Description du projet
L’eau supercritique pourrait révolutionner la production de mousses PMMA
Le projet Siphony, financé par l’UE, est une collaboration interdisciplinaire entre la science des polymères et la thermodynamique et l’ingénierie des processus des fluides supercritiques. Le projet envisage d’utiliser de l’eau supercritique dans le processus de moussage du polyméthacrylate de méthyle. L’eau supercritique présente des propriétés uniques qui apportent des caractéristiques prometteuses au processus – notamment sa haute efficacité en tant que solvant, sa stabilité, sa faible toxicité et son absence d’impact sur l’environnement. Associée au dioxyde de carbone, elle augmentera l’efficacité du gonflement chimique du plastique et multipliera par six environ l’énergie thermodynamique de l’explosion par rapport au dioxyde de carbone seul. Le processus proposé vise la création d’un polymère nanocellulaire exceptionnellement souple, d’une densité environ 10 fois inférieure, qui pourra orienter l’industrie de l’isolation vers le développement de produits écologiques plus légers.
Objectif
Siphony is a disruptive project created from a Breakthrough Materials Coalition between CellMat Laboratories and Dr. Danilo Cantero. This is a multidisciplinary venture involving the Physics and Chemistry of polymers and the Thermodynamics and Process Engineering of Supercritical Fluids. Sub and Supercritical water will be annex to the use of carbon dioxide in the foaming of Polymethyl methacrylate. The innovative and never seen before addition of sub and supercritical water will create benefits in the chemical swelling of the polymer and the addition of thermodynamic energy of explosion, approximately 5-6 times more than carbon dioxide itself. With this, it is expected to achieve the extra hit of power and material softening to reach an outstanding nano cellular polymer of very low density (10 times density reduction compared to initial polymer) and high pores density (>1013 pores/cm3). This kind of materials has outstanding properties as insulators (thermal and acoustic) in many fields of the industry. This proposed invention by employing Siphony process will create an exceptional rated polymer that will revolutionize the insulation industry by dropping insulators weight and increasing the heat transference resistant. Siphony also involves the application of the revolutionary concept invented by Danilo Cantero: the Continuous Sudden Expansion Reactor. The application of this technology to the foaming process of PMMA will bring unconventional properties to the product as well as to the process of foaming. This technology has demonstrated accurate control of residence time and temperature in a continuous mode. In this project, the technology will be redesigned to maximize the water/carbon dioxide dissolution in PMMA and the water/carbon dioxide expansion by sudden decompression in an isenthalpic stage. Also, the high level of shear that is incorporated by this process will be optimized to generate the best performing combination of PMMA particle size and cells size.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
47002 VALLADOLID
Espagne