Special Session 10

SPECIAL SESSION #10

Advanced Composite Materials for Automotive: balancing Sustainability and Smart Multifunctional Materials

Lorena Saitta

University of Catania, Italy

• lorena.saitta@unict.it

This Special Session is addressed to researchers and professionals from academia and industry who is facing with the development and characterization of advanced composite materials, while meeting the dual challenge of advancing sustainability while integrating cutting-edge technologies in the automotive industry. The aim of this Session is to explore groundbreaking research and industrial advancements in the development and characterization of green recyclable polymer composite materials. Furthermore, this session will spotlight on the field of multifunctional materials, including the integration of energy storage systems, such as structural batteries, and photovoltaic cells into composite structures. These novel materials not only contribute to vehicle light-weighting but also unlock transformative possibilities for energy efficiency and renewable power generation in future mobility solutions.

The authors can submit original contributions which include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Circular economy approaches for automotive composites;
• Development of bio-based and recyclable polymer composites;
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) of sustainable automotive materials;
• Integration of structural batteries and energy storage systems in composites;
• Embedding photovoltaic cells in lightweight composite structures;
• Smart materials with self-healing, sensing, or thermal regulation capabilities;
• Mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of advanced composites;
• Lightweighting solutions using advanced composites in vehicles;
• Prototyping and deployment of multifunctional composite structures.

Lorena Saitta received the M.S. degree (cum laude) in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 and the Ph.D. degree in Systems, Energy, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering in 2022 from University of Catania, Italy. She is currently a Post-Doc at the University of Catania. Her research interests include the multi-functional additive manufacturing relying on 3D printing, polymer and composite materials. Lorena Saitta has authored and/or co-authored 40 papers indexed on Scopus, which have received more than 258 citations and his h-index is equal to 11.