CA17120 - Chemobrionics (CBrio)

Self-organizing precipitation processes, such as chemical gardens forming biomimetic micro- and nano-tubular forms, have the potential to drastically enhance future materials design, as well as allowing us to develop new methodologies to explore, quantify and understand non-equilibrium chemical systems, and might even shed light on the conditions for the origin of life. The physics and chemistry of these phenomena due to the assembly of material architectures under a flux of ions, and their exploitation in applications, has recently been termed chemobrionics. Advances in chemobrionics require a combination of expertise in physics, chemistry, mathematical modelling, biology and engineering, as well as in nonlinear and materials sciences, giving rise to a new synergistic disipline. Progress is currently limited due to the lack of an efficient combination of the talents of researchers from diverse fields, but Europe is uniquely placed to develop a unique and world leading activity. The aim of this CBrio COST Action is to link research groups throughout Europe to stimulate new, innovative and high-impact interdisciplinary scientific research on chemobrionics. Our objective is to build bridges between the various communities to allow understanding and controlling physical, chemical, and biological properties of self-organized precipitation processes. This integrated fundamental knowledge will be shared with research groups focusing on specific applications to boost new technological developments, as well as with groups involved in the popularization of science and those at the interface between science and the arts.