Extremely lightweight and superelastic cellular materials. This project aims to synthesise a new generation of extremely lightweight, superelastic yet mechanically robust graphene-based cellular materials, develop new strategies to strengthen and functionalise them with other functional polymers or nanoparticles, and explore new techniques to characterise their unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties for a range of potential applications. The new knowledge obtained would significant ....Extremely lightweight and superelastic cellular materials. This project aims to synthesise a new generation of extremely lightweight, superelastic yet mechanically robust graphene-based cellular materials, develop new strategies to strengthen and functionalise them with other functional polymers or nanoparticles, and explore new techniques to characterise their unique mechanical, electrical and thermal properties for a range of potential applications. The new knowledge obtained would significantly advance our understanding of extremely lightweight and multifunctional cellular materials as well as graphene-based bulk materials. Project outcomes are expected to help generate high value-added technological applications from natural graphite.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC180100005
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,889,410.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials. The ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials aims to provide pathways for job creation and a high quality workforce in manufacturing. Surface engineering for advanced materials is a core need in all manufacturing sectors and controls the efficiency, productivity and sustainability of Australian industry. This Centre will integrate industry-university cooperation for applied training within an industrial s ....ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials. The ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials aims to provide pathways for job creation and a high quality workforce in manufacturing. Surface engineering for advanced materials is a core need in all manufacturing sectors and controls the efficiency, productivity and sustainability of Australian industry. This Centre will integrate industry-university cooperation for applied training within an industrial setting and will cover a spectrum of applications ranging from thin films to thick coatings and additive layered materials. The Centre will pursue outcomes that are reflected in terms of industry-fit researchers and deliver commercial benefits for industry.Read moreRead less
Mechanical advantage: biomimetic artificial muscles for micro-machines. This project will develop better ways to operate miniature machines by copying the way that muscle operates in Nature. The outcome will be important for portable devices like digital cameras that need small, efficient motors. The artificial muscles developed in this project may also be used in medical prosthetics and more agile robots.
Hybrid cathode for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells. This project aims to develop molten carbonate-perovskite hybrid cathode materials for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs) possessing both high catalytic activity towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and high tolerance to carbon dioxide poisoning. Carbon dioxide in air can poison nearly all the perovskite cathode materials developed for LT-SOFCs (below 600 degrees C) so far. These materials will not be practically useful ....Hybrid cathode for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells. This project aims to develop molten carbonate-perovskite hybrid cathode materials for low temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs) possessing both high catalytic activity towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and high tolerance to carbon dioxide poisoning. Carbon dioxide in air can poison nearly all the perovskite cathode materials developed for LT-SOFCs (below 600 degrees C) so far. These materials will not be practically useful until carbon dioxide poisoning can be prevented. This project expects to make these LT-SOFC cathode materials commercially viable, solving a problem for the widespread use of low temperature solid oxide fuel cells.Read moreRead less
High Performance Anode for Direct Ammonia Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. Solid oxygen fuel cells are a clean energy generation device with very high energy efficiency and if with hydrogen as fuel, the emission is zero. However, the utilisation of hydrogen is limited by on-board storage. Ammonia is a promising hydrogen carrier and can be directly fed to solid oxide fuel cells without fuel storage problem, and the products are just hydrogen and nitrogen. For direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells, the key ....High Performance Anode for Direct Ammonia Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. Solid oxygen fuel cells are a clean energy generation device with very high energy efficiency and if with hydrogen as fuel, the emission is zero. However, the utilisation of hydrogen is limited by on-board storage. Ammonia is a promising hydrogen carrier and can be directly fed to solid oxide fuel cells without fuel storage problem, and the products are just hydrogen and nitrogen. For direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells, the key challenge is the anode. This project aims to develop a high performance anode for direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells with both high activity and high stability at low temperature (below 600 degree C), thus addressing a key issue to make the direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells commercially viable.Read moreRead less
Composites for thermal expansion matched oxygen electrodes. This project aims to develop high performance composite oxygen electrodes by using both negative thermal expansion materials and electrolyte materials to tailor the thermal expansion and activities of the perovskite-based electrodes for use in reduced temperature solid oxide cells. Such composite electrodes will show highly matched thermal expansion with electrolyte without sacrificing high activity at reduced temperatures. This project ....Composites for thermal expansion matched oxygen electrodes. This project aims to develop high performance composite oxygen electrodes by using both negative thermal expansion materials and electrolyte materials to tailor the thermal expansion and activities of the perovskite-based electrodes for use in reduced temperature solid oxide cells. Such composite electrodes will show highly matched thermal expansion with electrolyte without sacrificing high activity at reduced temperatures. This project seeks to address an important practical issue in the operation of solid oxide power cells - thermal expansion compatibility, which causes poor efficiency outside a narrow temperature band.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100002
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$808,191.00
Summary
A facility for laser-based automated manufacturing of carbon composites. This project aims to create an advanced manufacturing facility for carbon-composites research by integrating laser-based processing and robotic automation. It will enable fundamental research on rapid processing of high-performance thermoplastics and metal-composite hybrids, including functionalisation of the composite through nano-material coating technology, and new instrumentation for structural health monitoring. The fa ....A facility for laser-based automated manufacturing of carbon composites. This project aims to create an advanced manufacturing facility for carbon-composites research by integrating laser-based processing and robotic automation. It will enable fundamental research on rapid processing of high-performance thermoplastics and metal-composite hybrids, including functionalisation of the composite through nano-material coating technology, and new instrumentation for structural health monitoring. The facility will significantly enhance the research capability in the newly established ARC Training Centre for Automated Manufacture of Advanced Composites, which will engage with Australian industry to improve productivity and material performance for industry sectors such as aerospace, automotive, marine, and sport.Read moreRead less
Functionalising sustainable natural binders for energy storage devices. This project aims to produce low-cost energy storage devices to meet the energy demands and safety requirements of electric appliances, electric vehicles and smart electricity grids. High-cost and non-regenerable resources and existing energy storage devices’ safety issues have hindered the electrification of portable electronic devices and vehicles and use of intermittent solar and wind energy. This project will use sustain ....Functionalising sustainable natural binders for energy storage devices. This project aims to produce low-cost energy storage devices to meet the energy demands and safety requirements of electric appliances, electric vehicles and smart electricity grids. High-cost and non-regenerable resources and existing energy storage devices’ safety issues have hindered the electrification of portable electronic devices and vehicles and use of intermittent solar and wind energy. This project will use sustainable natural polymers to develop green electrode technologies for manufacturing batteries with greatly reduced production and environmental cost. The in-depth understandings from the combination of experiments and computation simulations will help create strategies to realise low cost, long-life and safe batteries.Read moreRead less
Structurally-bridged crystalline molecular sieve-polymer membranes. This project aims to produce a membrane platform technology for efficient and cost-effective separation in natural gas processing and petrochemicals, using crystalline sieve materials. It will address the mismatch of mechanical properties between crystalline molecular sieve materials (zeolites and metal organic frameworks) and polymers, and coating flaws which limit their use as gas separation membranes. It will create nano-rein ....Structurally-bridged crystalline molecular sieve-polymer membranes. This project aims to produce a membrane platform technology for efficient and cost-effective separation in natural gas processing and petrochemicals, using crystalline sieve materials. It will address the mismatch of mechanical properties between crystalline molecular sieve materials (zeolites and metal organic frameworks) and polymers, and coating flaws which limit their use as gas separation membranes. It will create nano-reinforcement in the coating and polymer substrate, with nano-bridges between them. The resulting membranes will be mechanically tough and separate better than existing membranes. Advanced membranes are expected to benefit fuel industries by reducing separation cost and energy consumption.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101662
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$395,220.00
Summary
Non-Oxidative and Scalable Electrochemical Production of Functional Graphene and its Nanohybrids. The lack of cost-effective and scalable graphene production methods is the current bottleneck that impedes the commercialisation of advanced graphene-based nanomaterials. Novel electrochemical production of those functional materials directly from bulk graphite not only holds the key to the solution but also provides a non-oxidative route for the production of highly conductive graphene which is wel ....Non-Oxidative and Scalable Electrochemical Production of Functional Graphene and its Nanohybrids. The lack of cost-effective and scalable graphene production methods is the current bottleneck that impedes the commercialisation of advanced graphene-based nanomaterials. Novel electrochemical production of those functional materials directly from bulk graphite not only holds the key to the solution but also provides a non-oxidative route for the production of highly conductive graphene which is well suited for applications such as biosensing, energy storage and conversion. Besides achieving scientific breakthroughs in graphene electrochemistry, this project will directly benefit many Australian socio-economic objectives, including manufacturing of Australia's natural resources into valuable energy related products.Read moreRead less