Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ABuMic (All-acoustic Bubble Microrheology for rapid screening of formulations)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-07-01 do 2023-12-31
As consumers we use formulated products every day, for instance toothpaste, detergents, foods, paint. Behind their apparent simplicity, formulated products are extremely complex multicomponent, microstructured, and multiphase materials, where multiple chemical compounds (such as polymers and surfactants) are blended in a specific combination to obtain the desired texture and performance. Due to their complexity, the design and development of new formulated products can require several years, with significant R&D costs and recurrent failures. The ERC Proof of Concept project ABuMic aims to address a critical challenge of our society: the transition of formulated products to a safer and more sustainable industry. There is increasing pressure on the industry, both from the public opinion and regulatory bodies, for healthier food products and more environmentally friendly paints and coatings. As a result, in the coming years many formulated products will need to be re-formulated. This will come at a huge cost for the industry, because by and large, product development is still done by trial-and-error. This means that the formulated products industry needs more than ever the capability to predict formulation performance for rapid screening of new products. The current challenge is that processing flows and end-use produce flow conditions that are not accessible with existing methods for materials characterization. With the ABuMic device, a formulation scientist will be able to design a new product more quickly and efficiently, thereby lowering the cost of new product development, and supporting the transition to healthier and more sustainable products.
To improve the precision of the ABuMic method we developed an improved calibration protocol, and we automated the measurements. For increased precision on the bubble injection we developed a new bubble injection tool inspired from precision droplet injection tools. We performed an extensive statistical analysis of the measurement to establish the repeatability and accuracy of the measurements. We performed measurements on a reference material and compared against the results of a commercial method together with our collaborators.
The ABuMic method provides access to rheological properties at high frequency (10-100 kHz) for viscoelastic materials. It is particularly suited for soft solids, which other high-frequency rheometers cannot characterize. We identified a small range of overlap of frequency and rheological properties with another commercial technique and validated quantitatively the measurements of the ABuMic method. This validation confirms that the method is reliable. Further research is needed to broaden the range of materials that can be characterized and the operation conditions.