN FALLAVIERFrance
INPROCESS-LSP BV · OssNetherlands
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · LeuvenBelgium
NANOGETIC SOCIEDAD LIMITADA · GranadaSpain
PANEPISTIMIO KRITIS · RETHIMNOGreece
SCHLUMBERGER CAMBRIDGE RESEARCH LIMITED · LondonUnited Kingdom
SUNLIGHT GROUP SYSTIMATA APOTHIKEFSIS ENERGEIAS VIOMICHANIKI KAI EMPORIKI ANONYMI ETAIRIA · AthensGreece
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT · DelftNetherlands
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH · EdinburghUnited Kingdom
UNILEVER INNOVATION CENTRE WAGENINGEN BV · WageningenNetherlands
UNILEVER U.K. CENTRAL RESOURCES LIMITED · LONDONUnited Kingdom
UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA · GranadaSpain
UNIVERSITAT WIEN · WienAustria
UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT · UtrechtNetherlands
UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM · AmsterdamNetherlands

CoCoGel · Controlling Colloidal Gels for Novel Sustainable Materials

Project objective

Participants

Links