Projects

At Danish Polymer Centre we research in extensional rheology, silicone elastomers and synthesis of polymers.

Current projects

About WeArAble

Soft wearables with high energy density: Merging chemical biology and silicone chemistry with active compliant devices.

The WeArAble center will build the scientific foundation for soft wearables with the high energy density needed to enable thin and nearly invisible prosthetics, soft exoskeletons, and haptics. Comfortable wearables today cannot generate enough force to serve their claimed function. We will solve that challenge in WeArAble.

Our cross-disciplinary center will pioneer a unique approach to soft, comfortable wearables: the integration of biologically tailored fibers into soft silicone elastomers. These soft materials will resemble soft tissue in compliance and function (sensing and actuation). By combining synthetic biology, chemical synthesis, and fiber technology, unprecedentedly high energy densities for soft materials will result. The materials will be operated electrically, enabling efficient control of complex motion. Our soft actuators embrace their inherent softness as a key advantage and enable the development of powerful wearables allowing for useful forces.

The center’s primary research activities focus on:

  • Molecular design of silicone elastomers resembling soft tissue and with electro-mechanical robustness to allow for stable fibers.
  • Tailoring of bacteria that enable specialized materials with, e.g., high conductivity or tissue adhesion, allowing for the integration of living materials, the silicones into fibers, and ultimately into the wearables.
  • Architecture of biocompatible flexible devices that encompass ultra-soft materials while providing useful forces and yet remaining mechanically transparent to allow for versatile use on (or ultimately in) the human body.

WeArAble will generate the knowledge and innovations for a paradigm shift towards mechanically transparent (i.e., imperceptible, not hindering motion nor even the sense of touch) active wearables that benefit many segments of society (medical, sports, in,industrial and entertainment scenarios), and improve inclusion of physically impaired people.

Partners

The WeArAble center is organized around three fundamental scientific challenges, each headed by a partner. All three partners will solve their respective challenges in close collaboration with the other partners.

  • Project leader: Professor Anne Ladegaard Skov, Centre Leader for the Danish Polymer Centre, DTU Kemiteknik.
    The role of Professor Anne Ladegaard Skov is to lead the project, and her group is responsible for the modeling, development, and synthesis of new and advanced silicone network structures with high energy density and self-healing abilities.
    Professor Anne Ladegaard Skov will be responsible for Challenge 1: Understanding how silicone polymer structure, microscopic network structure, and fiber interaction affect energy density and mechanical properties.

  • Partner: Professor Herbert Shea, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Neuchatel, Switzerland.
    The role of professor Herbert Shea is to develop soft wearable actuators for haptics and exoskeletons, addressing open challenges using novel materials made by synthetic biology in the shape of fibers or composite materials from silicone. He will leverage his lab’s unique expertise in developing new architectures for soft electrically driven devices, and manufacturing processes and using them for on-skin haptics.
    Professor Herbert Shea will be responsible for Challenge 3: Understanding the interaction of fiber and yarn structures with device design and how the design of actuators can fully embrace the properties. 

About funding

WeArAble - Soft wearables with high energy density: merging chemical biology and silicone chemistry with active compliant devices is funded by Novo Nordisk Fonden grant NNF22OC0071130.

The 48 million DKK grant was funded from the Challenge Programme 2022 - Energy materials with biological applications.

The grant period starts on 01 November 2022 and will last five years.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective

The objective of this project is to develop a range of new biopolymer composites and to test them for different applications.

Background

Society is dependent on plastic materials in order to be able to support the growing population. If we consider the most recent projection of the world annual plastics production, it indicates that in 2050, 20% of the annual production of oil should be used for preparation of plastic materials.

This underlines the need to find alternative sources of raw materials that can be used for preparation of plastics to reduce this strain on depleting resources. This can either be done by improved recycling, by introduction of new bio-based polymers or by using biopolymers originating from natural sources.

The project

The specific project is one part of a larger DFF project, where we will apply machine learning in collaboration with CITA to develop new systems.

Funding

The project is funded by DFF and is part of a larger DFF project, which has been granted in collaboration with CITA at KADK.

The project will be running from 2020-2023.

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Contact

Arianna Rech

Arianna Rech Postdoc Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

In the project - Circular Mono Plastic Packaging, we will contribute to development of two technologies that will enable production of flexible packaging prepared from a single plastic material to enable simpler recirculation.

About the project

See the full press announcement 'Mere af din brugte mademballage skal kunne genanvendes' on Innovation Fund Denmark website (In Danish) or read more on the project website. 

The project is funded by Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) and runs from June 2020-2023.

Partners are: Arla Foods, Teknlogisk Institut, DTU Chemical Engineering, DTU Food Nilpeter, Resino Trykfarver, Trepko, Vetaphone, Boreas, Salling Group, Dansk Affaldsforening and DI Fødevarer.

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Novel block copolymer systems for more efficient reconstitution of membrane proteins

 

Objective

The industrial PhD project has the overarching objective, to prepare a range of new polymer systems for reconstitution of specific proteins.

Background

Aquaporin Inside membranes for water filtration, exploits specific water channel proteins for selective transport of water through membranes. This requires the water channel protein to be stabilized inside the membrane to obtain a sufficient efficiency of the system

The project

The project is funded by Innovation Fund Denmark and will be running from 2020-2023.

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Contact

Go to the project website to learn more about the project

Objective

The aim of this project is to create a new design for silicone implants that cannot leak silicone into the surrounding body tissue. Additionally, the goal is to design an implant that closely mimics the consistency of natural breast tissue. This will help breast cancer patients to have a better quality of life after breast cancer, which the current implant design does not offer.

 

Background

Approximately 1 out of 4 breast reconstructed patients experience side effects within three years and will have to undergo further surgery; this may be due to the release of small amounts of silicone oil into the surrounding tissue, even in the absence of implant rupture. Moreover, the current implant design fails to replicate the softness and natural movement of breast tissue, resulting in many women experiencing a breast that feels and looks different from their natural breast tissue.

 

This highlights the necessity for a new silicone implant design, which we aim to achieve by synthesizing a single, large molecule, as opposed to using an implant shell containing leachable silicone oil.

 

Funding

The project is currently funded by Spin-outs Denmark.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective

The industrial PhD project aims at developing methods to recycle crosslinked elastomers.

Background

The producers of crosslinked elastomers are facing a significant challenge with regard to finding efficient recycling processes for their products. Although there are substantial developments in the field, the difficulty of regaining the original properties of the polymers remains an obstacle for larger industrial applications. This project aims to investigate how the diffusion properties of crosslinked elastomers can be utilized to recycle this complex class of materials.

The project

The project is funded by Roxtec International AB and will be running from 2023-2027.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective
This project aims to prepare a new type of industrially relevant silicone-based coating containing no or less solvent than the currently available coatings. 

Background
Large structures such as windmills and ships are covered with coatings to prolong their lifetime. Volatile organic solvents are added to make these industrial coating formulations sprayable and easier to apply on the structures. When the coating dries, these often harmful solvents evaporate and end up in the environment. More than 350,000 tons of organic solvents are annually released from ship coatings alone. 

The novel silicone-based coating with no or less solvent will consist of short cyclic silicone polymers with a low viscosity combined with long linear silicone polymers with a high viscosity. The short cyclic silicones will act as a solvent, decrease the viscosity of the mixture, and make it sprayable. When the linear silicones thread the cyclic silicones, the interaction between the two types of polymers will increase the viscosity again. This interaction between linear polymers and ring cyclic polymers can be utilized to make a coating where the viscosity can change without the need for adding solvents. 

The project
The main focus of this project is establishing procedures for preparing networks containing cyclic silicones. Furthermore, there will be a significant emphasis on analyzing the properties of the elastomers containing cyclic polymers to determine how these networks differ from classical networks consisting solely of linear polymers.

Funding 
The project is funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and will run from 2022 to 2025.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective

We aim to develop an adaptive silicone foam for chronic cavity wounds, which delivers undisturbed wound healing by providing an optimal healing environment inside the wound bed.

Background

Globally, close to 50 million people are suffering from chronic wounds and the number is steadily increasing, primarily driven by ageing populations and an increase in lifestyle-related diseases. The socio-economic impact of chronic wounds is significant. Treatment and care of chronic wounds account for >3% of the healthcare budget in developed countries, and the patients experience reduced quality of life, a high mortality rate and risk of amputation. The perseverance of chronic wounds is due to wound healing being a cascade of complex processes. Every time a wound is attended, the healing is set back by up to 12 hours due to the interruption of one or more healing processes. The unmet need is an undisturbed wound healing environment; wound care dressings that physically fit the wound bed, allowing it to build new tissue with no physical constraints and ensure a reduced level of infection in the wound, leading to faster healing and fewer changes of dressing.

The project

The foam consists of a silicone glycerol system, where the hydrophilic glycerol is dispersed within the hydrophobic silicone matrix. Our solution can, in addition to absorbing exudate in the gas domains also absorb the exudate within the glycerol domains imbedded in the silicone matrix allowing for greater absorption. When the dressing needs to be changed, the foam can be removed in one piece without inducing trauma due to the inherent softness of the foam. The closed cell structure around the foam facilitates that the toxic exudate can be retained inside the foam and thus prevents spill of the exudate on the healthy skin.

Funding

The project is funded by Innovation Foundation Denmark (2022 – 2023), DTU-POC (2024), SPARK (2024-2025), and Pioneer Innovator (NNF) (2024-2025).

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective

The primary objective of this project is to create environmentally friendly silicone elastomers that degrade naturally and sustainably. These elastomers will be cross-linked by hydrogen bonds using both natural and model phenols as crosslinkers while maintaining their electro-mechanical properties. Additionally, the project aims to develop a viable recycling process for the produced materials.

Background

In conventional silicone elastomers, the polymer chains are crosslinked through strong covalent bonds, which significantly contribute to the material's structural strength and integrity. However, this covalent cross-linking poses challenges for recycling. Conversely, thermoplastic elastomers can achieve cross-linking through the incorporation of non-covalent bonds like hydrogen bonds, π-π associations, ionic linkages, or dynamic bonding interactions within the polymer structure. These non-covalent interactions enhance the material's thermal reprocessability, making thermoplastic elastomers more adaptable to reuse, repurposing, and recycling as they can be more readily broken down than covalent bonds. With increasing environmental and human health concerns due to plastic waste, recycling is becoming more important day by day. Recycling silicone waste can also mitigate the substantial energy consumption in converting sand into silicone.

The project

The project involves collaboration from McMaster University, Canada. The project is funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark and will run from 2023 to 2026.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Completed projects

Objective

The objective of this project is immobilization and stabilization of P450 enzymes to provide long-term stable P450s that can be used in gas/liquid reactions.

Background

A new class of enzymes, cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450), have emerged as highly attractive enzymes for special synthesis and production of active pharmaceutical ingredients. These enzymes have an unmatched selectivity and could potentially be used across a broad range of fields. However, their stability and productivity is currently too low for industrial exploitation.

The project

The project targets development of new immobilization systems, which will open up the potential for use of this broad class of enzymes for industrial production of fine chemicals that would otherwise not be accessible through the use of classical synthetic approaches. The project combines the use of polymer chemistry to design a novel immobilization matrix with modern processing methods and biocatalysis for design of a new biocatalytic system.

The project is funded by DFF - 7017-00109 and will be a collaboration between scientists from DTU Chemical Engineering, Lund University and University of Stuttgart.

The project will be running from 2017-2020.

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Objective

The objective of the project is preparation of surface functional tubular membrane reactors with full control over surface properties. Ultimately, these systems will be used for immobilization of enzymes and applied as biocatalytic membrane reactors.

Background

A new class of enzymes, cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450), have emerged as highly attractive enzymes for special synthesis and production of active pharmaceutical ingredients. These enzymes have an unmatched selectivity and could potentially be used across a broad range of fields. However, their stability and productivity is currently too low for industrial exploitation. Therefore there is a need for development of new biocatalytic reactors that can accommodate such unstable classes of enzymes.

The project

The project will be focused on surface modification of hollow fiber membranes to establish a platform and methodology for modification of this class of membrane. Typically such modification processes requires inert conditions and one of the initial milestones will be to establish a methodology permitting fast and efficient modification of such membranes. The project will combine advanced polymerization techniques with membrane science and biocatalysis to develop new biocatalytic membrane reactors.

The project is funded by FTP.

The project will be running from 2018-2021.

Supervisors

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. A.E. Daugaard
PhD student: Libor Zverina
Co-supervisors: Prof. J.M. Woodley and Assoc. Prof. M. Pinelo, DTU

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Objective

The overall objective is to develop sustainable hydrogels (HGs) as candidates for dielectric elastomers (DEs) for sustainable energy generation from waves or other moving objects such as e.g. vibrations in large production facilities. Hydrogels have not previously been investigated as candidates for DEs. This may be due to several reasons; most obviously that there are several issues of constructing a feasible design allowing for the utilization of HGs, and this is what the proposed research team of scientists within the field of chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering is to solve.

Background

Polymers present a promising alternative to the conventional actuator and generator technologies. Two types of electroactive polymers (EAPs) have developed simultaneously, namely ionic EAPs and dielectric EAPs (i.e. DEs). DEs consist of a thin elastomeric film with compliant electrodes. When a voltage is applied DEs behave as compliant capacitors, shrinking in thickness and expanding in area due to volume conservation. Reversibly, DEs generate an electrical field when they are strained in an initially charged state. This is utilized in energy harvesting applications.

The project

The HGs should be designed to outperform the performance of the current state-of-art materials, namely silicone elastomers, with respect to energy densities, i.e. how much energy it can store. Silicone has several shortcomings for energy generation (e.g. low energy densities and relatively low tear strength) and in this respect HGs seem superior candidates. In order to develop future DE materials one needs to consider requirements to the performance of the elastomer, namely that the dielectric elastomer should be designed to possess (amongst many other properties): high energy density such that large amounts of energies can be generated and life-time exceeding several million cycles such that the materials will last several years.

The project involves scientists from McMaster University, Canada, and University of Potsdam, Germany as well as two companies, namely SBM Offshore, France, and LEAP Technology, Denmark. The project is funded by FTP and will be running in the period of 2017-2020.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

DPC has been granted a generous donation by the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansens Endowment for Technical Research.

The purpose of the donation is to maintain and develop the current high academic level of the Master and PhD programmes in DPC so the centre will be able to continue its education of polymer-engineers in the future. The Danish plastics industry turns over approximately 50 billion DKK a year and therefore has a great significance for the Danish economy and Danish jobs. Thus, the industry needs the best engineers it can get in order to be able to compete with the rest of the world, why it is necessary to invest in the quality of the education continuously. That is the main argument for granting DPC the donation.

PhD Students

In the late summer 2014 Christian Hoffmann and Sara Lindeblad Wingstrand started theirs PhD project in connection with the grant.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Silicone-based Dielectric Elastomers

The degree of Doctor Technices (dr.techn.) is the highest academic distinction within engineering and technological science in Denmark. In 2017, Professor Anne Ladegaard Skov defended five years’ worth of research on “Silicone-based Dielectric Elastomers” (read the article here). She became the seventh female from DTU to receive the degree of Doctor Technices (read the article here). Read the abstract below.

Abstract

Efficient conversion of energy from one form to another (transduction) is an important topic in our daily day, and it is a necessity in moving away from the fossil based society.

Dielectric elastomers hold great promise as soft transducers, since they are compliant and light-weight amongst many favorable properties. Their transduction principle lies in direct conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy or vice versa with no need for gearing and with no stand-by energy consumption. This should in principle support a more efficient use of energy, a hot topic in our current society where energy efficient solutions are highly sought. These properties allow for interesting products ranging very broadly, e.g. from eye implants over artificial skins over soft robotics to huge wave energy harvesting plants. All these products utilize the inherent softness and compliance of the dielectric elastomer transducers.

The subject of this thesis is improvement of properties of silicone-based dielectric elastomers with special focus on design guides towards electrically, mechanically, and electromechanically reliable elastomers. Strategies for improving dielectric elastomer performance are widely investigated but rarely discussed in the context of mechanical integrity and thus product reliability.

Focus here is on long-term reliability of the dielectric elastomers and how to achieve this by means of careful elastomer design. This thesis presents methods and results of analyses acquired in the cross-disciplinary, collaborative effort on dielectric elastomers funded by Innovationsfonden Denmark (formerly Advanced Technology Foundation) with the materials workgroup headed by the author.

Main contributors to the work have been research scientists at Danfoss PolyPower, colleagues from the Danish Polymer Centre, as well as 7 PhD students and 5 postdocs being involved in the project.

International collaborators were also part of the project at various stages. The studies behind this thesis have been conducted over a period of about 5 years, and 10 selected papers describing the main results are in-cluded as appendices. They were chosen to represent the prime results obtained within the project. Most of the technical aspects discussed in this thesis are contained within these references. Several other important works have been omitted in the appendices in order to keep the thesis relatively short and concise.

Throughout the thesis the articles within the appendices are referred to as A1-A10. For all of these articles, the author was the principal investigator. Other dielectric-elastomer related papers by the author - either as a principal investigator or co-investigator- are referred to as A11-A51.

Chapters 1 to 5 of the thesis present a coherent summary of the included papers in a common context, emphasizing the overall purpose and flow of the analysis thematically. Unpublished work is included as well to facilitate coupling between approaches as well as to provide the full, comprehensive story. Chapter 6 gives a conclusion, and in Chapter 7 a personal perspective on the future of dielectric elastomer research is given.

Request a copy of doctoral thesis by clicking here.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Drug releasing silicone adhesives have been developed, initially funded by the Danish Research Council (DFF) with subsequent support from Innovation Foundation Denmark by an Innoexplorer grant as well as funding from DTU Discovery and POC schemes.

The platform technology is protected by IPR and is currently being commercialized via a spin-out company.

The technology has been proven facile and allows for controlled and sustained release of a very broad range of drugs and actives, including antimicrobials, antioxidants, enzymes and other skin care ingredients.


Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective

The present project will have the capability of synthesizing model polymer systems of precisely known molecular architecture, to subject the materials to controlled extensional flows and to measure the molecular deformation under the controlled flow situation.

The purpose of this project is to gain further insight into the physics of strong elongational flows by application of SANS to understand the dynamics in stretched polymer melts.

Background

Even for known molecular architecture, our understanding of the dynamics and stability of liquid bridges is still limited, basically we don´t have sufficient generic knowledge about the process in which macromolecular fluid filaments are extended and stretched and how the extensional properties are related to the molecular constitution.

The project

EPMEF will work in 3 main areas:

  1. Model polymer synthesis.
  2. Rheological measurements (both extensional and shear flow).
  3. Chain structure measurements by Small angle neutron scattering (SANS)to measure the molecular stretching in PS melts undergoing steady elongational flows at large stretch rates.

The project is funded by 1/3 by the Danish Council for Independent Research - Natural Sciences (Det Frie Faskningsråd / Natur od Univers)(FNU) under EPMEF on Grant 0602-02179B , 1/3 by Kemiteknik (Technical University of Denmark) and 1/3 by Danish Polymer Centre (DPC) co-financing. The project is running from April, 2013 to March, 2016 .

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective

Identify key structural parametres of vital importance for substitution of the existing monomer, MPD, with new monomers that are environmentally acceptable. Investigate and obtain knowledge of reactions between novel monomers and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) in the interfacial polymerization process. Optimize reverse osmosis (RO) membrane performance through lab studies and production process optimization. Commercialize the new RO membranes made from environmentally friendly raw materials for safer production of drinking water, food, dairy and pharmaceutical related products.

Background

Alfa Laval Nakskov A/S has manufactured polyamide (PA) thin film RO membranes for more than 20 years. The active layer of current RO membranes is formed by interfacial polymerization between metaphenylene diamine (MPD) and TMC. However, MPD is very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects, and potentially persistent based on the biodegradation criteria, and it is suspected to cause genetic effects. The project is aiming for developing and commercializing the next generation RO membranes that are made from environmentally friendly raw materials to substitute one of the current raw materirals: MPD.

The project

Synthesis of PA outher membrane layer by interfacial polymerization. Screening of commercially available non-toxic amine building blocks. Optimization of reaction conditions (incubation & reaction time, curing temperature & time etc.). Synthesis of novel multifunctional aromatic amine as an alternative to MPD. Investigation of the influence of additives on membrane performance. Characterization by appropriate means like FTIR, TGA & contact angle goniometry

The project is funded by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation. Participating in the project are DTU-Chemical Engineering (Professor Søren Hvilsted), Alfa Laval Nakskov A/S, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).

The project will be running from 2014-2017

Background

Esbjerg Farve- og lakfabrik intends to find an alternatives to the use of MDI (methylendiphenyldiisocyanate) in polyurethane-based (PUR-baseret) floor coatings. MDI is essential for the curing of the coating and is undesired in the product due to the compounds environmental and healtprofile. The use of MDI requires the use of personal protective equipment during application and thereby leads to restrictions with respect to private use of the product. In addition, it is expected that these requirements and restrictions will be further limited in the near future.

The project

Esbjerg Farve-og lakfabrik will therefore under the collaboration in Kemi i Kredsløb target a complete substitution of MDI. The solution is expected to provide a considerable improved product, both with respect to environmental concerns as well as with respect to health and safety parameters without deteriorating the technical properties of the product.

Funded by Miljøstyrelsens MUDP-projekter through Kemi i Kredsløbs (KiK) Advisory Board and Miljøstyrelsen. Particpating in the project are DTU Chemical Engineering (Anders E. Daugaard) Esbjerg Farve-og lakfabrik, Teknologisk institut (DTI), DHI.

The project will be running in 2016-2017.

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Objective

The objective of the research project is to create silicone elastomers for e.g. artificial muscles, adhesives and medical devices that are strong without the use of reinforcing fillers.

Background

Silicone based rubbers (elastomers) find countless applications as adhesives, seals, food storage products, electronics and cable insulation. In medical applications silicone elastomers are used as tubing for dialysis and transfusion equipment, catheters and implants.

Since the fundamental physics and chemistry of silicone elastomers are still not fully understood, many potential applications of elastomers remain unexplored. Elastomers are basically polymer networks formed by end-linking polymer chains in cross-linking reactions with multi-functional cross-linker molecules. Such silicone networks suffer from low tear strength and low overall mechanical properties. As a result, almost all applications require filler reinforced silicone elastomers.

The most commonly used reinforcing filler is silica particles which are usually added in concentrations of 20-60 wt%. The use of such fillers does, however, have several drawbacks. As particles are often mechanically blended into the silicone matrix it is difficult to obtain a high level of dispersion. Agglomeration is therefore commonly observed. Furthermore, reinforcing fillers increase the stiffness and thereby decrease the extensibility of the elastomer (at high filler loadings). Furthermore, the particles hinder recyclability, which means that the current materials have a poor life-cycle. Silicone elastomers can, however, be reinforced with no optical distortion or increase in density or stiffness by creating heterogeneous polymer networks.

The project

The project aims to obtain an understanding of such heterogeneous networks and to use this understanding to develop novel strong and ultra-soft elastomer materials with superior properties compared to traditional particle filled elastomer systems.

The new self-reinforcing silicone dielectric elastomers will be strong enough to be used without reinforcing fillers, which would make the elastomers more lightweight, stretchable and soft. When used as for example artificial muscles, the materials will therefore obtain a larger electromechanical response (higher output). The silicone materials will be recyclable giving the technology another push towards implementation as a green energy technology. The heterogeneous silicone networks are prepared by combining heavily cross-linked short-polymer chain domains within a long-polymer chain network.

In contrast to traditional polymer networks, the heterogeneous networks are prepared in a two-step procedure where short polymer chains are reacted below the gelation point (the point where an infinite network is formed) into hyperbranched structures. These hyperbranched structures are subsequently mixed and cross-linked together with long polymer chains and consequently short-chain domains are created within a long-chain network.

The preparation procedure of heterogeneous networks is, at present, not simple and there are many (time-dependent) parameters which make reproducibility difficult. Furthermore not much is yet understood about the structure-property relationship of such networks and therefore the technology is still very far from being applicable in industry for commercial products. Therefore, a full investigation into all time-dependent parameters of such networks are needed before further development of the new materials can take place.

Contact

Frederikke Bahrt Madsen Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252971

This project introduces a new and revolutionary way to separate macromolecules.

The principle is to use light to selectively retain some molecules over others depending on their differential interaction with optical fields. We call the method Photonic Crystal Defects Chromatography (PCDC), as it combines photonic crystals with artificial defects and a flow channel that constitutes a “column” of conventional liquid chromatography.

The method will be useful both for biopolymers (like DNA and proteins) and synthetic polymers.

It could potentially have profound implications for several biological and biomedical applications such as proteomics and cancer diagnostics, in which fast and high resolution separation of nucleic acids and proteins from a complex biological fluid is a key aspect.


Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Technology platform for fast and efficient screening of functionalized polymer surfaces. The objective of this project is to develop a novel modular method for screening and characterization of functionalized polymer films and surfaces, and apply it to the technologically highly important field of antifouling surfaces.

The efficiency of the method will be illustrated through investigation of the antifouling properties of a wide range of new types of antifouling surface chemistries applied to a range of industrially important polymer materials in commercially important formats, i.e both as injection molded sheets and as extruded foils. The resulting optimized types of antifouling surface chemistries will in their own right be important for a range of biomedical applications such as implants, drug packaging, and biosensors.

During the spring 2012 Christian Hoffmann will participate in the project as a visiting bachelor student. During his stay in our group he will be performing a project on surface grafting of polymers entitled "Functionalization of Polymer Surfaces". It is one of the objectives that his project will illustrate the potential in the screening method. The project is funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research, Technology and Production Sciences (Grant no. 11-105986. As part of the project the following disseminations have taken place:

  • May 2012, Oral presentation: A.E. Daugaard, J.U. Lind, T.S. Hansen, T.L. Andresen, N.B. Larsen, S. Hvilsted; "A Versatile Toolbox for Preparation of Functional Conductive Polymers" was given at the Nordic Polymer Days in Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • May 2012: Poster presentation: C. Hoffmann and A.E. Daugaard; "Functionalization of PEDOT by Click Chemistry and ATRP" was presented at the Nordic Polymer Days in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The project was completed in 2014.

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Objective

The objective of the project is preparation of surface functional tubular membrane reactors with full control over surface properties. Ultimately, these systems will be used for immobilization of enzymes and applied as biocatalytic membrane reactors.

Background

Conductive elastomers have been a target in development of advanced materials for a long time. One of the major challenges in development of conductive elastomers is the inherent stiffness of classical conductors. Surface patterning of electrodes have recently been developed as an approach towards stretchable electronics, however this requires stringent processing using imprinting and limits the extensibility of the elastomer material significantly. Such methods permits only extensibility of the conductive system by approximately 10-15%. However, for a broader use in advanced materials a much more significant elongation is required. There is a high demand for new solutions that enable the combination of highly flexible and extendable materials with maintained conductivity for flexible electronics, soft robotics, sensors and dielectric elastomers.

The project

The project will employ a combination of surface functionalization of conductive fillers using chemical methods, development of master batches and new advanced processing to prepare materials that mimics the structure of human muscle fibers. Through novel preparation techniques the project will enable production of single-step processed conductive elastomers.

The project is funded by China Scholarship Council and Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

The project will be running from 2018-2020.

Supervisors

PhD student J. Shao
Main supervisor: Assoc. Prof. A. E. Daugaard
Co-supervisor: Prof. A.Ladegaard Skov

Contact

Anders Egede Daugaard

Anders Egede Daugaard Associate Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Objective

To explore the inclusion of keratin fibres into silicone elastomer with the aim of preparing self-healing and bio-compatible dielectric elastomers resembling artificial muscles.

Background

Considerable interests have been devoted to dielectric elastomers, since they have the ability to mimic human muscles. However, current materials for dielectric elastomers lack the ability to self-heal. Keratin, with a lot of inter- and intramolecular, strong hydrogen bonds and disulfide bonds which could serve as crosslinking sites, is commonly used in the field of biomaterials. Therefore it is believed that the inclusion of keratin into silicone elastomers can solve the current issues.

The project

The aims of this work are to use COSMO-RS to screen potential ILs for their ability to dissolve keratin. Based on the results,self-healing and high-permittivity silicone dielectric elastomer with keratin as a filler will be created. The resulting composite materials will be thoroughly investigated chemically, electrically and mechanically. The potential applications of elastomers in artificial muscles will be evaluated by analysing cytotoxicity, cell adhesion and proliferation.

The project is funded by Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The project will be running from 2017-2020.

Supervisors

Prof. A.Ladegaard Skov
Suojiang Zhang
Yi Nie

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Objective

The objective is to develop better elastomers with improved energy densities for use in wave energy converters. Focus is on improving the dielectric permittivity as well as the electrical breakdown strenght of commercial elastomers.

Background

Dielectric elastomers hold great promise as energy generators since they are lightweight and durable, and the energy is directly converted from mechanical into electrical energy. However, for sufficiently high electrical energies to be created the elastomer needs to possess a high dielectric permittivity. Silicone elastomers possess an inherent low value of this and therefore they have to be modified to eliminate this shortcoming.

The project

Through formulation of high permittivity silicone elastomers better energy densities are pursued. Extensive testing is performed to ensure the mechanical and electrical integrity of the formulated elastomers, such as testing of ultimate mechanical properties, hysteresis and electrical breakdown.

The project is funded by SBM France and will be running in 2016.

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Contact

Anne Ladegaard Skov

Anne Ladegaard Skov Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252825

Older projects

If you have questions about projects older than 2016, please contact Center Leader and Professor, Anne Ladegaard Skov.