Project acronym CLEANH2
Project Chemical Engineering of Fused MetalloPorphyrins Thin Films for the Clean Production of Hydrogen
Researcher (PI) Nicolas BOSCHER
Host Institution (HI) LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Country Luxembourg
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2019-COG
Summary This project stands in the general context of the current worldwide energy and environmental crisis. It aims to engineer a new generation of conjugated microporous polymers based on fused metalloporphyrins for the low-cost, clean and efficient production of hydrogen from solar water splitting. The CLEANH2 concept relies on the gas phase reaction of metalloporphyrins to engineer new heterogeneous catalysts with remarkable hydrogen production yields. Metalloporphyrins, selected by Nature to fulfil the main catalytic phenomena allowing life, are attractive molecules for water splitting owing to their highly conjugated structure and central metal ion, which can readily interconvert between different oxidation states to accomplish oxidation and reduction reactions. For efficiency and sustainability considerations, it is highly desirable to employ metalloporphyrins in conductive assemblies for heterogeneous catalysis. Nevertheless, due to the lack of synthetic approach, the design and application of conjugated porphyrin assemblies is a largely unexplored topic in view of the plethora of available porphyrin patterns.
The central idea of CLEANH2 builds upon our recent advance in the gas phase synthesis and deposition of directly fused metalloporphyrins coatings. Progress in our approach is expected to open the way for the construction of powerful catalytic and photocatalytic materials. To achieve this, the key challenging goals of this project are: 1) the engineering of the microstructure and electronic structure of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films; 2) the use of the full potential of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films for the unmet, clean and high quantum yield overall water splitting for hydrogen production. The outcomes of CLEANH2 will be foundational for the engineering of directly fused metalloporphyrins systems and their implementation in advanced technological applications related to catalysis and solar energy.
Summary
This project stands in the general context of the current worldwide energy and environmental crisis. It aims to engineer a new generation of conjugated microporous polymers based on fused metalloporphyrins for the low-cost, clean and efficient production of hydrogen from solar water splitting. The CLEANH2 concept relies on the gas phase reaction of metalloporphyrins to engineer new heterogeneous catalysts with remarkable hydrogen production yields. Metalloporphyrins, selected by Nature to fulfil the main catalytic phenomena allowing life, are attractive molecules for water splitting owing to their highly conjugated structure and central metal ion, which can readily interconvert between different oxidation states to accomplish oxidation and reduction reactions. For efficiency and sustainability considerations, it is highly desirable to employ metalloporphyrins in conductive assemblies for heterogeneous catalysis. Nevertheless, due to the lack of synthetic approach, the design and application of conjugated porphyrin assemblies is a largely unexplored topic in view of the plethora of available porphyrin patterns.
The central idea of CLEANH2 builds upon our recent advance in the gas phase synthesis and deposition of directly fused metalloporphyrins coatings. Progress in our approach is expected to open the way for the construction of powerful catalytic and photocatalytic materials. To achieve this, the key challenging goals of this project are: 1) the engineering of the microstructure and electronic structure of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films; 2) the use of the full potential of directly fused metalloporphyrins thin films for the unmet, clean and high quantum yield overall water splitting for hydrogen production. The outcomes of CLEANH2 will be foundational for the engineering of directly fused metalloporphyrins systems and their implementation in advanced technological applications related to catalysis and solar energy.
Max ERC Funding
1 900 711 €
Duration
Start date: 2020-05-01, End date: 2025-04-30
Project acronym INTERACT
Project Intelligent Non-woven Textiles and Elastomeric Responsive materials by Advancing liquid Crystal Technology
Researcher (PI) Jan Peter Felix Lagerwall
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG
Country Luxembourg
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary A grand challenge in today’s materials research is the realization of flexible materials that are also intelligent and functional. They will be the enablers of true breakthroughs in the hot trends of soft robotics and wearable technology. The standard approach to the latter is to decorate rubber sheets with electronic components, yielding two serious flaws: rubber is uncomfortable as it does not breath and solid state electronics will eventually fail as a garment is flexed and stretched when worn. While the softness of rubber is ideal it must be used in the form of textile fibers to provide breathability, and for long-term failure resistance we need intelligent components that are soft. A solution to this conundrum was recently presented by the PI with the concept of liquid crystal (LC) electrospinning. The extreme responsiveness of LCs is transferred to a non-woven textile by incorporating the LC in the fiber core, yielding a smart flexible mat with sensory function. Moreover, it consumes no power, providing a further advantage over electronics-based approaches. In a second research line he uses microfluidics to make LC rubber microshells, functioning as autonomous actuators which may serve as innovative components for soft robotics, and photonic crystal shells. This interdisciplinary project presents an ambitious agenda to advance these new concepts to the realization of soft, stretchable intelligent materials of revolutionary character. Five specific objectives are in focus: 1) develop understanding of the dynamic response of LCs in these unconventional configurations; 2) establish interaction dynamics during polymerisation of an LC precursor; 3) elucidate LC response to gas exposure; 4) establish correlation between actuation response and internal order of curved LCE rubbers; and 5) assess usefulness of LC-functionalized fibers and polymerized LC shells, tubes and Janus particles in wearable sensors, soft robotic actuators and high-security identification tags.
Summary
A grand challenge in today’s materials research is the realization of flexible materials that are also intelligent and functional. They will be the enablers of true breakthroughs in the hot trends of soft robotics and wearable technology. The standard approach to the latter is to decorate rubber sheets with electronic components, yielding two serious flaws: rubber is uncomfortable as it does not breath and solid state electronics will eventually fail as a garment is flexed and stretched when worn. While the softness of rubber is ideal it must be used in the form of textile fibers to provide breathability, and for long-term failure resistance we need intelligent components that are soft. A solution to this conundrum was recently presented by the PI with the concept of liquid crystal (LC) electrospinning. The extreme responsiveness of LCs is transferred to a non-woven textile by incorporating the LC in the fiber core, yielding a smart flexible mat with sensory function. Moreover, it consumes no power, providing a further advantage over electronics-based approaches. In a second research line he uses microfluidics to make LC rubber microshells, functioning as autonomous actuators which may serve as innovative components for soft robotics, and photonic crystal shells. This interdisciplinary project presents an ambitious agenda to advance these new concepts to the realization of soft, stretchable intelligent materials of revolutionary character. Five specific objectives are in focus: 1) develop understanding of the dynamic response of LCs in these unconventional configurations; 2) establish interaction dynamics during polymerisation of an LC precursor; 3) elucidate LC response to gas exposure; 4) establish correlation between actuation response and internal order of curved LCE rubbers; and 5) assess usefulness of LC-functionalized fibers and polymerized LC shells, tubes and Janus particles in wearable sensors, soft robotic actuators and high-security identification tags.
Max ERC Funding
1 929 976 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-04-01, End date: 2020-03-31
Project acronym RealTCut
Project Towards real time multiscale simulation of cutting in non-linear materials
with applications to surgical simulation and computer guided surgery
Researcher (PI) Stephane Pierre Alain Bordas
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG
Country Luxembourg
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "Surgeons are trained as apprentices. Some conditions are rarely encountered and surgeons will only be trained in the specific skills associated with a given situation if they come across it. At the end of their residency, it is hoped that they will have faced sufficiently many cases to be competent. This can be dangerous to the patients.
If we were able to reproduce faithfully, in a virtual environment, the audio, visual and haptic experience of a surgeon as they prod, pull and incise tissue, then, surgeons would not have to train on cadavers, phantoms, or on the patients themselves.
Only a few researchers in the Computational Mechanics community have attacked the mechanical problems related to surgical simulation, so that mechanical faithfulness is not on par with audiovisual. This lack of fidelity in the reproduction of surgical acts such as cutting may explain why most surgeons who tested existing simulators report that the ""sensation"" fed back to them remains unrealistic. To date, the proposers are not aware of Computational Mechanics solutions addressing, at the same time, geometrical faithfulness, material realism, evolving cuts and quality control of the solution.
The measurable objectives for this research are as follows:
O1:Significantly alleviate the mesh generation and regeneration burden to represent organs’ geometries, underlying tissue microstructure and cuts with sufficient accuracy but minimal user intervention
O2:Move away from simplistic coarse-scale material models by deducing tissue rupture at the organ level from constitutive (e.g. damage) and contact models designed at the meso and micro scales
O3:Ensure real-time results through model order reduction coupled with the multi-scale fracture tools of O2
O4:Control solution accuracy and validate against a range of biomechanics problems including real-life brain surgery interventions with the available at our collaborators’"
Summary
"Surgeons are trained as apprentices. Some conditions are rarely encountered and surgeons will only be trained in the specific skills associated with a given situation if they come across it. At the end of their residency, it is hoped that they will have faced sufficiently many cases to be competent. This can be dangerous to the patients.
If we were able to reproduce faithfully, in a virtual environment, the audio, visual and haptic experience of a surgeon as they prod, pull and incise tissue, then, surgeons would not have to train on cadavers, phantoms, or on the patients themselves.
Only a few researchers in the Computational Mechanics community have attacked the mechanical problems related to surgical simulation, so that mechanical faithfulness is not on par with audiovisual. This lack of fidelity in the reproduction of surgical acts such as cutting may explain why most surgeons who tested existing simulators report that the ""sensation"" fed back to them remains unrealistic. To date, the proposers are not aware of Computational Mechanics solutions addressing, at the same time, geometrical faithfulness, material realism, evolving cuts and quality control of the solution.
The measurable objectives for this research are as follows:
O1:Significantly alleviate the mesh generation and regeneration burden to represent organs’ geometries, underlying tissue microstructure and cuts with sufficient accuracy but minimal user intervention
O2:Move away from simplistic coarse-scale material models by deducing tissue rupture at the organ level from constitutive (e.g. damage) and contact models designed at the meso and micro scales
O3:Ensure real-time results through model order reduction coupled with the multi-scale fracture tools of O2
O4:Control solution accuracy and validate against a range of biomechanics problems including real-life brain surgery interventions with the available at our collaborators’"
Max ERC Funding
1 343 955 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
