Horizon Europe E-Sprinkle Project: Electrically Activated Zwitterionic Polymers for Water Harvesting Solutions

More than two-thirds of the world's population will experience severe water shortages by 2030. Europe urgently needs to develop water harvesting and management strategies to address this challenge. As climate change makes rainfall and drought unpredictable, water harvesting equipment must collect and release water with deterministic stimuli, such as electricity.

The applicant (experienced researcher, ER), during her PhD and first postdoc, studied the interaction between water and conducting/semiconductor polymers. She worked on a conducting polymer with glycolated side chains capable of undergoing ion-driven volumetric expansion and water intake. She believes these materials hold promise for WH, as collection and release are achieved by an electrical stimulus. To enhance water stabilization and retention, she plans to synthesize a new class of polymers based on an electrically responsive backbone and water-stabilizing zwitterionic side chains.

To this end, the ER will receive training in polymer design, synthesis, and characterization at the host institution, the Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering (Polymat), led by Professor David Mecerreyes, a leading expert in the design and synthesis of innovative polymers. He will then manufacture a prototype, which will be tested in a greenhouse with living plants during his stay at Linköping University (LiU) with the Electronic Plants group, led by Professor Eleni Stavrinidou, an emerging expert in the interconnection of polymers and plants.

Finally, ER will complete an internship at the end of the fellowship at PolyKey, a startup focused on sustainably scaling up laboratory polymerization processes. Dr. Andere Basterretxea, CEO of PolyKey, will oversee the ER and train her on scale-up procedures. E-Sprinkle will contribute to ER's scientific and personal growth, and upon completion of this fellowship, she will have a highly specialized and competitive profile as an independent research leader or as a manager in industry.