The Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) has released its 2022 Annual Report – wrapping up a big year of materials science research.
The 2022 report revealed that IFM:
- Attracted $21.2 million in research income
- Worked with 130 innovative organisations from 15 countries
- Trained 201 students
- Published 248 papers
IFM’s research is driven by our mission to redesign materials for a circular economy and impart materials with extraordinary functionality. With research teams spanning across the research themes – Advanced Alloys and Infrastructure Materials, Carbon Fibre and Composites, Electro and Energy Materials and Fibres and Textiles – some our 2022 highlights include:
- The launch of three hubs:
Deakin’s Battery Research and Innovation Hub
ARC Research Hub for Future Fibres
ARC Research Hub for Safe and Reliable Energy (SafeREnergy)
- Accolades such as Alfred Deakin Professor Maria Forsyth who was elected an Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Fellow for her decades at the forefront of global research and collaboration in energy storage; Alfred Deakin Professor Ying (Ian) Chen who made the 2022 Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers list: and ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards for Dr Qiran Cai, Dr Quanxiang (Sulley) Li and Dr Alban de Vaucorbeil.
- The successfully testing of a new process that safely and effectively extracts silicon from old solar panels that can be converted into nano-silicon, which is worth more than $45,000 per kilogram.
- The breakthrough process that offers a novel way to separate, store and transport huge amounts of gas, such as hydrogen, safely, with no waste, was first described by IFM nanotechnology researchers in the prestigious journal Materials Today in 2022.
- An Australian-first commercial solution that reuses carpet fibre waste to create a product that strengthens concrete in a range of applications.
- A collaborative project between IFM, Deakin’s Faculty of Health, the Deakin Sustainable Health Network and Barwon Health that designed reusable personal protective equipment by combining plastic with food waste.
- Breakthroughs in electrochemistry including the use of computational methods to design a new type of polymer electrolyte for polymer-based solid-state batteries and the development of a novel solid polymer electrolyte material that can replace the flammable liquid solvents currently used in sodium batteries.
- The development of a new ionic liquid hybrid electrolyte that showed excellent performance in a high energy density lithium metal battery with improved stability and dendrite free cycling; such batteries are applicable in aerospace, drones and long range EVs.
Plus, much more.
Read the full 2022 Annual Report, here.