Institute for Frontier Materials
The Institute for Frontier Materials is a vibrant, multi-cultural research institute, graduating more than 30 PhD students a year and training 80 post-docs at any given time. Our researchers work with industry to address material challenges in the energy, mining, environment, health, transport, textiles and manufacturing sectors.
Find out moreOur Mission
Re-designing materials for a circular economy
We are creating novel ways to maximise value from waste while re-designing materials with extraordinary functionality for a waste-free tomorrow.
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Imparting materials with extraordinary functionality
We seek to impart materials with extraordinary functionality – materials to clean water, materials to safely power electric vehicles, materials to save energy, in short, materials that will transform society.
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Latest news
Highlighted projects
Research breakthrough means safer batteries
IFM researchers have successfully made solid state batteries which remove the risk of batteries catching fire or exploding.
Sodium ion batteries for future energy storage
IFM researchers are investigating an alternative technology to address cost and safety issues associated with the lithium-ion batteries used in everything from mobile phones to microgrids.
$15M project is good news for automotive manufacturers
The announcement of a $15m manufacturing research and development project, facilitated by the Innovative Manufacturing CRC (IMCRC), signals the future for the Australian automotive manufacturing industry.
2021 Annual Report
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IFM twitter feed
Scientists from @Deakin have tested a new process to extract valuable silicon from old solar panels, converting it into a nano material worth more than $45K per kg.
The work is supported by funding from @SustainVic with discussions to scale-up the process.https://twitter.com/Deakin/status/1617355154856247296
ICYMI: Did you catch IFM on Sunday night's @abcnews Victoria? It featured a new process developed out of IFM that extracts #silicon from #solarpanels to build better #batteries. Check it out: http://bit.ly/3XTbyq2