Despite the relevance of polymers (e.g., coatings) in modern societies, the limited or absent (bio)degradability and recyclability associated with this class of materials pose serious environmental and health concerns. Addressing this challenge is thus a key priority being fully aligned with the EU Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To bridge this gap, a multidisciplinary team with researchers from seven countries, including one associate partner, has converged to achieve pioneer breakthroughs under the SAFERCOAT project. In this sense, SAFERCOAT aims to promote staff mobility and knowledge-sharing to develop eco-friendly polymeric coating formulations with enhanced biodegradability for aeronautical, maritime, and cultural applications. SAFERCOAT will focus on the (i) synthesis and modification of thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers to accelerate their degradation rate at the end-of-life; (ii) optimization, testing, and validation of coating formulations for targeted applications; (iii) assessment of the environmental and health impacts; and (iv) upcycling of end-of-life materials to produce add-value products. This scientific endeavor will rely on the synergy of specialized training and cross-sector and interdisciplinary mobility among the 6 universities and 4 industrial partners to promote knowledge growth, transfer, dissemination, and exploitation. The novelty of SAFERCOAT lies in incorporating high bio-sourced content and cutting-edge technologies to develop coatings with outstanding performance throughout the service life and high (bio)degradation after use, which will contribute to (i) decrease the coatings industrys environmental footprint, (ii) revolutionalize the coatings end-of-life by transforming what is currently treated as a disposable waste into valuable products, contributing for a zero pollution environment, and (iii) settle an international R&D network to ensure permanent progress on biodegradable and sustainable coatings.

NANO2DAY is aiming at the development of advanced multifunctional composites with outstanding electronic and mechanical properties by incorporation of novel MXene nanosheets into polymer matrixes. The project will firstly go forward to the rational design and systematic exploration of MXene-polymer nanocomposites for wearable electronics and advanced structural components for airspace applications. This will be achieved by i) intersectoral consolidation and sharing of knowledge and expertise of 11 members from Europe and USA working in different areas and ii) collaborative research on the development and assessment of novel materials, including technology, characterisation, modelling, and validation. The concept explored in the project accounts for finding and extending the application potential of MXene-doped polymers and validation of their effectiveness compared to well-known graphene-doped polymers. The innovative aspects followed in the project are based on up-scaling of novel technologies for “close-to-industrial” synthesis of MXenes and MXene-doped polymer masterbatches and implementation of MXenes into design of structural polymer composites, including FRPs. NANO2DAY will essentially contribute to the integration of scientific insights into innovation-based industrial environment and successful implementation of novel advanced materials into practical applications.

The proposal aims to develop an innovative approach to impart sensing functionality and detect substrate degradation. The degradation processes targeted will be corrosion of metallic substrates and mechanical damage by impact on fibre reinforced plastics and composites (FRP), used as structural components in the vehicle industry worldwide. The innovative sensing materials are based on controlled release of active species, encapsulated in polymeric and inorganic capsules with sizes ranging from several micrometres down to the nanometre range. These will be designed and prepared in a way that responds to specific triggers associated with the nature of the degradation process. The functional materials will be subsequently incorporated as additives in organic and hybrid organic-inorganic coating matrices, or directly impregnated in the substrate (FRP). The goal is to get coatings capable of sensing substrate degradation at early stages, making maintenance operations cost-effective without jeopardizing safety. The range of selected materials encloses systems conceptually designed to be prepared and tested for the first time at lab scale (high breakthrough at research level) and others already studied at lab scale with promising results and which can already be tested at pilot scale (high innovation level). Furthermore, the characterization encompasses lab-scale, cutting-edge technologies and modelling, as well as upscaling and industrial validation. The consortium upon which the present proposal is set has strong knowledge and previous experience in the topics above presented, reflected upon previous participation in large FP7 EU-projects as well as on Marie Curie actions (IRSES). Therefore, part of the interdisciplinary exchanging network necessary to successfully achieve the objectives and allow a flow and sharing environment of people, knowledge and methods has already been tested in previous projects with positive results.

The need to develop and use products made out of residues or sub-products from industry is creating pressure over fields where more traditional, linear economy concepts prevail. In this project we address one important stage of the life cycle of products, particularly trying to extend its service life, thereby contributing for advances towards circular economy via increase in durability of materials and use of greener materials. In particular, this proposal addresses the problem of protection and monitoring of corrosion of metallic substrates used in different applications. Structured in previous experience with a recently finished MSCA-RISE project SMARCOAT (ref. 645662, 2015-2018), this project aims at developing eco-friendly multifunctional coatings with capacity to protect and detect corrosion based on different mechanisms combining nanostructured inhibiting and sensing additives. Two types of coating systems are intended to be developed, one for temporary protection during storage and transportation based on biodegradable materials and another on thermosetting polymers obtained using raw materials from sustainable sources. A relevant part of this project includes the study of fate and ecotoxicity of different coating components and Life cycle analysis, which will be equaled as a figure of merit with performance factors to select the most promising systems and launch demonstrators for standard and field tests.