Entrepreneuring chemical irreversibility to prototype responsive smart labels
In a world in which sensors are multiplying to give information to people, a need to represent these messages in an appealing and unequivocal way appears as one of the new challenges in information and communication technologies. It is with this idea, that the CHARISMA Industrial Doctoral Training elevates the concept of applied irreversibility to displays, empowering packaging industries with the tools and innovative advanced materials to engineer smart labels. CHARISMA develops printable smart labels that, capitalizing on a sensor responsive to an external stimulus (e.g., temperature), will allow the irreversible colour change of a chromogenic displaying unit. All this is connected through a circuitry that, through a powered capacitor or an OPV device, can allow the stimulus response and trigger a chromogenic (e.g., electrochromic) switching event. Once the signal is transmitted to the chromogenic display, the display will turn colour (e.g., into black), and this state cannot be converted back. The CHARISMA smart labels are thin and flexible taking virtually no space, and thus printable on any surface. The project brings together 9 ESRs in a strong interdisciplinary consortium of five beneficiaries, industry and research balanced, with state-of-the-art backgrounds in synthetic chemistry, printing, electronics system integration, and complete chromogenic solutions. This is complemented with the commitment of four non-academic partner organizations. The CHARISMA’s ESRs will be exposed to industrial training program on smart labels, in which theoretical and practical research schemes in device engineering and innovation are integrated with topical themes and methods imported from chemistry, physics and business.