carbon – Progress in Research

Revolutionizing industrial materials sustainably

Posted on 11/12/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

An international team, which includes researchers from Politecnico di Milano, Rice University, University of Cambridge, Stanford University, UC Santa Barbara and other U.S. and European universities, has received $4 millions in funding from Kavli Foundation and the Carbon Hub of the Rice University to advance understanding of carbon nanotube synthesis and its potential for producing industrial materials more sustainably.

The research will be focused on the development of alternative materials to steel, aluminum and copper, whose production contributes to over 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon nanotube fibers boast strength comparable to steel and conductivity akin to copper. This makes them a promising and sustainable resource for materials needed for the energy transition an the electrification.

Current raw materials for nanotube production, such as natural gas and other hydrocarbons, are largely burned as fuels, also in the field of metal industry. As the world transitions to renewable energy, these abundant resources could be harnessed to produce global quantities of nanotubes, fixing the carbon content in durable and recyclable materials, as opposed to CO₂ emission in the atmosphere, with the positive additional consequence of generating clean hydrogen as a valuable by-product.

The group of the Politecnico participating in the project is coordinated by Matteo Maestri, professor at the Department of Energy, and includes Mauro Bracconi (Department of Energy) and Matteo Pelucchi (Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”). The researchers will focus on multiscale modelling and analysis of chemical reactions and reactors.

Ultra-fast response of carbon atomic wires to light discovered

Posted on 08/09/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

A study resulting from the collaboration between the Department of Energy and the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano and the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bologna has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society as the cover article.

The team of researchers made a discovery that sheds new light on the properties of wire-shaped carbon nanostructures, also known as ‘polyynes’. Composed of few carbon atoms, these wires could revolutionise technological applications due to their extraordinary mechanical, thermal and electronic properties.

This study lays the foundation for new technological opportunities. Understanding how these nanostructures interact with light is crucial to exploiting their full potential in areas such as opto-electronics and renewable energy,
Giulio Cerullo and Margherita Zavelani-Rossi, co-authors of the article

At the heart of the research is the study into how these nanostructures react to light. Using state-of-the-art technology and ultra-short laser pulses, the researchers synthesised these structures in a controlled manner and examined their optical properties in detail. This allowed them to reveal the mysteries of the reactions triggered by light in these nanostructures.

The most surprising findings arise from the speed of the processes observed. In particular, when hit by light, these nanostructures rapidly switch from an excited state to a more stable one, all in an incredibly short time, just 200 millionths of a billionth of a second.

This discovery has significant implications for technology. Understanding how these nanostructures react to light could pave the way for new applications, such as advanced electronic devices and solar energy conversion technologies.

Carbon nanostructure research is a complex and upcoming field. Our findings represent a step forward in the understanding of these structures and their potential applications.
Carlo Casari, co-author of the article

Read the study online

KEEPER: nanomaterial-based key code to protect services and products

Posted on 03/04/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Today, counterfeit products seriously affect the global economy and can have a negative impact on safety, health and the environment due to the lower quality of their components. The severity of the problem is estimated to reach 3 billion US dollars by 2022, causing EU companies to lose 121 billion euros in sales and over 671,000 jobs.

KEEPER is a project aiming to provide a new technological solution to this challenge: it is the first system ever to combine a unique identification code with a virtually infinite number of combinations (over 10²⁴) to certify the product authenticity and an unprecedented level of security, ease of use and cost-effectiveness.

It is an innovative customisable solution based on two main resources: nano-engineered inks to be applied on documents or product packaging as adhesive tags or printed directly at specific points (3Tag), and a highly selective verification technique using a dedicated reader (3Check). The specificity of the inks, the coding sequence and the reading method make this technology extremely difficult or almost impossible to replicate through reverse engineering processes.

The KEEPER project, to which university and private partners from Italy, Poland and Austria are contributing, was recently funded with more than 2 million euros by the European Innovation Council (EIC) within the framework of the ‘EIC Transition’ call for proposals, which aims to support the improvement and the laboratory validation of new technologies developed within the framework of European subsidised projects and their introduction onto the market.

The European Innovation Council is Europe’s flagship programme for technological innovation. This is the first time that a project presented by Politecnico di Milano as a lead partner has accessed this type of support; overall, this EIC Transition call has funded 34 projects across Europe, of which six in Italy and only three with a university as coordinator,
Professor Carlo S. Casari, Department of Energy of Politecnico di Milano, head of KEEPER and former holder of the ERC Consolidator Grant EspLORE, the ERC Proof of Concept Grants PROTECHT and PYPAINT.

ENCASE: European Network of Research Infrastructures for CO2 Transport and Injection

Posted on 27/03/202306/08/2024 by Erik Franco

The ENCASE project, “A European Network of Research Infrastructures for CO2 Transport and Injection”, funded by the research programme Horizon Europe, has got started in Oslo.

The partnership which will carry out the project over the course of 3 and a half years, co-ordinated by the Norwegian research centre IFE, includes 20 partners (from 6 European countries), among which is the Politecnico di Milano, represented by Manuele Gatti (Principal Investigator), Stefano Consonni, Antonio Conversano and Nima Razmjoo.

We are proud to represent POLIMI in this consortium, in which we will collaborate with universities, research centres and companies of international standing and with considerable experience in the capture and storage of CO₂

The main aims of the project include: the scientific and technological advancement and improvement of 7 research infrastructures at the highest level in the international arena as regards the capture and storage of CO₂ (CCS); the development of new thermodynamic methods and models to support research in the field of CCS, the generation of new experimental data and the training of specialised personnel in the sector.

Starting from new experimental data made available in the project, POLIMI will develop models relating to thermophysical properties of CO2 mixtures, such as phase equilibria, density, specific heats, viscosity, etc.

In addition, POLIMI will provide scientific supervision for the experimental activities that will be carried out at the research infrastructure of the LEAP laboratory in Piacenza (also a project partner).

Finally, at the end of the project, POLIMI will organize a Summer School for researchers and PhD students on the topic of thermophysical properties of fluids for energy and CCS uses.

This research project will allow us to develop new knowledge in the CCS sector, which can be used both for application, with the transfer of research results to the industrial sphere, and for education, in order to train engineers and doctoral students in those technical-scientific skills that are becoming increasingly relevant to the needs of institutions and industry (not only of companies working in the field of CCS, but also of companies with a strong focus on innovation and energy transition).
Manuele Gatti, Department of Energy.

EspLORE: exploring properties of carbon-atom wires with application-oriented approach

Posted on 22/12/202206/08/2024 by Erik Franco

Linear carbon atomic wires are one-dimensional carbon-based systems that are a subject of great interest, due to their special thermal, optical, electronic and mechanical properties, and therefore their possible applications in various fields.

The EspLORE project, coordinated by Prof. Carlo S. Casari of the Department of Energy at the Politecnico di Milano, and funded by the European Research Council (ERC) with a Consolidator Grant, aims to develop innovative materials by exploiting the potential of carbon atomic wires, exploring their possible applications in advanced technologies within the energy sector.

As part of the project, research was carried out into the response of carbon chains to a particular UV light excitation, a type of light that these materials readily absorb. The vibrational response of the carbon chains and the influence that UV light had on their electronic properties was investigated using the IUVS Synchrotron Light Line equipment at the “Elettra” Synchrotron in Trieste.

The uniqueness of these carbon atomic wires and of the investigation technique used has allowed us to better understand their fundamental properties, providing a strong basis for their future applications in various fields.
Prof. Carlo S. Casari

The results of the study, carried out by Prof. Casari and the ESPLORE project team in collaboration with Professors Chiara Castiglioni and Matteo M. S. Tommasini of the FunMat Lab (Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” of the Politecnico di Milano) and Barbara Rossi of the “Elettra” Synchrotron in Trieste, were published in the prestigious international scientific journal Nature Communications in an article entitled “Electron-phonon coupling and vibrational properties of size-selected linear carbon chains by resonance Raman scattering”.

The structural simplicity of these atomic wires allows for an elegant and rigorous verification of one of the fundamental theories of resonant Raman spectroscopy, here applied for the first time to transitions involving multiple vibrational quanta.
Matteo Tommasini and Chiara Castiglioni

After 5 years of work, the EspLORE project has achieved its main goal: to explore the properties of carbon-atom wires with an application-oriented approach.

Here are other important results:

the PROTECHT project, which aims to exploit the results of EspLORE research for possible business opportunities, has received an ERC Proof of Concept Grant;
the ENIGMA project, an outcome of the EspLORE activity, has won the 2021 Switch2Product innovation challenge, the 2022 Startcup Lombardia and the special LIFTT award in the context of the 2022 National Innovation Award (PNI)

The EspLORE project website