Description du projet
De nouveaux matériaux pour remplacer les plastiques en Europe
Les plastiques, notamment les thermoplastiques, sont constitués de chaînes de polymères qui leur permettent d’être recyclés, mais qui réagissent mal à la chaleur et aux solvants. En revanche, les thermodurcissables réticulés résistent bien à la chaleur et aux solvants, mais ne sont pas recyclables. Le projet VITRIMAT, financé par l’UE, vise à utiliser des vitrimères, une nouvelle classe de matériaux qui combine les caractéristiques les plus performantes des thermoplastiques et des thermodurcissables réticulés. Le projet vise à traduire la recherche universitaire européenne de pointe sur les vitrimères en applications industrielles pour les produits du quotidien. VITRIMAT fédèrera l’expertise des partenaires universitaires et industriels dans un centre technique national.
Objectif
Today’s plastics are either thermoplastics (TPs) composed of polymer chains, recyclable and processable at high throughput yet with poor heat and solvent resistance, or crosslinked thermosets (TSs) made of permanent polymer networks with far better thermomechanical properties and solvent resistance yet essentially intractable and non-recyclable once processed. Vitrimers are a new class of materials, rewarded by the 2015 European Inventor Award, taking benefit of dynamic exchangeable crosslinks and combining the best features of TPs and TSs. By combining enhanced mechanical and chemical performances with abilities to be healed, welded, reprocessed and recycled, vitrimers bear the promise of the next generation of polymer materials and composites with new fields of applications in line with sustainable development and requisites of the plastics circular economy.
VITRIMAT will offer a critical training gap between cutting-edge European academic research on vitrimers and industrial developments of daily life products. ESRs will be the first recipients of a pioneering, highly interdisciplinary training program covering the whole value chain of advanced materials currently employed in sectors with high employability and expected growth (e.g. consumer goods, construction, recreational, wind energy, electromobility and automotive industries).
VITRIMAT aims at strengthening the European leadership on vitrimers by combining the expertise and technologies of 6 academic partners-pioneers in vitrimers and advanced composite materials - with 1 national technical center and 8 industrial partners (including 2 beneficiaries and 1 SME) that are world leaders in the chemistry, adhesives, thermosets and composites for consumer goods, construction and automotive applications. These sectors represent high employability for future ESRs that will acquire a broad range of advanced and transferable skills within a unique, innovative, multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral training environment.
Champ scientifique
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcomposites
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringautomotive engineering
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energywind power
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-ITN - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)Coordinateur
69622 Villeurbanne Cedex
France