Collaboration on PRIMA (2024) Proposals- Water harvesting and water management

Koç University (KU) is an endowed, non-profit institution of higher education, located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded in 1993 by the Vehbi Koç Foundation, its mission is to produce the most capable graduates by providing a world class education, to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to contribute to the benefit of Turkey and humanity at large. KU is spread in a main campus, a separate university hospital campus and two smaller locations in Istanbul.

KU was the leading Horizon 2020 organization in Türkiye, with 52 participations and a total of €24.5M EC contribution. As of May 2023, KU continues to be the most successful Turkish participant in Horizon Europe, with 18 projects and a total of €15M budget

The PI, Dr. Erkan Senses, has been working on (bio)polymers, stimuli-responsive smart hydrogels, and investigating potential applications of lignocellulosic nanomaterials from plants, food, and wood wastes together with international academic and industrial partners. He will apply the know-how developed in his Soft and Active Materials Laboratory on green extraction biopolymers, physical chemistry of superabsorbent hydrogels, and surface/interface engineering on preventing/slowing down desertification in the Mediterranean area.

The PI will develop hydrogels from local and natural resources, like agricultural and forest wastes, thus, they can be applied locally large scale, and economically. With their large water-retention capacity, these materials will serve as water reservoirs in drought conditions, and sinks during flood times, thus performing a dual function. The PI will design and develop innovative hydrogels that are physically and chemically compatible with soil and can function therein. The PI will eliminate the drawbacks of the currently used soil conditioners and develop nature-based alternatives to combat desertification and reduce the drought stress on soil and plants. The synthesis, characterization and performance evaluation will be provided.

softmatter.ku.edu.tr

-Large-scale and sustainable production of biopolymers from agricultural and forest wastes.
-In-depth characterization of the products and synthesizing novel hydrogels with mechanically sensitive biorenewable smart superabsorbent hydrogels.
-Improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels to become soil-compatible and investigate the composite systems.
-Successfully load essential macro/microelement fertilizers, biocides and anayze their controlled release profiles in the soil environment.
-Identify the key control parameters, and provide a structure-property-performance map for alternating environmental conditions.
-Perform microbial degradation tests.

Water management, smart irrigation, water retention, biobased, superabsorbent hydrogels, soil compatibility, biorenewable, desertification, polymer, soil conditioner