Overview

The use of cosmetics and personal care products has increased exponentially both in males and females in the last decades, such that skin and sun care products are the main drivers of the personal care market. Skincare products have been designed for beautifying, preventing skin from imperfections, and protecting skin against the damaging effect of ultraviolet radiation, and are generally based on water and oil as the main components in addition to other chemical functional ingredients, such as surfactants, emulsion stabilizers, skin conditioning agents, preservatives, fragrances and active ingredients like antioxidants and UV filters.
 In recent years, the growing concern about the environmental impact and human health risk related to the excessive use of chemical ingredients in skincare formulations calls for the exploration of innovative, functional and safe natural alternatives to increase the sustainability of skin and sun care products. 

The BIO4CARE project tackles challenging concepts with innovative solutions to develop an efficient lignin-based multi-functional ingredient with understood and controlled properties from kraft lignin for skin and sun care formulations.

 This project comprises multidisciplinary tasks and addresses different research areas to achieve the specific objectives of the project, which are:  

 BIO4CARE will focus on the following specific objectives:

1.    To develop an efficient and environmentally friendly method to prepare lignin nanoparticles (LNP) with enhanced functional properties (WP1). 
2.     To employ powerful analytical tools to optimize, understand and control the nanostructure-properties relationships of LNPs and related mechanisms (WP2). 
3.  To ​  manufacture a novel, safe and fully bio-based emulsion prototype for suncare applications (WP3).

WORK PACKAGES

W​P1

Production of homogeneous LNPs through a sustainable and 
efficient process


Industrially derived kraft lignins will be used for the preparation of LNPs. This study aims to understand the influence of the lignin type, pre-treatments and nanoparticles production process parameters on the yield and morphology of LNPs.







WP2

Optimalization: Understanding of nanostructure properties correlations and elucidation of LNPs related mechanism

Due to the great chemical complexity of lignin polymer, powerful analytical tools will be used to correlate the structure-morphology-properties of LNPs to select the optimal nanostructure-properties relationship. Furthermore, molecular interactions occurring during photo-oxidation of lignin at the nanoscale will be elucidated to develop a suitable strategy to stabilize it during service life.


WP3

Manufacture of bio-based emulsions: Performance, 
multi-functionality, 
and toxicological 
assessment of LNPs

The WP3 aims to assess the effectiveness of the optimized LNPs as an emulsion stabilizer.  The quality of elaborated emulsions will be assessed in relation to the process parameters and ingredients used in the formulation. Furthermore, the multi-functionality and toxicological profile of LNPs in the formulation will be evaluated. This research will deliver a novel, safe and fully bio-based emulsion prototype stabilized by LNPs as a multi-functional ingredient for skin photo-protection.

WordPress Themes

created with

WordPress Editor .