Facilities | Institute for Frontier Materials

The Institute for Frontier Materials has a wide range of highly specialised, state-of-the-art equipment and facilities that are designed to advance world-class research.

We have the ability to perform research at the atomic and molecular scale, while also offering unique scale-up capabilities to perform pilot studies with the added benefit of access to ManuFutures (Deakin’s Innovation hub) that fuses Deakin’s innovative and industry focused research strategies with industry capabilities.

Deakin Advanced Characterisation Facility

The Deakin Advanced Characterisation Facility is an open-access facility located and administered within the Institute for Frontier Materials. The Deakin ACF represents a unified platform of advanced characterisation capabilities and expertise, which includes the Electron Microscopy, X-ray and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facilities.

Its mission is to provide advanced characterisation training, service, teaching and support, as well as collaborative research programs within Deakin, with public research organisations, and with industry.

The Deakin ACF is also a Linked laboratory of Microscopy Australia, which is Australia’s open access microscopy facility, part of the family of national research infrastructure supported by the federal government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.

Electron Microscope Facility

Our state-of-the-art electron microscopy facilities allow researchers to see and measure things at the micro, nano and atomic scales.

Our Instruments and Capabilities:

Scanning electron microscopy:
JEOL JSM 7800F
Zeiss Supra55VP
Leo 1530
Transmission electron microscopy:
JEOL JEM 2100 (Conventional LaB₆ TEM)
JEOL JEM 2100F (Field emission gun TEM)
Focussed ion beam microscopy:
FEI Quanta 3D
Atom probe tomography:
Cameca LEAP 5000 XR

For more information, contact:

Electron Microscopy Facility
Dr Andrew Sullivan

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus is equipped with a versatile range of state-of-the-art instrumentation for the detailed characterisation of molecules and materials.

Our NMR Capabilities:

High-resolution liquid-state NMR
Multinuclear solid-state NMR
Various specialised probes including static, variable temperature and magic angle spinning
Pulsed field gradients for diffusion measurements
3D micro-imaging (MRI) system

For more information, contact:

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility
Materials applications: A/Prof Luke O’Dell

X-ray Facility

InSitX is an exciting new joint program between Deakin and CSIRO for the development of new in-situ and operando X-ray experiments to realise material design and discovery. With newly installed equipment that is currently being commissioned, InSitX is a world-first X‐ray facility having near synchrotron capabilities that will provide unprecedented capacity to explore the structures of metals and fibres outside of a synchrotron. The facility has also been designed to interface with the Australian Synchrotron by enabling ‘off‐line’ development of complex x‐ray experiments prior to accessing limited synchrotron beam time.

Our Instruments and Capabilities:

Small and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS-WAXS)
X-ray diffraction
Micro-computed tomography

For more information, contact:

In-situ X-ray analysis (InSitX)
A/Prof Peter Lynch

Advanced Fibre/Composite Facility

Future Fibres Facility

IFM has world-class facilities for fibre and textile research, ranging from atomic-scale characterisation facilities to industry-scale prototyping facilities in collaboration with CSIRO.

For more information, contact: Associate Professor Christopher Hurren

Carbon Nexus

Carbon Nexus is a purpose-built research facility designed to accommodate the diverse needs of industry.

Located in Geelong, Australia, we have a unique suite of equipment available to researchers and industry.

Carbon Nexus incorporates world-first open access infrastructure designed to manufacture carbon fibres, textile pre-forms and composites for developing new technologies, processes and products.

Our composites capabilities include advanced material characterisation techniques and composites manufacturing processes.

For more information, visit Carbon Nexus.

ANFF-Deakin Hub - Fibre Production and Characterisation

The Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) at the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM), hosts a suite of tools facilitating the entire textile construction process at both the lab and pilot scale focusing on advanced functional materials and materials for a sustainable circular economy. This includes fibre micro and nano-fibre fabrication including wet-, dry-jet- melt-, and electro-spinning. As well as short staple yarn spinning and textile construction including ring spinning, weaving, and knitting.

ANFF network is an open access facility. It is open to new partnerships – its facility and engineers can be accessed via a joint research program or service agreement.

For more information regarding the ANFF Network and other facilities:

National – https://www.anff.org.au/

Victoria – https://nanomelbourne.com/

Contact

Prof. Joselito Razal – ANFF-Vic Collaboration Committee Member

Dr Dylan Hegh – ANFF-Deakin-Hub Facilities Manager

Advanced Metals Manufacture Facility

Our suite of equipment to develop lighter and stronger metal alloys includes:

MELD facility – a breakthrough additive manufacturing technology. For more information contact: Associate Professor Daniel Fabijanic
3D roll forming facility – a $1.5 million facility for low volume part manufacture and prototyping. For more information contact: Dr Matthias Weiss

fastAlloy Lab

The fastAlloy Lab at Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials accelerates alloy discovery from months to weeks.

Guided by machine-learning search algorithms that explore vast compositional spaces in thermodynamic databases for alloy compositions with targeted characteristics, this facility, which includes a vacuum suction eight-station arc melting furnace, will allow the manufacture of 16-24 alloys per day into high-quality Ingots.

For more information, contact Professor Daniel Fabijanic.

Battery Research and Innovation Hub

Deakin University’s Battery Research and Innovation Hub, situated close to Deakin University’s Burwood campus in Melbourne, is a world-class research innovation laboratory for new battery design and development, prototyping and a cell and systems test facility for multiple battery types and sizes.

Based within the Institute for Frontier Materials, our expert interdisciplinary team of over 70 researchers specialise in battery design and development; testing and characterisation; pilot-scale battery manufacturing and, the commercialisation of battery storage technologies.

It welcomes new partnerships by providing access to our facility and team, either through joint research projects or service agreements. We connect research to industry through:

Supporting, servicing, and generating start-ups and manufacturers of advanced battery materials and custom batteries.
Translating Australian battery technology from proof-of-concept, prototype to production level battery storage products.
Providing education and training to battery experts.
Enhancing post-secondary training and education, including production and process engineering training for an emerging energy storage economy.
Service provision and consultancy.
Intellectual Property (IP) generation.

For more information, visit Battery Research and Innovation Hub or contact: Dr. Timothy Khoo or Mojtaba Eftekharnia

Nanomaterial Manufacture Facility

IFM has a large range of facilities for nanomaterials synthesis and processing, including sputtering system (PVD), plasma-enhanced CVD reactors, fluid-bed reactors, hydrothermal/solvothermal vessel, different types of ball milling systems, anodization system, advanced plasma system, and solid-state reactors (various types of tube and muffle furnaces). In addition, a prototype battery electrode production line, including RHK-furnace with simulator (Noritake, Japan), PQ-N20 ball-mill (Planetary), and thermal spray dryer (B-290, Switzerland) is available to produce large quantity electrode materials for industry scale application.

These facilities are designed to help us create new nanomaterials which will play a role in developing new technologies, such as: i) large scale energy storage, ii) energy saving technologies; iii) efficient heat dissipation technologies; and iv) technologies for environmental protection. These type of technologies will revolutionise industries in energy, aerospace, automobile and electronics.

For more information, contact: Professor Ian (Ying) Chen