The main scientific and technological results achieved by the CoACH researchers are:
• GLASSES AND COMPOSITES FOR HEALTH CARE INDUSTRIES.
At ERLANGEN, an innovative ordered mesoporous bioactive and antibacterial silver-doped glass was developed using a sol-gel technique. At COLOR, in collaboration with ERLANGEN, a bioinspired approach was used to develop a new antibacterial nanostructured hybrid coating. At NANOFORCE, electric current assisted sintering involving rapid heating was used to develop new processing routes to produce new biocompatible and antibacterial coatings.
The collaboration between POLITO, nLIGHT and COLOR concerned the synthesis of rare earth doped nanoparticles using soft chemistry and the fabrication and characterisation of novel Er3+doped bioactive glass-ceramics. The investigated glasses possess good thermal stability and are very promising for the fabrication of fibre lasers and amplifiers.
• GLASSES, CERAMICS AND COMPOSITES FOR THE ENERGY PRODUCTION AND ICT INDUSTRIES.
The POLITO team, in collaboration with ELEMENT, manufactured, integrated and tested new and low cost evanescent wave optical sensors for monitoring the diffusion of corrosive sea water and degradation through the thickness of glass fibre reinforced polymers used in harsh conditions. ELEMENT’s work also focused on developing a dead weight creep test rig to evaluate creep stress rupture of the materials under investigation at different temperatures and stress levels, in collaboration with IPM, and on setting up an ageing study to investigate the effect of seawater and synthetic oil on the neat resin.
At UR1, in collaboration with DIAFIR, the thermoelectric properties of several new compositions of chalcogenide glasses, glass ceramics and polycrystalline materials have been tested. At NANOFORCE, it has developed a rapid processing route (1,000 °C/min) using a modified spark plasma sintering furnace, and promising results were obtained with silicide thermoelectrics. A remarkably high and stable thermoelectric zT of close to 2 was achieved by manipulating the electronic bands in Ga-Sb co-doped GeTe, which was processed by hybrid flash-spark plasma sintering. NANOFORCE, ETL and POLITO developed new joining methods and protective layers for thermoelectrics to enable the production of efficient demonstrator thermoelectric modules.
The high operation temperature and the harsh environment to which solid oxide cells are exposed, leads to several critical issues responsible for their degradation. The study by IPM has been targeted to the behaviour of the single cell, also known as MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly). The obtained results were used to extract the elastic behaviour of individual layers, suitable as an input for future simulations. Besides, new silica–based glass-ceramic compositions were designed and characterised as sealant materials by POLITO in close collaboration with SUNFIRE. Demonstrator short stacks were built at SUNFIRE using two of the most promising glass compositions and MnCo coated Crofer22APU interconnects.
• ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY, LOW COST GLASS, CERAMIC AND COMPOSITE MATERIALS.
At UNIPD, starting from mixtures of recycled glasses and inorganic waste, dense proppants were produced with a total residual porosity not exceeding 4% and compressive strength in the order of 140-170 MPa.
ERLANGEN, in collaboration with SASIL, fabricated different geopolymers formulations at low temperatures with a low cost and low environmental impact process by using silicate wastes. Additionally, at UNIPD a new process was developed and used to convert recycled soda-lime into highly porous glass foams (porosity exceeding 85%) at only 700 °C, i.e. at a far lower temperature than those required by conventional methods, after alkali activation, gelification and mechanical foaming of gelified suspensions. The collaboration between IPM, UNIPD, ERLANGEN and SASIL was extended to new formulations, comprising recycled glasses and other inorganic waste, such as red mud and fly ash. Dense waste-derived geopolymers exhibited very good mechanical properties (>100 MPa compressive strength) despite being prepared with a low temperature curing.
Furthermore, the CoACH ESRs have been trained by IDP’s instructors with a built-in training provision that combines their scientific skills with increased business and entrepreneurial capacity.
