CoSiMa - concept for industrial development for the sustainable soft materials of the future

Research Project, 2018 – 2020

Many industry sectors face the challenge of rapidly converting to an efficient development of sustainable materials and products, but with unchanged requirements on product functionality and price. Within a wide range of industrial applications, such as hygiene products, packaging, color, pharmaceuticals, wound care products and food, molecular transport is important for product functionality. The structure of the material acts as a matrix in which molecules are transported, e.g. for the release of drugs or when liquids are absorbed in hygiene products. In the packaging industry, transport often needs to be prevented, e.g. transport of oxygen into food packaging, which shortens shelf life. Materials for these applications are often water-containing, soft and heterogeneous, while material structures on different length scales interact to give them their properties. This makes both computer simulations and experimental studies challenging. In this project, players from industry, trade associations and academy will develop a new concept for material development based on understanding of the relationship between material structure and molecular transport, imaging of material structures, in silico design of structures, as well as measurements and computations of molecular transport. By creating tools and a concept that the industrial partners (and in a longer term, other actors) can employ to understand the function of existing materials, they will also be able to streamline the process of designing the future´s novel materials with optimized properties. The network, the multidisciplinary approach and the competence from the VINN Excellence Centre SuMo Biomaterials give us excellent possibilities to meet this challenge.