Project of the Month: An award for using ultrasound to create advanced industrial materials The EU-funded http://optinanopro.eu/ (OptiNanoPro) project has won the prestigious ChemPlast Award in the category of ‘Best technological innovation for development of new materials’, which promotes the use of nanotechnology to improve the features of plastics using ultrasound. Industrial Technologies © ChemPlastExpo The award recognises the project team’s development of a new technology for the dispersion of additives and nanoadditives within plastic, which entails the use of an ultrasonic vibration system in which the plastic is blended with different additives to ultimately obtain an à la carte material. Currently in the patenting process, the technology allows for nanoadditive plastics that have overall improved mechanical benefits and increased barrier properties, and even reduces the weight and final costs of the pieces to be manufactured. Keep a look out for an upcoming CORDIS Results Pack on Advanced Industrial Materials, which will feature a more comprehensive article on OptiNanoPro’s successes. “Nanotechnology can provide packaging with improved barrier properties as well as repellent properties resulting in easy-to-empty features that will on the one hand reduce waste at consumer level and, on the other hand, improve their acceptability by recyclers. Likewise, solar panels can be self-cleaning to increase their effectiveness and extend the period between their maintenance and their lifetime by filtering UV light that causes material weathering. In the automotive sector, lightweight parts can be obtained for greater fuel efficiency.” - Maria Eugenia Rodriguez, Director of the Composite Materials Unit at project partner Eurecat. If you are interested in having your project featured in ‘Project of the Month’ in an upcoming issue, please send us an email to editorial@cordis.europa.eu and tell us why! Countries Spain
