For Tanja Zimmermann, materials research is the backbone of technological progress. Around two thirds of all innovations are based directly on new or improved materials, from batteries and medical sensors to building materials. Empa’s approach, which develops materials for construction, energy and health as a national competence centre, is correspondingly broad. This ranges from basic projects in the laboratory to feasibility studies with industrial partners. These include more efficient energy storage systems, new photovoltaic technologies and two-dimensional nanomaterials such as MXene, which could make electronics and sensor technology more compact and powerful in the future.
applications for energy, health and construction
In the health sector, Empa is working on textile sensors that enable long-term ECGs without traditional gel electrodes and thus avoid skin irritation. Other projects focus on intelligent materials in operating theatres, such as adhesives that seal leaks in the abdominal cavity and provide early warning of leaks thanks to integrated sensors.
In construction, the focus is on the circular economy and resource efficiency. New concretes and composite materials should achieve the same load-bearing capacity with significantly less cement and steel, thus noticeably reducing the carbon footprint of buildings. At the same time, Empa is developing highly temperature-resistant materials for drones that can fly directly into sources of fire, as well as carbon fibre-reinforced plastics, which are increasingly making bridges and large structures lighter and more durable.
CO₂ as a raw material
Empa is going one step further with its “Mining the Atmosphere” initiative. The aim is not only to save CO₂, but to specifically extract it from the atmosphere and utilise it as a raw material. Researchers are investigating how carbon from CO₂ can be incorporated into ceramic materials such as silicon carbide or building materials such as concrete so that buildings themselves become carbon sinks. In the long term, such approaches should help to offset some of the historical emissions and make the transition from a CO₂-emitting to a CO₂-binding society. A “project of the century” that requires enormous amounts of renewable energy and close collaboration between research and industry.
High-tech from nature
Zimmermann also relies on a combination of natural principles and high-tech in wood research. She sees wood as Switzerland’s only large, indigenous, renewable resource that is light, stable and can be modified in many ways. The spectrum ranges from fire-retardant mineralised wood to antimicrobial surfaces and the use of fibrillated cellulose, whose nanofibres can form transparent gels, highly porous sponges or barrier films for food packaging. Such cellulose sponges can selectively absorb oil from water or bind CO₂ from the air. As a spray coating, they extend the shelf life of fruit and vegetables without the need for plastic film. More recent projects are creating “living materials”, such as printed structures made of nanocellulose and diatoms, which are intended to monitor water quality as biological sensors.
Long-term projects such as “CarboQuant“
With “CarboQuant”, the Werner Siemens Foundation is supporting another long-term project at Empa. A laboratory that investigates carbon nanostructures for quantum technologies. The aim is to design graphene nanoribbons and nano-graphenes so precisely that their quantum effects can be utilised for electronic components at room temperature. For example, for sensors, communication or future quantum computers. Such projects show why foundations and public sponsors are central to Empa. Many material innovations take years or even decades before they can be scaled up and utilised commercially. For Zimmermann, however, it remains clear that without this staying power and without materials research, neither the technologies that make the energy transition possible nor many of the solutions that already make our everyday lives seem more natural than they are today would exist.
