Materials Research Activities

Materials research at UoW is multidisciplinary in nature involving materials specialists as well as chemists, physicists and engineers. The research is co-ordinated through a number of centres:

• BlueScope Steel Institute
• Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials
• Intelligent Polymer Research Institute

Collectively, the research effort at UoW is one of the strongest groupings in Australia and is a key research strength of the University. Materials related research involves over 50 full-time research staff, 80 research students and attracts external funding of around $5 million per annum. MSE researchers at UoW are involved with the following national research centres:

• ARC Centre for Nanostructured Electromaterials (http://www.uow.edu.au/science/research/nsem/)
• CRC for Welded Structures (http://www.crcws.com.au/)
• CRC for Railways Engineering and Technologies (http://www.railcrc.cqu.edu.au)
• CRC for Hearing, Speech and Cochlear Implant (http://www.bionicear.org/crc/index2.html)
• CRC for Functional Surfaces (http://www.crc-fcs.com/)

The MSE research infrastructure is extensive and modern and covers the key areas of materials processing, characterization and testing. New research infrastructure costing in excess of $2 million has been commissioned in the past 3 years.

Bluescope Steel Institute

The multi-disciplinary Steel Institute, created by an alliance forged between BlueScope Steel and the University of Wollongong, is an important vehicle to foster research collaboration between industry, government and academia. The Institute is designed to provide opportunities for academic staff to play a greater role in supporting the local steel industry and for technologists from the steel industry to contribute to academic development. A further aim is to provide students the opportunity to be exposed to the steel industry and to provide steel-centered advanced educational opportunities.

The research activities of the Institute are concentrated in three major programs. The Primary Processing Program focuses on iron and steelmaking processes as well as the associated process technologies. The Casting and Rolling Program concentrates on continuous casting technology, thermo-mechanical processing, and steel product development. Research in the Coatings Technology Program investigates the basic scientific and technological issues, underpinning future product advancement in metal and polymer coatings. The institute also provides postgraduate education and professional development opportunities. The Institute has established strong and focused research groups and has attracted talented staff not only to the Institute, but also to the associated teaching disciplines. These dedicated teams have built a specialized equipment infrastructure, which is shared by university and industrial researchers, is unique in Australia and is specifically tailored to the needs of the steel industry.

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Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials

ISEM at the University of Wollongong consists of more than 50 researchers and postgraduate students, working on five large programs: Applied Superconductivity; Spintronic and Electronic Materials; Energy Materials; Thin Film Technology; Terahertz Science, Thermionics and Solid State Physics; Nano-structured Materials. ISEM mission is to eestablish and maintain a world class cooperative research team in superconducting & electronic materials science and technology, and to stimulate the technological and commercial development of the Australian industry in this field.

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Intelligent Polymer Research Institute

The Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI) comprises of approximately 30 personnel (full-time research staff and students) and is located in purpose built laboratories on the University of Wollongong campus. IPRI is recognised internationally as a pioneer in Intelligent Polymer Research. The Institute has strategic links and alliances with other research institutions in the USA, Japan, Korea, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The Intelligent Polymer Research Institute is also the leading partner and main administrative centre for the ARC Centre for Nanostructured Electromaterials (NSEM). This centre opened in October 2003 and is a partnership between IPRI, Monash University, The Bionic Ear Institute, Massey University and The University of Akron. The main aim of the centre is to explore the science of nanomaterials having an electron or charge transfer functionality: to prepare such nanomaterials, study and develop theories for their behaviour, and exploit these new behaviours in useful applications, in particular bioapplications.

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Research Centre for Advanced Materials Processing

Research areas include:

The researchers in this group: Dr A. Calka, Professor D. Dunne, Dr D. Wexler and Dr N. Stanford, are actively involved in novel research on advanced materials with funding by ARC Discovery grants. They have international reputations through the consistently high quality of their research on the synthesis, processing and characterisation of advanced materials (Publication in Nature, vol.419, pp.147-151. 2002). The group interacts strongly with an extensive international network of researchers and is at the leading edge of research in these fields.

Research areas include:

iron -based shape memory alloys copper based shape memory alloys crystallography of martensitic transformations low temperature synthesis of advanced materials rapid solidification processing glassy metals super-hard materials plasma synthesis of novel materials high-surface area materials mechano-chemical synthesis novel reduction processes nanostructural materials hydrogenated materials high temperature consolidation of powdered materials high resolution electron microscopy and analysis x-ray diffractometry microchemical analysis thermal analysis