FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS AND PHASE TRANSITIONS

UB research group

New useful materials for a better society

The Functional Materials and Phase Transitions research group is a team of experts from the University of Barcelona (UB), with more than 40 years of experience in the study of new materials from a fundamental point of view. The knowledge and control of their physical properties allows the application in useful devices for society.
Materials respond with changes in their properties when subjected to external stimuli (pressure, mechanical forces, electrical and magnetic fields).
Near phase transitions, these changes in properties are extraordinary and can be exploited for applications.
Some of these applications are:

  • Harnessing energy exchanges for cooling, heating, energy harvesting and storage devices.
  • Predicting the fracture of structural materials under mechanical stresses.
We work to provide answers to different problems in today’s society ranging from mitigating the effects of climate change by designing new cooling systems to predicting the failure under compression of structures at different scales (from buildings to earthquakes).

Projects

PROD2023 TWISTER

Prototype of TWISTocaloric cooler with Energy Recovery based on natural rubber

2024-2025

Meet the project

PID2022 ARTIFAQS

Avalanche Regimes and Transitions In Ferroics as Analogs for Quasiplanar Systems

2024-2025

PID2020 ACMUMA

Advanced Caloric and Multicaloric Materials for Efficient and Clean Refrigeration

2022-2025

Meet the project

M-ERA.NET 2021 COOL BATMAN

Battery Thermal Management System Based on High Power Density Digital Microfluidic Magnetocaloric Cooling

2022-2025

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TED2021 RUBCOOL

Mechanocaloric refrigerators based on natural rubber

2022-2024
Finished

Meet the project

LLAV2021 ELASTOCOOL

Prototype of elastocaloric cooling device

2022-2023
Finished

Meet the project

To carry out its research activity, the group has human and technical resources:

A team of professionals with expertise in Condensed Matter Physics and in the behaviour of Complex Systems.

Collaborations with other national and international research groups.

A laboratory with experimental equipment for materials research, in constant development.

The Functional Materials and Phase Transitions Research Laboratory has commercial and non-commercial equipment for materials research.
Get to know the laboratory's equipment

Team

Antoni Planes Vila

Antoni Planes Vila

Full Professor

Lluís Mañosa Carrera

Lluís Mañosa Carrera

Full Professor

Teresa Castán Vidal

Teresa Castán Vidal

Full Professor

Eduard Vives Santa-Eulalia

Eduard Vives Santa-Eulalia

Full Professor

Marcel Porta Tena

Marcel Porta Tena

Associate Professor

Jordi Baró Urbea

Jordi Baró Urbea

Lecturer Professor - Serra Húnter

Blai Casals Montserrat

Blai Casals Montserrat

Lecturer Professor

Enric Stern Taulats

Enric Stern Taulats

Researcher - Ramón y Cajal

Eduardo Mendive Tapia

Eduardo Mendive Tapia

Lector Professor

Meet all the team members
The researchers are part of two research institutes and two departments of the UB:

News

Dr. Blai Casals is co-editing the book Ferroelastic Materials, with researchers Guillaume F. Nataf and Ekhard K.H. Salje. A comprehensive introduction to ferroelastic materials, their phase transitions, and their structures.

“Airbrushing: A Novel Method for Preparation of High-emissivity Black Coating for Infrared Measurements”, featured cover of Wiley Advanced November 2025.

With the support of:
To contact the Functional Materials and Phase Transitions research group, send an email to
functionalmaterials@ub.edu
Contact information