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The objective is to develop design guidelines for formulating complex soft materials ranging from cosmetics, foods, adhesives, paints, coatings and related agents with responsible consumption of raw materials and optimized process economics.
 

Soft Materials - consisting of polymeric, colloidal and surfactant based materials are widely prevelant in several industrial, technological and commercial products. This includes, for instance coatings, paints, electronic inks, display technologies, vibration damping polymers, adhesion promoters, pharmaceutical products to cosmetics, shampoo, foods and detergents. Their material properties are highly tunable and consequently complex to understand. For instance, their flow behavior can range from newtonian type behavior to viscoelastic solutions to highly elastic responses. These macroscopic behavior stem from their intricate intermolecular interactions, packing of their different components and phase stability. Consequently, designing these materials inevitable requires extensive DoE, costly trial and error leading to lot of raw material consumption and waste generation. The goal of the project is to combine fundamental science through microstructural and rheological characterization, constitutive modeling and understanding of intermolecular forces to develop optimal design guidelines that will aid formulators and industry to realize products with desired properties. Ultimately, it will lead to reduction in waste generation (polymers are otherwise one of the greatest pollutants of flora and fauna), and responsible consumption.
 

The outcomes of the project would ultimately design guidelines tailor made for different products. The overarching aim of the design guide would help formulators to identify the right components and right composition to formulate so as to produce products of the desired property (which will be contained in the design paradigm). This would greatly eliminate the need for extensive DoE studies, sensory panel studies etc. Given the scientific underpinning, this approach could also lead to innovation driving new product/technology development. From a sustainability perspective, such fundamental science driven design guides would lead to significant reduction in wastage, optimize capex for several product development activities and ultimately lead to responsible material consumption.
 

From a sustainability perspective, such fundamental science driven design guides would lead to significant reduction in wastage, optimize capex for several product development activities and ultimately lead to responsible material consumption.