SOMATAI

Soft Matter at Aqueous Interfaces

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Soft nanotechnology is generally considered as a field that will have a major impact on technological developments in near future. However, the fundamental understanding of the wealth of new structures lacks far behind, despite supporting activity from material science. Such an understanding is indispensable for sustainable growth of this important research domain and its applications. A physics-oriented interdisciplinary education is urgently needed to guide young researchers to the point where they can tackle the relevant fundamental questions. SOMATAI is set up to provide just such training by combining two distinct scientific fields: Soft matter science is a well established interdisciplinary field for the bulk investigation of polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals with response amplitude and time to external stimuli as a function of soft matter structure being of special interest. The second highly relevant field is interface science, since nano-structured materials contain a huge area of internal interfaces which have an essential impact on material properties. The application of the soft matter approach to interfaces promises new and deeper understanding of interfacial phenomena. Interfaces of a water phase to a solid, liquid or gaseous second phase are of special interest and a focal point of SOMATAI. Such interfaces are highly relevant to products from European industry (food, cosmetics, paints) and processes (washing, coating, water purification). They have an outstanding importance from a scientific point of view due to specific interactions at such interfaces. This carefully planned teaching and research programme in a network of 10 leading academic partners, 1 large scale companies, 2 SMEs, and 4 top-level associated partners from Germany, Taiwan and the USA will ensure that young researchers are given an excellent training in a pioneering research domain of high scientific and technological relevance, where Europe can take a leading position.'

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The emerging field of soft matter at aqueous interfaces spans the range from biological systems to potential technological applications. Yet, few young researchers have the necessary depth of understanding to tackle the subject's fundamental questions.

Funded by the EU, the project http://somatai.eu (SOMATAI) (Soft matter at aqueous interfaces) aims to provide the necessary physics-oriented interdisciplinary training. The 13-member consortium targets 492 person-months of initial training to 13 early-stage researchers (ESRs) and 1 experienced researcher. The four-year undertaking concludes in September 2016.

Training is based on three pillars. Beyond their training by research the fellows are exposed to different perspectives via a system of inter-sectorial secondments. Furthermore, the project offers a series of special training events and a system of exchanges to train the fellows on a broad variety of techniques. The programme is complemented by a large deal of transferable skills training.

During the first reporting period, SOMATAI delivered 195.25 person-months of training, or approximately 80% of the anticipated amount. The discrepancy was due to recruitment difficulties. For the same reason only 4 of the planned 14 research secondments and only 4 of the planned 10 special training events could be implemented.

Training has focused on the fellows becoming familiar with the required techniques and methods and their work has already yielded new scientific insights. They include new concepts for adsorption of anti-freeze proteins to ice surfaces, the development of super-resolution microscopy and a new measuring technique to determine particle dynamics in thin films. Analytical theory and simulation tools were also developed to better understand the properties of charged particles at interfaces.

SOMATAI also hosted a 10-day summer school for 40 student participants from inside and from outside the network. The lecture programme on the subject of the network was complemented by a number of research presentations, by renowned scientists in the field, including. G. Ertl, Nobel laureate 2007.

With its unique combination of training approaches SOMATAI has helped to equip young researchers in the field with the necessary skills. In the second reporting period their training will be completed and exciting scientific results are expected in an emerging field of research.