Sustainable Polymer Applications

In the period from 2017 to 2020, the bioESens project qualified graduates of engineering degree programmes in an interdisciplinary group of young researchers for the use, design, development and recycling of products made from bio-based plastics for applications as humidity and piezo sensors. Novel solutions were developed for the use of bio-based plastics in the application field of sensor components, covering the entire value chain from biomaterials, their material modification and processing, application in sensor technologies and functions through to questions of production technology, application testing, durability and environmental compatibility.
The young scientists not only gained qualifications through specialised and interdisciplinary work, for example as part of a doctorate, but also through further training modules in the areas of project management and social skills as well as initial experience with their own teaching activities. At the same time, the project contributed to the transfer of current research results into practice, preferably for regional companies and institutions, opened up new fields of application for bio-based plastics and enabled the interdisciplinary further development of teaching and research in engineering degree programmes. The strong interdisciplinary approach between the Faculties of Agriculture/Environment/Chemistry (Prof. Harre, Prof. Schmidtke), Electrical Engineering (Prof. Bauer) and Mechanical Engineering (Prof. Göbel, Prof. Naumann) under the project management of Prof. Harre should be emphasised as a special feature.

In cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, HTW Dresden has developed biodegradable functional materials with electrical properties that can replace technology metals such as copper, silver and aluminium in mechatronic components in the future. Combined with biodegradable structural materials, sustainable disposable products are created that no longer need to be recycled, but can be composted and integrated into natural material cycles in line with a biological zero-waste concept (e.g. packaging with RFID tags) or dissolve on the object of use (e.g. washable RFID tags on clothing). Through targeted material customisation, these products are stable over the long term under operating conditions and can also be recycled at the end of the product's life. Under suitable conditions (e.g. moisture, heat, microorganisms), however, they biodegrade completely, so that composting is possible and uncontrolled release into the environment is not critical.
While previous work has been carried out exclusively on a laboratory scale, the future transfer into practice requires the adaptation of materials and processes from a manufacturing point of view.

In the MeMoAthero (Mechanism and Model of Atherosclerosis) cooperation project, a drug testing system for a novel treatment approach for atherosclerosis was developed together with Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences and Human Biosciences GmbH. As this MeMoAthero project is a collaboration between biologists, chemists, material scientists and engineers, both purely scientific and technical or engineering-scientific work objectives were formulated. In addition to the further development of new marker peptides for diagnostics/early treatment and the development of a simple test system based on a xenogeneic tunica intima with primary endothelial cells in the adapted wound assay model, an artificial scaffold for smooth muscle cells corresponding to the tunica media was developed. In the course of the project, a new, dimensionally stable material made of collagen was developed. The basic material is an inexpensive collagen-based layered material that can be processed on an industrial scale (e.g. by extrusion) and whose technical properties can be controlled by adding certain additives and crosslinkers. This makes it suitable as a film or moulded part for potentially different applications, e.g. tubes. Heat resistance and water vapour permeability are investigated with regard to product-related further processing in the packaging industry using thermal joining and ultrasonic welding processes. Depending on the processing method, 2D and 3D geometries with variable layer thicknesses can be produced. The material, which belongs to the group of collagen composites, has a natural caramel-brown colour, but can also be dyed depending on the application requirements. Patent: DE102017123891