Final Report Summary - COMPOSITUM (Hybrid nanocomposites and their applications) It is a multidisciplinary as well as interdisciplinary project, which generates new knowledge by studying phenomena and manipulating matter at nanoscale 'nanosciences and nanotechnologies' (N&Ns). It includes several fields of science, such as physics, chemistry, life sciences, engineering and environment-related disciplines. The advanced higher performance 'materials' developed in this project are the main emphasis of activity materials. Results of this work would be of relevance to themes: 'Health', 'Environment' and 'Security'. The joint investigations were carried out via transfer of knowledge and networking activities between four teams from Member States, i.e. Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Lublin (Poland), University of Brighton (UK), National Technical University of Athens (Greece), Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary) and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, an international cooperation partner country (ICPC) with an economy in transition. This project reinforces and strengthens existing bilateral scientific links and transforms them into a larger network which includes all partners. It provides momentum for long-term collaboration between the partners. Its achievements will lay foundation for other actions in the 'People' programme, aimed at further development and consolidation of the European Research Area (ERA) and large-scale competitive research projects that will be submitted in response to forthcoming calls in other themes. The main expected scientific results were: - the preparation and characterisation of novel hybrid nanocomposites with improved thermal, mechanical, electrical and other characteristics; - the establishment structure-property relationships in hybrid nanocomposite systems; - the assessment of potential applications of tailor-made hybrid nanocomposites in biological and environmental systems. The project has fully achieved its objectives and technical goals for the total period. All planned materials were synthesised and studied. These advanced materials may have a potential for developing new technologies, which make the European Union (EU) more competitive at the global scale. In this project, women constituted more than half researchers (53 %). During the 4-year project realisation dozens new hybrid composite and functionalised nanomaterials based on oxides, carbons, polymers and natural minerals were synthesised and characterised. Their interactions with biological objects and environmental systems were studied and the role of interfacial phenomena in these systems was elucidated. To evaluate the performance of novel nanocomposites in biological media, environmental systems and specific industrial applications the relationship of their structure-properties in different specific applications were investigated. The project gave opportunities of training for early stage researchers and the dissemination of the results of joint activities. Thanks to increased individual mobility of persons involved in the project and transfer of knowledge between research groups via exchange visits a great number of researchers have increased their career prospective by preparing Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) dissertations (20), habilitation (2), Master (2) and Bachelor (2) theses. During realisation of project most researchers were trained continuously during their visits at partner's laboratories. Evidence of this is arising of new research groups composed of researchers of different teams and large number of publications in scientific journals, i.e. printed 93, including 1 book and several chapters in books, 11 papers submitted, and 5 prepared. The papers were published in journals with high impact factor (IF), such as ACS NANO (11.421) Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. (8.12) Chemical Communications (6.169) Journal of Material Chemistry (5.97) Carbon (5.378) J. Phys. Chem. C (4.805) ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (4.53) Soft Matter (4.39) Langmuir (4.186) Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (3.573) Microporous Mesoporous Materials (3.285) Composites Science and Technology (3.144) J. Colloid Interface Sci. (3.07) Chem. Phys. Let. (2.337) Colloids Surf. A (2.236) Colloid Polymer Sci. (2.331) Materials Research Bulletin (2.105) Appl. Surf. Sci. (2.1) Adsorption (2) and many others. Participants of COMPOSITUM took part in 45 different conferences, giving 202 presentations (including 45 orals and 157 posters). - The members of all teams have participated in a number of seminars organised during their visits at Partners giving a more than 30 lectures on the results of their research. - Realisation of planned visits between teams during four years of project implementation, paid by COMPOSITUM is 95 %. Additionally, several exchanges were made as external visits. The COMPOSITUM project was presented on the website developed by the Polish national contact point (NCP) for research programmes of EU 'Success Story' (see http://en.kpk.gov.pl/index.php?option=com_sobi2&sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=45&sobi2Id=97&Itemid=142&lang=en online for further details). Information about COMPOSITUM (two pages) was included in the brochure (88 pages) that has been issued on the occasion of the Polish Presidency in EU, July - December 2011. The research results obtained during realisation of COMPOSITUM, have been selected for special promotion on Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) Technology Marketplace Tailor-made nanomaterials for industrial application (see https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/87680-new-materials-for-environmental-and-biological-applications online for further details). The COMPOSITUM was selected as the five top best practices in EU-Ukraine science and technology (S&T) cooperation by the BILAT-UKR project funded under the European Commission (EC)'s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The COMPOSITUM was chosen to present at the INCREAST portal as project of the month (see http://www.increast.eu/en/1371.php online for further details). It has been featured on the incrEAST www page for one month, starting from Sunday 1 April 2012, and after that it will be available in listing at this website. During four years of project realisation (2009 - 2013) four conferences of COMPOSITUM were organised and four annual meetings: - 1st COMPOSITUM conference (and 1st annual meeting) incorporated to 'Modern problems of surface chemistry and physics' conference, 18 - 21 May 2010, Kyiv, Ukraine. - 2nd COMPOSITUM conference, accompanied XII Polish-Ukrainian symposium 'Theoretical and experiental studies of interfacial phenomena and their applications', 24 - 28 August 2010, Kielce-Amelowka, Poland; http://www.thomascat.info - 2nd annual meeting accompanied Ukrainian conference with international participants, devoted to 25th anniversary of O.O.Chuiko Institute of Surface Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 11 - 13 May 2011 - 3rd COMPOSITUM conference, accompanied 33rd international conference on 'Vacuum microbalance and thermoanalytical techniques' (ICVMTT33); 26 - 30 June 2011, Zamosc, Poland; http://imttc.umcs.lublin.pl - 4th COMPOSITUM conference (and 3rd annual meeting), accompanied XIII Ukrainian-Polish symposium 'Theoretical and experimental studies of interfacial phenomena and their applications', 11 - 14 September 2012, Kiev, Ukraine (see http://www.thomascat.info online for further details). 4th annual meeting, 17 January 2013 Kiev, Ukraine Related documents Final Report - COMPOSITUM (Hybrid nanocomposites and their applications)
