Functional Materials and Circular Economy: Innovation and Sustainability

Innovation in functional materials is opening up new application and development perspectives. Materials with high dielectric constant for nanoelectronics allow to improve the performance of devices, making them more efficient and reducing energy consumption. Multiferroic materials, on the other hand, allow us to exploit magnetoelectric coupling, opening up new possibilities for the coding and manipulation of information.
Furthermore, considerable attention is placed on sustainability and the development of alternatives to materials defined as critical by the EU Commission (critical raw materials). On the circular economy front, research thus focuses on the development of functional materials starting from waste or food scraps, helping to reduce the environmental impact. A relevant example is the Parsival Project, which mobilizes the "knowledge triangle" (education, research and innovation) to create a European-scale network focused on the challenge of recovering and reusing materials from end-of-life photovoltaic panels, in particular silicon , which (surprisingly) is also a critical resource. This approach not only promotes sustainability, but also efficiency in the use of resources, promoting the transition towards a more circular and responsible economy.
Come and learn more about these exciting innovations by visiting the Omnics research group stand during the European Researchers' Night!