'Intelligent Adapters': A New Paradigm in Multifunctional Polymer NanoComposite Engineering
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Chemical Engineering
Abstract
This proposal aims to create an adventurous research programme in the area of multifunctional nanomaterial-enhanced polymers building the technological foundation for a variety of engineering innovations. It draws upon and furthers the development of the following most recent key scientific advances:1. in quality improvement and modification of carbon nanotubes and their application in functional nanocomposites2. in the synthesis of porous media via emulsion templating 3. in nanoparticles as alternative surfactants including the synthesis of Janus, i.e. anisotropic two-faced, nanotubes and 4. in microbial synthesis of renewable (Janus) nanomaterials and their applications in green nanocomposites.The speculative nature of this research lies not only in the synthesis of bi-functional nanomaterials, but also in the use of guided self-assembly to create novel materials. The idea is to engineer innovative structural materials that can respond 'intelligently' to changes in their environment. The programme will explore the synthesis of anisotropic 'Janus'-particles, the development of scalable purification and modification processes for carbon nanotubes, and processes for manufacturing multifunctional materials. It will target applications in challenging environments, where extraordinary materials are in demand. The prime objectives of this proposal are to:1. foster a system of innovation connecting engineering research, basic science advances, and end-users in the design, synthesis, process and application of novel multifunctional structural materials;2. form an Exploration Group that brings together a network of distinguished scientists, academic experts, young academics and industrial users from around the world;3. engage with the public, media professionals and policy makers with a view to educate and inform the public and potential users and receiving feedback from these groups. The Exploration Group, as a network of excellence, will interact through a Roundtable of Ideas programme. It consists of planned and ad hoc activities such as colloquia, workshops and ideas factories to generate Blue Skies ideas and identify new research directions. The skills-set of the team will be enhanced through the exchange of research personnel. An interdisciplinary team of young researchers with a broad spectrum of skills in the area of multifunctional materials will be nurtured to take an internationally leading role in this field. This grant will provide the necessary space to think, be creative and flexible, to collaborate freely and to take risks for which there is little room in project-based funding.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Alexander Bismarck (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Abbott A
(2010)
Self-reinforced cellulose nanocomposites
in Cellulose
Bismarck A
(2012)
Hype about High Internal Phase Emulsion templating: Adding particles makes all the difference
in Express Polymer Letters
Bismarck A
(2008)
Are hierarchical composite structures the way forward to improve the properties of truly green composites?
in Express Polymer Letters
Blaker J
(2014)
Aligned unidirectional PLA/bacterial cellulose nanocomposite fibre reinforced PDLLA composites
in Reactive and Functional Polymers
Blaker J
(2011)
Hierarchical Composites Made Entirely from Renewable Resources
in Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy
Blaker J
(2010)
Ice-microsphere templating to produce highly porous nanocomposite PLA matrix scaffolds with pores selectively lined by bacterial cellulose nano-whiskers
in Composites Science and Technology
Blaker J
(2009)
Renewable nanocomposite polymer foams synthesized from Pickering emulsion templates
in Green Chemistry
Eichhorn S
(2010)
Review: current international research into cellulose nanofibres and nanocomposites
in Journal of Materials Science
Ikem V
(2013)
Liquid Screen: A Novel Method To Produce an In-Situ Gravel Pack
in SPE Journal
Ikem VO
(2008)
High internal phase emulsions stabilized solely by functionalized silica particles.
in Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
Ikem VO
(2010)
Highly permeable macroporous polymers synthesized from pickering medium and high internal phase emulsion templates.
in Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Ikem VO
(2010)
High-porosity macroporous polymers sythesized from titania-particle-stabilized medium and high internal phase emulsions.
in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Juntaro J
(2008)
Creating Hierarchical Structures in Renewable Composites by Attaching Bacterial Cellulose onto Sisal Fibers
in Advanced Materials
Lee K
(2014)
pH-triggered phase inversion and separation of hydrophobised bacterial cellulose stabilised Pickering emulsions
in Reactive and Functional Polymers
Lee K
(2011)
Surface only modification of bacterial cellulose nanofibres with organic acids
in Cellulose
Lee K
(2009)
Surface functionalisation of bacterial cellulose as the route to produce green polylactide nanocomposites with improved properties
in Composites Science and Technology
Lee K
(2011)
Bio-based macroporous polymer nanocomposites made by mechanical frothing of acrylated epoxidised soybean oil
in Green Chemistry
Lee KY
(2014)
Phase behavior of medium and high internal phase water-in-oil emulsions stabilized solely by hydrophobized bacterial cellulose nanofibrils.
in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Menner A
(2007)
High internal phase emulsion templates solely stabilised by functionalised titania nanoparticles.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Menner A
(2008)
Nanocomposite foams obtained by polymerization of high internal phase emulsions
in Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry
Murakami R
(2018)
Effects of Contact Angle and Flocculation of Particles of Oligomer of Tetrafluoroethylene on Oil Foaming.
in Frontiers in chemistry
Murakami R
(2010)
Particle-Stabilized Materials: Dry Oils and (Polymerized) Non-Aqueous Foams
in Advanced Functional Materials
Oh BH
(2014)
High internal phase emulsion templating with self-emulsifying and thermoresponsive chitosan-graft-PNIPAM-graft-oligoproline.
in Biomacromolecules
Oh BH
(2015)
Injectable, interconnected, high-porosity macroporous biocompatible gelatin scaffolds made by surfactant-free emulsion templating.
in Macromolecular rapid communications
Oh BHL
(2015)
Modified chitosan emulsifiers: small compositional changes produce vastly different high internal phase emulsion types.
in Journal of materials chemistry. B
Seydibeyoglu M
(2012)
Green polyurethane nanocomposites from soy polyol and bacterial cellulose
in Journal of Materials Science
Shirshova N
(2013)
Structural composite supercapacitors
in Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
Wong LL
(2011)
Macroporous Polymers with Hierarchical Pore Structure from Emulsion Templates Stabilised by Both Particles and Surfactants.
in Macromolecular rapid communications
Wong LL
(2013)
Hierarchical polymerized high internal phase emulsions synthesized from surfactant-stabilized emulsion templates.
in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Wu R
(2010)
Tough interconnected polymerized medium and high internal phase emulsions reinforced by silica particles
in Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry
Zhou S
(2013)
Ion-responsive alginate based macroporous injectable hydrogel scaffolds prepared by emulsion templating.
in Journal of materials chemistry. B
Zhou S
(2012)
Hydroxyapatite Pickering PolyHIPEs And "Thermo"HIPEs As Injectable Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering
in MRS Proceedings
Zhou S
(2012)
Interconnected macroporous glycidyl methacrylate-grafted dextran hydrogels synthesised from hydroxyapatite nanoparticle stabilised high internal phase emulsion templates
in Journal of Materials Chemistry
Zhou S
(2012)
Thermoresponsive macroporous scaffolds prepared by emulsion templating.
in Macromolecular rapid communications
| Description | Our research into very permeable yet mechanically robust macroporous polymers was inspired by the need of the oil industry to identify replacements for gravel packs usually employed as permeable filters down oil wells. The title of the Challenging Engineering call in 2006 was "Bringing Ideas to Life"; our idea was to utilise recently "rediscovered" particle stabilised emulsions as templates to produce macroporous polymers. To address the industry's challenge of compromised well integrity and reduced production efficiency posed by gravel packs, we proposed using emulsions, which can be pumped down the oil well and polymerised when placed, triggered by the temperature of the well, to yield a very porous and mechanically sound permeable filter. The polymerised, permeable porous material should have a minimum gas permeability of 1 D and compressive strength of 3.5 MPa. Prior to our work, research within the emulsion templating area heavily focused solely on high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) stabilised by surfactants to synthesise polyHIPEs. "Standard" polyHIPEs are very porous, open-cell and interconnected but unfortunately have only low gas permeabilities of up to 0.46 D and very poor mechanical properties. We showed that particle stabilised HIPEs with internal phase volume fractions of up to 0.92 could be produced by using suitable nanoparticles and that the emulsions can be polymerised into novel poly-Pickering-M/HIPEs, which were however closed-cell and so impermeable. Here the nanoparticles act simultaneously as emulsifier for the M/HIPE template and as reinforcement in the final polymer foam. To create interconnects in this poly-Pickering-M/HIPEs, small amounts of a surfactant were added to pre-made Pickering-emulsions prior to polymerisation. The resulting modified poly-Pickering-M/HIPEs had much larger pores and interconnecting pore throats (compared to standard polyHIPEs) and had adequate mechanical strength and gas permeability. This was further explored by a KTS with the aim to explore the real world suitability of these materials for down well filters, which is currently being further explored by energy service companies. Also, we it was possible by tailoring the emulsification process to prepare HIPEs in which surfactant and particle stabilised droplets co-exist. When polymerised these templates yield macroporous polymers with a hierarchical pore structure in which large closed cell pores are embedded in many interconnected smaller pores. These polymer foams are permeable and have mechanical properties exceeding those of standard polyHIPEs but also poly-Pickering-HIPEs. Such materials might be of interest for controlled delivery applications. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2008 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Energy |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
| Description | EPSRC/Functional and Green End-of-life Nanocomposites |
| Amount | £444,869 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/F028946/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2008 |
| End | 09/2011 |
| Description | EPSRC: Crashcomp |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/G005648/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2008 |
| End | 11/2012 |
| Description | EU FP7 |
| Amount | € 850,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | FP7 # 604093 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 10/2013 |
| End | 09/2016 |
| Description | EU FP7 GreenBat |
| Amount | € 400,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 224582 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 06/2008 |
| End | 09/2011 |
| Description | EU FP7 NanoSelect |
| Amount | € 700,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 280519 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 02/2012 |
| End | 01/2016 |
| Description | EU FP7 Storage |
| Amount | € 3,400,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 234236 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 01/2010 |
| End | 06/2013 |
| Description | Imperial College London/CE contribution |
| Amount | £500,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2006 |
| End | 10/2011 |
| Description | RTI International |
| Amount | £15,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | RTI International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 01/2008 |
| End | 06/2009 |
| Description | Shell-Imperial Grant Challenge |
| Amount | £175,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Shell Global Solutions International BV |
| Sector | Private |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Start | 01/2010 |
| End | 12/2013 |
| Description | TSB |
| Amount | £175,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Innovate UK |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2009 |
| End | 03/2011 |
| Description | 19th Annual Conference of the BioEnvironmental Polymer Society 2011 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We (Prof Bismarck, Dr Jonny Blaker and Dr Koon Yang Lee) organised the BEPS 2011 conference. It was organised to boost the knowledge of state-of-the-art research in synthetic, renewable and natural degradable polymers and green (nano) composites of the conference participants. 218 participants from 28 countries, a mix of industry, academia and research institutes attended. A total of 113 oral and 42 poster presentations on fundamental and application driven research were presented. Interaction and knowledge exchange between the participants was encouraged through the Welcome Mixer, poster session with complementary food and drinks as well as conference dinner held in the Viennese microbrewery Salmbräu. BEPS 2011 allowed participants to catch up on the latest innovations and ideas. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | 30 min Austrian ORF Radio Show: Plastic Planet |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Prof Bismarck (Imperial) and Prof Andreas Kuenkel (BASF) were invited to be interviewed on Austrian National Radio ORF 1 during the BEPS conference and answered questions of Radio listeners on polymers in the environment and biobased polymers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |