Projects

H2TRAIN

Enabling digital technologies for Holistic Health-lifestyle motivational and assisTed supeRvision supported by Artificial Intelligence Networks · HORIZON-KDT-JU-2023-1-IA

H2TRAIN's aim is to enable digital technology and develop new 1DM- and 2DM-based devices for sensing, energy harvesting and storage supercapacitors, integrating sport and health activities on internet-of-things applications as wearable technologies. The consortium is made of 30 private and public partners.

SURFICE

Smart surface design for efficient ice protection and control · International Training Network H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020, grant no. 956703

The project addresses three research objectives: investigate icing physics on complex surfaces to understand and model ice formation, accretion and adhesion; achieve rational design for anti-icing materials and coatings based on discontinuity-enhanced icephobicity; and develop new technologies for efficient ice prevention and control. The solutions are applied in aeronautics, energy systems, sensor technologies, glass manufacturing and the automotive industry through industrial partners. Our group works on the second objective. 13 early-stage researchers are hired across 11 European institutions.

5D Nanoprinting

Functional & Dynamic 3D Nano-MicroDevices by Direct Multi-Photon Lithography · FET Open, grant no. 899349

The project develops a multifunctional platform integrating graded structural, patternable, conductive and stimuli-responsive materials with sub-micrometer resolution. Our group works on the sensing material and on local piezoelectric transduction with ZnO deposited by area-selective atomic layer deposition (ALD). Vapor-based deposition normally covers the entire substrate; here, high-resolution ZnO patterns with 1–40 µm feature sizes are explored by creating areas with differential ZnO growth rate.

Smart Skin

ERC Proof of Concept

With Smart Skin we create a prototype for electronic skins based on the device developed during the Smart Core project, and test the exploitability of this product.

Smart Core

Smart Core/shell nanorod arrays for artificial skin · ERC Starting Grant 2015, no. 715403

The goal of this project was to integrate temperature and humidity together with pressure sensing in a single novel hybrid material in site-specific geometrical layouts, achieving sensing with spatial resolution down to 1 mm and lower.

Drug encapsulation & delivery

We explore a new way of encapsulating drugs inside the meshes of iCVD polymers. iCVD allows polymer deposition even on delicate drug solutions that withstand vacuum. The polymer wrinkles the surface of the drug thin film and forms an intimate contact with the underlying pharmaceutical, which suppresses drug crystallization at elevated temperature and under solvent vapors.

Multi stimuli-responsive materials

Three S · FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF

Initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) is used to develop a light-responsive hydrogel whose water uptake changes with light irradiation. The base structure is a crosslinked hydroxyethyl methacrylate polymer; by a post-deposition reaction we attach azobenzene moieties. Under UV light the azobenzene changes conformation, increasing the polarity of the hydrogel and hence its swelling in water. Controllable swelling can be used for light-stimulated movement or artificial muscles.

Proton conductive polymers by iCVD

Pro-CVD · FWF project P 26993

Proton conductive polymers combine monomer units with acid and hydrophobic groups: in water the acid groups let protons pass while the hydrophobic parts keep the polymer backbone intact. Such copolymers are hard to make by conventional methods because the monomers differ in solubility. iCVD is a dry, solvent-free polymerization that copolymerizes acid and hydrophobic monomers easily, and the chemical structure can be tuned during deposition for the best combination of proton conductivity and stability in water.