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2023 - 2025 PRIN 2022 ICARUS ArtIfiCiAl intelligence-assisted 3D digital manufactuRing of fUnctionally
graded materialS. (267.000 Euros)
PI CNR-ISC unit Dr. Roberta
Angelini
Abstract: There is a growing interest in many technological areas to develop novel
materials with enhanced and "non-conventional" mechanical properties.
Natural materials have always been a source of inspiration for engineering
novel and advanced material performances. Shells, bones and antlers have
mechanical strength per unit weight comparable with that of steel; mature
bamboo stalks have slenderness ratios which are
remarkable even by the standard of modern engineering. Such exceptional
performances result from a combination of supramolecular structures and porous
hierarchical architecture. Currently conventional synthetic polymeric foams are
widely used in several industrial areas, however,
compared to natural foams, such as bone and bamboo, they possess multiple
shortcomings, including poor control of the three-dimensional pore arrangement
and outer shape complexity. The integration of multiple functions such as
gradients in pore size, density, stiffness within a single foam construct would
enable unprecented and exceptional material
performances. The project ICARUS aims to develop new tools for designing and
manufacturing 3D porous functionally graded materials (pFGMs)
that exhibit tailored mechanical properties, particularly pre-designed energy
absorption profiles. The ability to control the energy absorption of graded
materials is critical in a wide range of industrial applications that span from
aerospace and personal safety to transportation and bioengineering. However,
due to the intrinsic complexity of pFGMs and the lack
of a comprehensive model for such material design, researchers working in the
field have limited possibilities and often prefer to proceed with empirical
trial-and-error approaches.
Units
1. Universita degli Studi di ROMA "La Sapienza" (PI
Prof. Andrea Barbetta)
2. Universita Politecnica delle MARCHE (PI unit
Prof. Marco Sasso)
3. Consiglio
Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-ISC (PI unit Dr.
Roberta Angelini)
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2022 - 2026 PNRR - Rome Technopole innovation ecosystem
Dr. Roberta Angelini team
member CNR
Spoke 3: University education, industrial PhD
courses, internationalization and Spoke 5: Out-reach, public engagement,
lifelong learning.
Rome Technopole is the first multi-technology hub
for teaching, research, and technology transfer in the fields of Energy
Transition, Digital Transition and Health and Bio-pharma
Goals: 7
Universities, 4 Research Institutions, Lazio Region and Rome
Municipality, and other Public Institutions, 20 Industrial Groups and
Companies: a regional Innovation Ecosystem that will feed the research, training
and innovation supply chain in the context of some thematic areas of high
priority for Lazio territory. The first multi-technology hub for teaching,
research and technology transfer in the fields of energy transition and
sustainability, digital transition and health and bio-pharma.
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2021 - 2024 Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter Soft Vs Hard Colloids: A Microscopic View.
PI Dr. Roberta Angelini and Dr. Barbara Ruzicka (CNR-ISC).
Partnership
for Soft Condensed Matter (PSCM) is a Collaborative Partner Agreement between
CNR Institute
for Complex Systems and
ESRF/ILL. Scientific Contacts: Dr. Leonardo
Chiappisi (ILL) e Dr. Diego Pontoni (ESRF). https://pscm-grenoble.eu/partners/
Abstract:
Soft
Matter refers to a wide range of materials as colloids, polymers, emulsions,
foams, gels, proteins and other biological systems, highly sensitive to
external conditions. They are used in many common technologies and are widely
investigated in fundamental physics as good model systems to explore exotic
phase diagrams and arrested states such as gels [1,2] and glasses [3] and
unusual glass-glass transitions [4, 5]. In this context, colloids are largely studied for understanding the general problem of
dynamic arrest, due to their larger versatility with respect to atomic and
molecular systems [6, 7]. At variance with hard colloids, soft colloids are
characterized by an interparticle potential with a finite repulsion at or
beyond contact that originates ultra dense states. Theoretical studies [8, 9]
have indicated the existence of an even more complex phase behaviour not
experimentally reproduced up to now. The aim of the present
project is to investigate two different classes of colloids: (i) aqueous dispersions of Laponite(R), a charge colloidal clay,
in which the effective interactions can be modified by changing packing
fraction, waiting time and ionic strength and (ii) soft colloids, i.e. poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-based microgels,
that are nanometer or micrometer-sized
hydrogel particles, for which the interparticle potential can be tuned through
variations of temperature and pH. The following main objectives will be accomplished combining
laboratory and large-scale facilities techniques with atomistic and
monomer-resolved simulations: (i) a better
understanding of the interplay of attractive and repulsive interactions in bulk
and at interfaces in order to reach an ad-hoc control of the microscopic
potential; (ii) the search of new ordered and disordered states in soft
colloids with respect to hard ones; (iii) the investigation of the concept of
"fragility" in soft colloids for the general understanding of the
glass transition. Our study, based on two model systems, will thus open
new scenarios for the phenomenology and understanding of soft matter providing
the necessary know-how to control their complex
behaviour and to improve their technological applications. Besides facing
fundamental scientific challenges, both systems indeed have technological
appeal for the design of new materials and for applications in fields like drug
delivery, sensors, cultural heritage, ecological batteries, etc.
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2022 - 2025 PANACEA Multicolour DLS-SANS (206.000 Euros)
PI Dr B.
Ruzicka and Dr R. Angelini (CNR-ISC)
PANACEA is an in-kind project between CNR and the
Science and Technology Facilities Council - STFC for using the spallation
neutron source ISIS (2.150.000 Euros) (https://www.cnr.it/it/news/10623/rinnovato-l-accordo-con-il-science-and-technology-facilities-council-per-l-utilizzo-della-sorgente-a-spallazione-di-neutroni-isis). It is the following of PANAREA project (https://www.cnr.it/en/press-release/6406/cnr-e-stfc-trent-anni-di-ricerca) during which the CNR-ISC proponents, in
collaboration with ISIS staff, built up a compact and self-contained DLS-SANS
set-up to be installed on SANS beamlines (LOQ, ZOOM, LARMOR, SANS2D) for
simultaneous measurements of dynamics (through Dynamic Light Scattering) and
structure (through Small Angle Neutron Scattering). This setup is now available
at ISIS. In the PANACEA project, we expand the possibilities of the setup by
permitting to change the wave vector Q of the DLS measurements. This will be
possible using a laser source with tuneable wavelength.
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2021 - 2023 Research groups project of Lazio Region MICROARTE Nuovi microgel per la conservazione dei beni
artistici (150.000 Euros)
Dr.
Roberta Angelini team member CNR-ISC unit
Abstract: Il progetto
MICROARTE si propone di sviluppare una nuova tecnologia per la conservazione di
beni di carta antica, carta moderna e legno, sfruttando le enormi potenzialita dei microgel
polimerici di gellano, un polisaccaride naturale ed
anche edibile gia impiegato in diversi contesti quali
le scienze della vita o in ambito industriale. Recentemente, gli stessi
partecipanti al presente progetto, hanno realizzato per la prima volta la
pulitura della carta antica attraverso microgel di gellano [DI NAPOLI, Benedetta, et al. Gellan
gum microgels as effective agents for a rapid cleaning of paper. ACS Applied Polymer
Materials, 2020, 2, 2791-2801], dimostrando le potenzialita applicative di questo materiale anche nel
settore dei beni culturali grazie ai primi studi effettuati nell’ambito del
progetto GELARTE (https://www.isc.cnr.it/research/projects/national/gelarte/).
Sulla base dei risultati gia raggiunti, in
MICROARTE saranno sintetizzati nuovi microgel
ottenuti da gellani modificati e/o funzionalizzati
per ottimizzarne l’efficacia come sistemi per il restauro e la conservazione di
beni cartacei e anche lignei. A tal fine ci si avvarra
della partecipazione di ricercatori con competenze di tipo teorico, numerico e
sperimentale all’interno dei gruppi di ricerca partecipanti, che comprendono
fisici e chimici dell’istituto ospitante (Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi del
CNR) e dell’universita di Tor Vergata. Grazie alla
combinazione di diverse tecniche di caratterizzazione chimico-fisiche e di
diagnostica, integrate con simulazioni atomistiche, sara
possibile chiarire il meccanismo di formazione dei microgel
e di ottimizzarne l’applicazione ai supporti cartacei e lignei. La presenza di
collaboratori esterni dell’Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione
del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario (ICRCPAL) del Ministero dei Beni e delle
Attivita Culturali e del Turismo (MiBACT), di ditte
di restauro e della PMI innovativa 2610, unita alla facile realizzazione
sperimentale, semplicita e versatilita
della nuova tecnologia proposta, offrira la possibilita di effettuare un trasferimento di conoscenze
verso le realta aziendali operanti nel settore dei
nanomateriali e dei trattamenti conservativi dei beni culturali.