Modern agricultural practices face significant challenges with nutrient runoff and inefficient fertiliser use, both of which are direct priorities within the BBSRC's Agriculture and Food Security strategic framework. This project addresses these systemic challenges by developing advanced "emulgels" as sophisticated delivery vectors for agricultural nutrients in both soil and hydroponic systems. Doping hydrogels with oil droplets creates a composite material that traps solutes and regulates their release. This project will aim to design, model, and characterise such materials, and study how their properties can be tuned to achieve tuneable release profiles of beneficial agents for plants.
The successful candidate will use a combination of rigorous mathematical modelling and applied chemical engineering, building on an ongoing collaboration between the Warwick Mathematics Institute and Warwick Chemistry. This includes:
- Kinetic modelling: Employing Bayesian inference and non-linear regression to extract accurate parameters from experimental data.
- Simulation: Developing robust Monte Carlo simulations to model phase separation and predict nutrient release profiles across varying conditions.
- Continuum modelling: Building mathematical models for emulgels using techniques from fluid and solid mechanics, taking input from the microscale simulations to provide testable results to be compared with experiments.
- Analytical characterisation: Validating theoretical findings through data analysis workflows, including Size Exclusion Chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and rheological testing of the synthesised emulgels.
Using these approaches, the student will design and optimise emulgels engineered to release their payload steadily over extended periods in targeted environments, such as water-saturated soil. The goal is a tuneable, responsive, gel that ensures optimal uptake while minimising waste, advancing sustainable agri-tech innovations.
