Project description
Growing sensors without lead
Every year, industries place billions of piezoelectric sensors in medical tools, aircraft, and bridges. These sensors turn physical pressure into electricity. Most rely on lead zirconium titanate, a ceramic containing toxic lead. Even newer green options require rare minerals and high energy to produce. The ERC-funded Pb-FREE project aims to change this pattern by growing crystals from amino acids and peptides at room temperature. This method avoids heavy metals and waste. Researchers use machine learning to design durable materials and develop stable ways to grow these structures. The project is also building systems to test these crystals in electronics. The goal is to replace toxic ceramics with sustainable sensors grown from the basic building blocks of life.
Objective
Billions of piezoelectric sensors are produced every year, improving the efficiency of many current and emerging technologies. By interconverting electrical and mechanical energy they enable medical device, infrastructure, automotive and aerospace industries, but with a huge environmental cost. The majority of piezoelectric sensors contain Lead Zirconium Titanate (PZT), the fabrication of which requires toxic lead oxide. Prominent lead-free alternatives are heavily processed, and rely on expensive, non-renewable materials such as Niobium.
Biological materials such as amino acids and peptides have emerged as exciting new piezoelectrics. Biomolecular-crystal assemblies can be grown at room temperature with no by-products, and do not require an external electric field to induce piezoelectricity, unlike PZT and other piezoceramics. Currently no research is focused on developing these crystals as reliable, solid-state sensors to integrate into conventional electronic devices, due to their high water solubility, uncontrolled growth, variable piezoelectric response, and difficulty in making electrical contact.
Pb-FREE will take on the ground-breaking challenge of developing biomolecular crystals as organic, low-cost, high-performance sensors, to out-perform and phase-out inorganic device components with dramatically reduced environmental impact. The project will rapidly accelerate the design, growth, and engineering of these novel piezoelectric materials under three pillars:
- An ambitious computational workflow will enable the design of super-piezoelectric crystalline assemblies by combining high-throughput quantum mechanical calculations with machine learning algorithms.
- A new method of growing polycrystalline biomolecules will be developed, allowing for easy, efficient creation of macroscopic piezoelectric structures.
- A state-of-the-art electromechanical testing suite will be established to characterise fully insulated and contacted biomolecular device components.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry transition metals
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electrical engineering piezoelectrics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
- Limerick
Ireland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.