Australia Magazine | December 2024 | Volume 57 | No 4 by materialsaustralia

Nd:YAG

MOFs

nanogels

MOCVD

AuNPs

palladium catalysts nickel foam

perovskite crystals

europium phosphors

alternative energy

thin lm

tungsten carbide glassy carbon isotopes

III-IV semiconductors

diamond micropowder

additive manufacturing

organometallics

surface functionalized nanoparticles

ultralight aerospace alloys nanodispersions

3D graphene foam

EuFOD YBCO metamaterials

InAs wafers

quantum dots

transparent ceramics

silver nanoparticles

scandium powder

biosynthetics

sputtering targets

endohedral fullerenes

gold nanocubes

laser crystals OLED lighting

exible electronics

photovoltaics

osmium

ITO

mischmetal

chalcogenides

CVD precursors

deposition slugs

buckyballs zeolites

superconductors

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metallocenes

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1 - 3 JU LY 2 025

RMIT UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE

1 - 3 JU LY 2 025 RMIT UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE

The 4th Asia-Pacific International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (APICAM) is the not-to-be-missed industry conference of 2025.

1 MARCH 2 02 5

1 - 3 JU LY 2 025

The 4th Asia-Pacific International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (APICAM) is the not-to-be-missed industry conference of 2025.

APICAM was created to provide an opportunity for industry professionals and thinkers to come together, share knowledge and engage in the type of networking that is vital to the furthering of the additive manufacturing industry.

Abstracts are able to be submitted in the following areas:

The 4th Asia-Pacific International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (APICAM) is the not-to-be-missed industry conference of 2025.

Some of the leading minds in the industry will give presentations on pressing issues and the ways in which innovations can navigate challenges. Important areas such as 3D printing and additive manufacturing in the automotive, biomedical, defence and aerospace industries will be covered by experts from each respective field.

The purpose of this conference is to provide a focused forum for the presentation of advanced research and improved understanding of various aspects of additive manufacturing.

The APICAM2025 organizing committee is seeking abstracts for either an oral or poster presentation. .

The purpose of this conference is to provide a focused forum for the presentation of advanced research and improved understanding of various aspects of additive manufacturing.

Enquiries:

The APICAM2025 organizing committee is seeking abstracts for either an oral or poster presentation. .

The purpose of this conference is to provide a focused forum for the presentation of advanced research and improved understanding of various aspects of additive manufacturing.

Tanya Smith | Materials Australia +61 3 9326 7266 | imea@materialsaustralia.com.au

The APICAM2025 organizing committee is seeking abstracts for either an oral or poster presentation. .

Enquiries: Tanya Smith | Materials Australia +61 3 9326 7266 | imea@materialsaustralia.com.au

Tanya Smith | Materials Australia +61 3 9326 7266 | imea@materialsaustralia.com.au The 4th Asia-Pacific International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (APICAM) is the not-to-be-missed industry conference of 2025.

Abstracts are able to be submitted in the following areas:

The APICAM2025 organizing committee is seeking abstracts for either an oral or poster presentation. . Abstracts are able to be submitted in the following areas:

Additive Manufacturing Defence Application

Additive Manufacturing of Electronic Device

Abstracts are able to be submitted in the following areas:

Additive Manufacturing Green/Clean Energy

Additive Manufacturing Space Application

Additive Manufacturing Post - Processing

Bioprinting and Biomaterials

Ceramic and Concrete Additive Manufacturing

Design, Qualification and Certification

Digital Manufacturing

Emerging Additive Manufacturing Technologies

Metal Additive Manufacturing

Modelling and Simulations

Polymer Additive Manufacturing

Sustainability

The APICAM2025 organizing committee is seeking abstracts for either an oral or poster presentation. . Abstracts are able to be submitted in the following areas: www.apicam2025.com.au

MANAGING

EDITORIAL

Tanya

This magazine is the official journal of Materials Australia and is distributed to members and interested parties throughout Australia and internationally.

Materials Australia welcomes editorial contributions from interested parties, however it does not accept responsibility for the content of those contributions, and the views contained therein are not necessarily those of Materials Australia.

Materials Australia does not accept responsibility for any claims made by advertisers.

All communication should be directed to Materials Australia.

From the President - Professor Nikki Stanford

Thank you for reading this last edition of the Materials Australia Magazine for 2024

We have all just recovered from

running our biggest CAMS ever! The conference was held in Adelaide in the first week of December, and South Australia sure did turn on the heat for the conference! It was a huge success, with a full wrap up at the end of this edition. A big thanks to all of our speakers, session Chairs, Symposium chairs, sponsors, delegates and volunteers.

I had a wonderful time at CAMS,

I don’t often get the opportunity to sit and listen to the amazing things that people are working on in materials science. I particularly enjoyed the plenary by Cathy Inglis. She show cased Australian ceramics manufacturing, and gave a very positive review of the R&D being carried out by the sector to help meet our carbon reduction targets. Its great to see that work being done here in Australia.

Another one of our Plenary speakers, Julie Cairney, spoke about hydrogen embrittlement in steel. This is another timely topic given the importance of hydrogen in our energy transition. The production of engineering materials produces about a quarter of the worlds green house emissions, with steel and concrete production producing about 8% of

B.Eng(Hons) Ph.D. CMatP

the worlds CO2 emissions each. As we begin to transition towards the use of hydrogen as a fuel source, the research showcased at CAMS will become increasingly important. I think you’d agree that theres lots of really positive sustainability projects underway, and materials science is right at the centre of all of it.

So, on that positive note, id like to thank our members for another amazing year, and remind everyone that APICAM is just around the corner in July 2025. I’d like to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday break, and I look forward to seeing you in 2025.

Best Regards

Nikki Stanford

National President

Materials Australia

ncing MaterialsandManufacturing

4-6 December 2024 | University of South Australia

Advancing Materials and Manufacturing: CAMS2024 Brings Innovation To Life

The 8th conference of the Combined Australian Materials Societies, incorporating Materials

Australia and the Australian Cer

The 8th conference of the Combined Austra Materials Societies, incorporating

Australia’s leading materials scientists, engineers, technology trailblazers, and thought leaders recently gathered for the Combined Australian Materials Societies (CAMS) 2024 Conference.

Our technical program will cover a range of t identiﬁed by researchers and industry as issues of topical interest.

Symposia Themes

> Additive manufacturing

Symposia Themes

> Advances in materials characterisation

The event is Australia’s largest interdisciplinary technical meeting of the year, and featured a wide range of speakers and delegates from around the world. It was the largest ever CAMS Conference, with over 350 delegates in attendance.

> Additive manufacturing

> Metals, alloys, casting & thermomechanica processing

> Advances in materials characterisation

> Biomaterials & nanomaterials for medicine

> Ceramics, glass and refractories

> Metals, alloys, casting & thermomechanical processing

> Biomaterials & nanomaterials for

> Corrosion & wear

> Materials for energy generation, conversio

> Ceramics, glass and refractories

> Corrosion & wear

> Computational materials science -

Held at The University of South Australia from 4 to 6 December, the eighth biennial conference brought CAMS, Materials Australia, and the Australian Ceramic Society’s delegates under the same roof to exchange ideas, technology and advances in research.

> Nanostructured/nanoscale materials an

> Materials for energy generation,

> Computational materials science -

> Nanostructured/nanoscale materials an

> Progress in cements, geopolymer building materials

> Surfaces, thin ﬁlms & coatings

> Polymer technology

> Progress in cements, geopolymer building materials

> Composite technology

> Surfaces, thin ﬁlms & coatings

> Polymer technology

> Waste materials and environmental remediation/recycling

> Composite technology

> Semiconductors and electronic materials

> Materials for nuclear and extreme environments

> Waste materials and environmental remediation/recycling

The conference covered a broad range of themes, including additive, advanced and future manufacturing; materials characterisation; surface coatings; biomaterials and nanomaterials for medicine; ceramics, glass and refractories; energy generation, conversion and storage materials; corrosion and wear resistant materials; nanostructured and nanoscale materials; and polymers and composites.

> Advances in Science and Technology of Ceramics (AOCF)

> Semiconductors and electronic materials

> Materials for nuclear and extreme environments

> Advances in Science and Technology of Ceramics (AOCF)

The three-day conference featured three plenary sessions, including a presentation by Professor Phil Withers on Correlative time resolved

electron and x-ray imaging of materials behaviour. Philip Withers read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, before doing a PhD in metal matrix composites and then becoming a lecturer there. He then took up a Chair at the University of Manchester. He became the inaugural

Director of the $100 million bp International Centre for Advanced Materials in 2012. In 2016 he helped to set up the Royce Institute for Advanced Materials becoming its first Chief Scientist.

Cathy Inglis AM presented on Firing up innovation: ceramics’ journey

VENUE SPONSOR

SPONSOR

Conference Chairs - Professor Nikki Stanford and Associate Professor Pramod Koshy.

towards net zero. Cathy is an experienced materials engineer and technical expert with nearly 30 years in the building industry and building product manufacturing with a focus on research, product development and product compliance. She is currently the Group CEO of Think Brick Australia, the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia and the Australian Roofing Tile Association who represent the manufacturers across this industry sector. Cathy is on the National Board of the Housing Industry Association and was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the building and construction industry in 2020. Professor Julie Cairney spoke on The influence of hydrogen on the deformation of steels. Julie is a Professor in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the University of Sydney and also serves as the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research Enterprise). She specialises in using advanced microscopy to study the three-dimensional structure of materials at the atomic scale. Her projects cover hydrogen embrittlement in steels, corrosion, nuclear materials and biominerals.

The keynote speakers at CAMS2024 included: Professor Xiaozhou Liao (University of Sydney), Prof. Benny Freeman (The University of Texas at Austin), Dr Amy Clarke (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Assistant Professor Jennifer Young (Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore), Professor Michael Moody (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation), Professor Satoshi Wada (University of Yamanashi, Japan), Professor Debra Bernhardt (The University of Queensland), Professor Yuji Sano (University of Osaka and Institute for Molecular Science, Japan), Dr ArashTahmasebi (University

of Newcastle), Distinguished Professor Zhengyi Jiang (University of Wollongong), Professor Raman Singh (Monash University), Professor Tuan Ngo (University of Melbourne), Professor Julie Glaum (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), A/Prof. Ailar Hajimohammadi (UNSW

Sydney), Professor Javad Mostaghimi (University of Toronto, Canada) and Dr Ali Hagdigheh (University of Sydney).

In addition, a range of local and international speakers were invited to share their industry knowledge about a variety of topics including advanced duplex stainless steels; laser additive manufacturing; and pore-scale modelling in heterogeneous porous materials.

Together, the CAMS2024 organising committee selected speakers who delivered a series of interactive keynotes, where they drew on their experiences to inspire, motivate and share knowledge with the broader sector.

The six-parallel symposia event was rescheduled to ensure a face-to-face meeting was possible. This allowed delegates to attend networking events and awards ceremonies, where they were encouraged to connect with likeminded peers.

There were also conference posters, where PhD students and industry academics put their research on full display, answered questions and discussed the future scope of research.

CAMS2024 would like to acknowledge the organising committee for this event: Professor Nikki Stanford (coChair), Associate Professor Pramod Koshy (co-Chair), Professor Gwenaelle Proust, Dr Andrew Ang, Professor Colin Hall, Associate Professor Danyang Wang, Dr Daniel Gregg, Dr Sajjad Mofarah, Amber Moore and Tanya Smith.

CAMS2024 was supported by Business Events Adelaide, the Government of South Australia, the University of South Australia, Raymax Applications, SEAM ARC Training Centre, CSIRO, Taylor & Francis, American Elements, and a range of exhibitors.

VENUE SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

Poster Session - Day 1

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SPONSOR

VENUE SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

VENUE SPONSOR

SPONSOR

VENUE SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

Conference Dinner - Day 2

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SPONSOR

VENUE SPONSOR GOLD SPONSOR

DINNER SPONSOR

CONFERENCE

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GOLD SPONSOR

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GOLD SPONSOR

WA Branch Technical Meeting - 9 September 2024 Surface Engineering, the working face for industry

Source: Prof Chris Berndt, SEAM ARC Training Centre

Distinguished Professor Chris Berndt, from Swinburne University, is Director of the ARC Training Centre for Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM). SEAM is now at the end of its five-year ARC funding period, and Chris’ presentation described some of its achievements, provided a snapshot view of several projects, and outlined potential future directions.

The Centre’s goal has been to develop postgraduate professional materials engineers, who through direct involvement with industry during their research studies, are available for “plug and play” employment after graduation. SEAM is a joint venture between Swinburne, RMIT and UniSA, with several industry partners. Together these participants have leveraged the $4.9m ARC grant to a total value of $9.3m in cash and in kind. Continued funding has depended on meeting quarterly targets and SEAM’s success led to an increase of $3.5m on the original planned funding.

Chris used the nine Technology Readiness Levels, from basic research (TRL-1) to full commercial deployment (TRL-9) in characterising SEAM’s research as TRL-6 to TRL-7 (verified protypes and demonstrated pilot systems).

SEAM has undertaken 15 projects working in teams of around ten people per project. It has attracted 25 PhD student researchers and eight postdoctoral fellows. From these, Chris only had time to refer briefly to just a few.

The first project he talked about was development of a coating to reduce slag deposition on the boiler tubes of coal-fired power stations. Because of the practical problems of working on operating boilers, this involved developing a simulated boiler environment in which to test various coatings. The approach taken in developing the coating was biomimetic, imitating the way the surface structures of leaves on some plants give hydrophobic properties allowing them to shed water. A sprayed coating was developed that had a similar surface topology, and this was shown to produce a significant improvement in the simulated boiler tubes.

Another project involved surface treatment for improved tungsten carbide cutting tool performance. This research was largely undertaken on-site in a production facility. The challenge in this project was dealing with the two-phase structure of tungsten carbide composites, and the approach taken involved grinding, electropolishing and applying multiple PVD coatings.

Another project is kinetic fusion coating, or cold spraying. This project, involving two PhD students and three postdoctoral fellows, characterised around 130 titanium powders and used artificial intelligence-guided modelling for process optimisation. Work is continuing the use of shot peening to reduce residual stress.

The last project Chris described concerned the ‘LaserBond’ process for applying thermal spray coating to novel substrates, notably to glass fibre composites. This involves metallisation of the composite surface with metallic flash coating, followed by application of the final coating by HVOF (high velocity oxygen fuel) spraying. Carbon dioxide colling is used to keep the temperature rise on the composite surface to less than 35 °C. The advantage is that the process can produce components with desired surface properties but with a weight saving of up to 80% compared to using a metallic substrate.

Looking ahead, the joint venture partners are seeking to establish an ARC Centre of Excellence, four times the size of SEAM. So far, six universities intend to participate, and industry partners are being sought to put together a competitive proposal to put to the ARC for $35m funding over seven years.

Funding will support around 80 postgraduate students and 20 postdoctoral fellows and will extend to sustainable materials more generally than just surface engineering. In terms of technology readiness levels, the aim will be TRL-4 (prototype validation), the level often associated with the ‘valley of death’ between proof of concept and commercial success.

L to R: Prof. Chris Berndt, Ehsan Karaji.

1 - 3 JU LY 2 025

RMIT UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE

The 4th Asia-Pacific International Conference on Additive Manufacturing (APICAM) is the not-to-be-missed industry conference of 2025.

The purpose of this conference is to provide a focused forum for the presentation of advanced research and improved understanding of various aspects of additive manufacturing.

The APICAM2025 organizing committee is seeking abstracts for either an oral or poster presentation. .

Enquiries:

Enquiries: Tanya Smith | Materials Australia +61 3 9326 7266 | imea@materialsaustralia.com.au

1 MARCH 2 02 5

Abstracts

Additive Manufacturing Defence Application

Additive Manufacturing of Electronic Devices

Additive Manufacturing Green/Clean Energy

Additive Manufacturing Space Application

Additive Manufacturing Post - Processing

Bioprinting and Biomaterials

Ceramic and Concrete Additive Manufacturing

Design, Qualification and Certification

Digital Manufacturing

Emerging Additive Manufacturing Technologies

Metal Additive Manufacturing

Modelling and Simulations

Polymer Additive Manufacturing

Sustainability

WA Branch Technical Meeting - 7 October 2024

Composite Repairs in a Marine Environment

Source: Jason LeCoultre and Matthew Williamson

Jason LeCoultre is the founder and Managing Director of FUZE Solutions, a composite technology focussed business that provides solutions to the oil & gas, mining and defence industries. Matthew Williamson is Principal Naval Architect with Floating Solutions Consulting in Perth.

Jason has worked for more than twenty years in structural composites, servicing the mining industry and oil & gas industry floating assets. Mathhew’s focus is on reducing in-service structural risk on ships, including naval vessels. Their joint presentation addressed the question of why composites are not used more often for ship repairs, and what might be done to change this situation. In doing so, they drew on a paper that they, together with Peter Butt, Chief Technology Officer at FUZE Solutions, had recently presented at a defence industries conference.

As an overview, Jason pointed out that the use of composites for structures and in structural repair is well proven in multiple industries and is extensively documented. They started as a hightech option for aircraft and spacecraft in the 1970s and were then widely adopted in lower tech uses, especially for repairs, in oil & gas and mining industries. However, while composite repairs in ships were well established in the 1990s, they currently aren’t much used. What had happened to cause this?

Jason and Matt used role play to demonstrate the difficulty of getting approval for a composite repair to a ship. Jason took the part of an engineer who was trying to convince Matt to approve a composite repair to a cracked steel structure, pointing out the advantages of a repair that could be made in three days, with no hot work. The standard welding repair would take three weeks, and would be much more disruptive, but Matt pointed out since it was standard it could be approved at a relatively low level. Because composite repairs are

not standard, it was likely that the weld repair would be completed before the necessary special approval could be obtained for the composite option.

From a project management viewpoint, the standard repair was much more attractive as the schedule was predictable and approvals were easy to get, even though it would take longer and the repair would be more expensive.

In short, the barriers to the use of composites are not essentially technical but arise because they are not included in standards and guidelines. Composites are not part of the ‘tool kit’ for structural repair in ships. The impact on schedules of the need for, and uncertainty of, individual approval is a strong disincentive to their use.

Basically, in ship repair there is a vicious circle of ignorance, with general lack of experience, limited knowledge, few suppliers, no standard applications, and no approved processes. Ways of breaking this circle could include changes to contract structures, bringing in outside experience, and having to deal with situations where there is no other option, other than to use composites. Matt described how the ‘no other option’ situation had arisen in the UK in the 1990s with a particularly complex repair that affected a class of naval vessels. However, unlike the case with aircraft repair where the use of composites has become embedded in repair manuals, once the pressing need had been resolved, interest in composites for ship repair waned. Faced with lack of demand, suppliers moved to other customers, notably in the emerging wind turbine industry. The supporting infrastructure for composite ship repairs was lost, and the circle of ignorance was reestablished.

What is needed is route to certification for composite repairs to remove the need for specific approval for every proposed use. This would ensure that approval requires the same level of

authority as the equivalent steel repair. Matt explained that a key requirement is demonstrating that there is no baseline configuration change because of the repair. That is, that it doesn’t change asset capability, and can be documented without having to change fleet-wide design drawings. Jason and Matt foresee a path towards this through linking composite repairs to strategy and language used in the Australian Government Sovereign Defence Industry Priorities (SDIP).

Questions from the audience brought out some interesting background on ship design, maintenance and repair. Matt pointed out that ship design is not necessarily aimed at the lightest possible structure and general corrosion of plates that were originally thicker than necessary can even be looked on as ‘post-construction lightening’. In repairing a forty-year-old ship it is not necessary to replace every part with the original thickness of steel.

The role of shipping classification societies, such as Lloyd’s Register and DNV, was also raised. Compared with steel and welding, there is relatively little open discussion and knowledgesharing regarding composite repairs. Even in the oil & gas industry clients tend not to talk about these repairs, although they are extensively used. Various possible for reasons for this include respect for supplier’s intellectual property, and sensitivity to disclosing situations where there were no other repair options.

L to R: Ehsan Karaji, Jason LeCoultre, Matthew Williamson

The Pacific Rim International Conference on Advanced Materials and Processing is held every three years, jointly sponsored by the Chinese Society for Metals (CSM), The Japan Institute of Metals and Materials (JIMM), The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials (KIM), Materials Australia (MA), and The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS).

The purpose of PRICM is to provide an attractive forum for the exchange of scientific and technological information on materials and processing. PRICM-12 will be held in Gold Coast on August 9-13, 2026, hosted by Materials Australia.

PRICM-12 aims to bring together leading scientists, technologists and engineers from the Asia-Pacific region and around the world to discuss contemporary discoveries and innovations in the rapidly evolving field of materials and processing. This event is also intended to foster stronger and closer interactions between materials practitioners and their international counterparts.

9-13 AUGUST 2026

Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre

ORGANIZING SOCIETY

Materials Australia

Tanya Smith +61 3 9326 7266 pricm12@materialsaustralia.com.au

This conference will cover most aspects of advanced materials and their manufacturing processes. It has 15 symposia:

Symposium A: Advanced Steels and Properties

Symposium B: Advanced Processing of Materials

Symposium C: Structural Materials for High Temperature

Symposium D: Light Metals and Alloys

Symposium E: Additive Manufacturing

Symposium F: Thin Films and Surface Engineering

Symposium G: Materials for Energy Storage and Generation

Symposium H: Electronic and Magnetic Materials

Symposium I: Biomaterials and Soft Materials and their Application

Symposium J: Materials Characterization and in situ/3D/4D Analysis

Symposium K: High-Entropy Materials and Amorphous Materials

Symposium L: Composite, Coating and HeteroMaterials

Symposium M: Nano Materials and Nano Severe Plastic Deformation

Symposium N: Computational Materials and Artificial Intelligence

Symposium O: Materials for Sustainability (Green Steel, Recycling, and Corrosion)

On behalf of the organising committee, it is our great pleasure to cordially invite you to PRICM-12.

Professor Jianfeng Nie

Organizing Chair of PRICM12

MATERIALS AUSTRALIA

Annual Sir Frank Ledger Breakfast Meeting Design, Construction and Operation of Hydrogen Pipelines

Source: Olivier Royet, Dr Sofia Hazarabedian, DNV

Opening the meeting, which attracted an audience of nearly 120, Mike Ledger gave a brief overview of the career of his grandfather, Sir Frank Ledger, noting his role in formation of what was to evolve into the WA Branch of Materials Australia. He then introduced the speakers, Dr Sofia Hazarabedian and Olivier Royet, both from DNV. Sonia is a materials engineer whose PhD focused on mitigating hydrogen embrittlement within the oil and gas sector. Olivier is civil engineer with expertise in materials and welding and 22 years’ international experience in the design, analysis and certification of onshore and offshore steel structures and pipelines.

Starting the presentation, Sofia noted that the future of energy is leaning towards hydrogen as a significant energy carrier and that pipelines have emerged as the most cost-effective solution for large-scale hydrogen transportation. She then outlined a future scenario with large-diameter hydrogen pipelines that can withstand high and cyclic pressures, and extend over long distances, both onshore and offshore. These pipelines are also expected to be used as a hydrogen storage method.

However, there is currently little

experience with such pipelines, which will be significantly different from existing hydrogen pipelines, which are predominantly onshore and relatively short, with small diameters (below 20 inches), and are operated at low pressure. Designing these new long high-pressure hydrogen pipelines involves dealing with specific risks and uncertainties, such as the effect of hydrogen on toughness and ductility, static, monotonic increasing, and cyclic loading, and the resulting defect tolerances.

DNV’s corporate goal is to enable its customers and their stakeholders to make critical decisions with confidence. Thus, in response to these challenges DNV launched the H2Pipe Joint Industry Project (JIP), aiming to develop a guideline for the design of and potential re-purposing of pipelines for hydrogen transport. The presentation summarised the findings from Phase 1 of the JIP, which will be consolidated in the recommendation practice DNV-RP-F123. This covers design, construction, requalification and operation of hydrogen pipelines and is expected to be released in December 2024 as a supplement to the existing offshore pipeline standard, DNV-ST-F101.

Olivier, the author or the JIP, continued the presentation with a summary of some of the major issues it covers. The first design issue is the risk posed by escape of hydrogen. Hydrogen is intrinsically less safe than natural gas. Its lower density tends to produce larger clouds of gas, which are flammable over a wider concentration range and require less energy to ignite. The high burning velocity can result in detonation of the cloud, rather than deflagration (progressive combustion). He illustrated this with reference to full-scale testing including impressive videos of exploding buildings.

He then turned to hydrogen embrittlement. In susceptible steels under stress, hydrogen trapped at dislocations and sub-grain boundaries can facilitate crack initiation. It can also migrate to the tips of cracks, reducing the energy for crack propagation.

In tensile testing, hydrogen greatly reduces elongation to fracture. In cyclic loading the effect of hydrogen on crack growth per load cycle under fluctuating stress can be very large (28 times greater in one example). However, a factor that complicates design is that, since diffusion of hydrogen to a crack tip is time-dependent, low frequency stress fluctuation is generally worse in

accelerating crack growth than rapid cycling over the same stress range.

This leads a key point in design of hydrogen pipelines: the first consideration must be how the pipeline will be operated. In this regard, large but slow variations in pressure are likely to have a disproportionate impact on crack growth and hence, pipeline life. Olivier likened this to the wear of car tyres. One ‘burn-out’ can reduce the remaining life by more than a year’s normal driving.

In the past, the design of the existing shorter-range hydrogen pipelines has typically been based on pressure vessel design codes for operation within the elastic range. This is not economic for long pipelines. Instead, these must be designed on limit state principles, particularly resistance to accidental events. This is where fracture control becomes a critical factor.

Olivier then turned to the topic of running fracture in pipelines, considering whether an accidental penetration of the pipeline can grow catastrophically. The two types of running fracture are ductile (crack growth rate less than 300m/s) and brittle (500 to 1000 m/s). Generally, because hydrogen embrittlement depends on diffusion, hydrogen will not change running fracture from ductile to brittle.

In principle, the same applies when hydrogen is blended as significant component of natural gas mixtures for

transport using existing long-distance gas pipelines. However, it is essential to understand the properties of the steel from which the pipeline was made. Steels manufactured today are much cleaner than steels commonly used in pipelines 30 or 40 years ago. These older steels typically have more and less uniformly distributed carbides, around which hydrogen can accumulate. Oliver referred briefly to testing methods, noting the preference for rising displacement methods for testing for crack growth.

Before answering questions from the audience, Oliver finished the presentation by highlighting the

critical importance of applying Safety in Design principles. This involves determining safety class and safety zones and requires full-scale testing to calibrate modelling. He stressed that the starting point for safe design must be the intended operation, and a specific safe operation procedure must be an integral output from the design process.

In conclusion, Olivier noted that with pipe wall thickness design for hydrogen pipelines being governed by crack growth, integrity management might need to rely more on prediction than inspection. This points to a key area for future research.

L to R: Ehsan Karaji, Olivier Royet, Dr Sofia Hazarabedian

VIC/TAS Branch Report Borland Forum

Source: Rob O'Donnell - VIC/TAS State Treasurer

The Borland Forum honours the memory of Dr Doug Borland who made a significant contribution to the study and teaching of metallurgy and materials engineering during his long and distinguished career. This Forum showcases high calibre postgraduate students nominated by their tertiary institution, who give a short presentation on their materialsrelated research project. The top presenter receives the Borland Forum Award and a cash prize.

This year the Borland Forum was hosted by Deakin University (Institute of Frontier Materials & the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment). Once again Victoria’s five top Universities were represented. The presentations were of a high calibre and represented a broad mix of materials research activities. The presenters and their respective topics were as follows: Deakin University – Manesha Fernando “Value Addition to Reclaimed Carbon Fibers: A Shift Towards Sustainable Waste Management”

RMIT University – Jason Rogers “Aggregate Surface Defect Fatigue Degradation of Powder Bed Fusion Ti6Al-4V Allo”

Monash University – Enamul Haque “When Mysterious ‘Lossless’ Electrical

Energy Transport in Topological Insulators Becomes a Mirage”

University of Melbourne – Amal Jayawardena “Novel Anti-Microbial Agents vs Superbugs: Molecular Simulations Reveal Bacterial Cell Death

Swinburne University of Technology –Sameera Mudiyanselage “Reinforcing the Future: Steel Fibres Transforming Concrete Roads”

A large crowd of MA members, postgrad students and numerous friends/ colleagues came from as far afield as Geelong and enjoyed a period of networking and discussions over a selection of warm savouries and refreshments provided by the host

Rosy Borland (Doug’s daughter) was joined by two other independent judges from private industry to determine the best presentation on the night. Whilst the competition was fierce due to the high quality of the science/ presentations, the judges determined a winner and awarded the Borland Forum Award to Amal Jayawardena from the University of Melbourne.

Materials Australia would like to express our appreciation to Deakin University for hosting an excellent evening.

The Borland Forum winner Amal Jayawardena with MA Vic/Tas Branch representative Professor Mark Easton.

All 5 Borland Forum presenters.

VIC/TAS Branch Report

2024 Combined Societies End of Year Function hosted by Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick (Intellectual Property Firm).

Source: Rob O'Donnell - VIC/TAS State Treasurer

Since 2011, Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick (Intellectual Property firm) have generously sponsored the Materials Australia’s End of Year function in Victoria. This is a free event opened to members of sister professional societies. The function has become a highlight of the combined technical calendar for each of the participating professional bodies.

The EOY evenings present an opportunity for attendees to enjoy an informal mix of networking, social conversation, and technical presentations (related to new technologies or new challenges in technical areas), conducted over some first class refreshments provided by the hosts all while enjoying a spectacular view over the north-eastern end of Melbourne afforded from the POF premises at 333 Collins St.

The 2024 event treated the audience to the following presentations:

• Prof Geoff Brooks - Professor of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology

• Presentation Title: “Status of Green Steel Research in Australia”

• Prof Ivan Cole – President, Materials Australia Vic/Tas Branch.

• Presentation Title: “Snapshots from a Career and a guess at the future”

Professor Brooks gave and enthusiastic presentation covering the array of challenges confronting the steel industry in its efforts to develop green processing technologies while Professor Cole explained the development of aerosol dispersal maps and how such maps describing the dispersal of salt rich atmospheres across the Australian continent can account for, and even predict, many corrosion issues experienced by Australian industry and consumers alike, including the cause of the failures that led to building collapses during the relatively mild earthquake in Newcastle, 1989. Professor Cole then introduced the wonder of carbon nano-dots for water sensing and water quality and the future of computational modelling and machine learning in materials discovery.

Once again, Materials Australia extends its appreciation to Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick for hosting the event and to all the attendees from the various materials related societies and associations who took the time to attend.

Professor Geoff Brooks presenting on green steel research.

Professor Ivan Cole (President MA Vic/Tas Branch) presenting on corrosion/materials research he has undertaken during his extensive career.

Dr Edwin Patterson (POF) introducing the evening.

NSW Branch Report

Source: Alan Todhunter - NSW State President

ARC SEAM Roadshow

In late October, the ARC SEAM Roadshow was held in Parramatta and Wollongong. The event highlighted the facilities, achievements and successes of the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre on Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials.

The presentation provided information on the background for the establishment of SEAM, the professional model by which SEAM interacts with industry, universities and national labs, as well as case histories. Many thanks to Christopher Berndt and Robert McMahon for facilitating the event.

Recent Student Events

The New South Wales Branch also hosted two student-centred activities in recent months.

Following the success of the CMatP presentations, the NSW Branch held an online session for final year students working on a PhD in materials science. The diversity in research topics reflected the scope of their supervisor's interests and offered insight into the research areas by students. The students who presented were from UNSW, the University of Wollongong, University of Sydney, and Western Sydney University.

Plans are set to make this an annual event. The presentations offer multiple benefits: updating industry on the range of exciting projects being undertaken, as well as the opportunity to give students feedback.

The second recent student event was a hybrid face-to-face and online presentation by students in their honours year or first year of postgraduate study. Nine students presented their research and six other students presented posters. Students were from the University of Newcastle, UNSW, the University of Wollongong, the University of Sydney, and Western Sydney University.

The students all received one-year membership to Materials Australia and have been encouraged to continue a career in materials. Many thanks are extended to the judges and the sponsors.

Looking Ahead

The New South Wales Branch is pleased to announce that it has three new committee members, comprising Andrew Gregory, Ali Hadigheh, and Robert Small. They will join our existing committee in planning a calendar of local activities for 2025.

The New South Wales Branch looks forward to a successful year ahead.

Students and judges at the Student Presentation

All students who participated in the presentation received one-year student membership of Materials Australia.

The judges at the student presentation and poster competition, from left to right Dr Ehsan Farabi, Bob Small and Ally Bradley .

Founded in 2019 as a partnership between three universities, SEAM’s mission is to help solve critical surface engineering problems faced by industry, while training up talented industry-ready graduates for our future

Superhydrophobic Coatings Reducing Boiler Slag Deposition

Working with SCG Chemicals (SCGC) and taking advantage of Swinburne University’s suspension plasma spray (SPS) facility, (the leading facility available in the southern hemisphere) SEAM PhD Kritkasem (Kris) Khantisopon used a SPS process to mimic natural structures and create a superhydrophobic coating that greatly reduces slag deposition in a simulated biomass fired boiler. The undulating surface was created by the SPS process. Traditional slurry spray processes will have difficulties making this kind of structure During the fabrication process, the SPS coating deposition is instant, whereas slurry spray coatings can take days to complete Combined with the over 12% reduction in slag deposition weight demonstrated in this study, there is potential for significant savings in costs associated with cleaning of boilers and increased lifespan Now a PhD, Dr Kris Khantisopon is working at Swinburne as a Materials Characterisation Technician

Cracking the Code on Quality Coatings

A combined project with industry partner LaserBond conducted by SEAM PhD student Md Jonaet Ansari has allowed researchers to develop an optimized analytical approach utilizing an acoustic emission (AE) defect detection technique to identify process-induced cracks during the laser metal deposition (LMD, also known as Laser Cladding) process The developed signal processing algorithm analyses acoustic signals generated throughout the deposition process, enabling the immediate identification of cracking events as they occur To validate this method, components were longitudinally sectioned, allowing direct comparison between physical crack locations and their acoustic signals By pinpointing the specific locations and timings of cracks, manufacturers gained the capability to understand precisely when and where cracks occur in the manufactured components. The real-time detection of cracks enables manufacturers to adjust their processes as necessary, thereby reducing the likelihood of producing defective parts and potentially saving time and resources in post-production quality inspections.

Machine Learning for Manufacturing

Cold spray is an advanced additive manufacturing technology used for producing near-net shape parts, as well as for surface coating and repair. It is a layer-by-layer deposition process that can be applied to a wide range of metals without melting them during the process Titomic’s TKF AM System harnesses cold spray technology (together with software and robotics) to produce high-performance metals at unprecedented speed and scale – and with improved safety and sustainability . SEAM PhD student Martin Eberle teamed with SEAM industry partner Titomic to elevate their TKF cold-spray process to the next level - integrating advanced sensors to provide critical process insights in real-time, paired with a data analysis pipeline powered by machine learning, and all validated by testing and analytical capabilities at SEAM This collaboration has expedited development and fortified quality, unlocking high-value applications and access to global markets. After submitting his PhD at Swinburne University of Technology, Martin is now an Engineer at Titomic.

CMatP Profile: Premika Govindaraj

Premika Govindaraj is a postdoctoral research fellow with a PhD in Materials Engineering from Swinburne University of Technology. She is skilled in developing and innovating applications using smart nanomaterials.

Currently, her research focuses on developing smart self-sensing composites that are multifunctional. As a researcher with industrial expertise, she is keen to translate materials from lab to market.

Where do you work and describe your job.

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mechanical and Product Design Engineering at Swinburne University, working in the Smart Materials Lab. My research, in collaboration with an industry on an Australian Research Council Linkage project, focuses on developing graphene-enabled smart composites for structural health monitoring. By combining academic knowledge and industry experience, I am advancing smart composite materials with innovative functionalities. My interdisciplinary work includes expertise in sensor configuration in structural composites and image reconstruction, enabling the development of 2D spatial pressure mapping

In my role, I explore novel functional materials, design and conduct experiments, analyse data, and collaborate closely with a team to investigate applications for smart materials in areas like flexible electronics, next-generation composite manufacturing, and multifunctional composites. I also contribute to grant proposals, mentor students, and present research at conferences to advance progress in the field.

What inspired you to choose a career in materials science and engineering?

Coming from a family of engineers, I was drawn to the engineering early on, and my bachelor’s degree in Polymer Engineering solidified my interest in understanding materials on a deeper level. I realised that combining polymer engineering with materials science would allow me to pursue innovative research that bridges theory with practical applications. This blend aligns perfectly with my passion for exploring and developing materials with unique properties, particularly in fields like smart composite materials, where I see enormous potential to create impactful solutions.

Who or what has influenced you most professionally?

My greatest professional influences have been my teachers, my former boss in industry, and the inspiring women in STEM. My teachers fostered my curiosity and resilience in engineering, while my industry boss demonstrated the importance of practical problemsolving and the impact of applying research to real-world challenges. Additionally, seeing women excel and lead in STEM has inspired me to pursue my goals with confidence, underscoring the importance of representation and mentorship in the scientific community.

Which has been the most challenging job/ project you’ve worked on to date and why?

The most challenging project I've worked on was in industry, where I developed a hot runner system for a family mould that incorporated two different materials. Each project I've undertaken, whether in industry or

academia, has required specialised knowledge and presented unique challenges, but this one stood out. I had to blend materials expertise with design knowledge to create a manufacturable runner layout that met both functional and practical requirements. By using mould flow analysis, I systematically examined runner imbalance and shear-induced effects due to material properties. This project demanded close attention to detail in runner design, pressurevolume-temperature characteristics and manufacturing feasibility, which ultimately led to a successful design.

In academic research, a major challenge in the materials field is achieving reproducibility and scalability. I am actively addressing this issue by determining the optimal environments for materials and characterizing them accordingly. When developing composite materials with sensing capabilities, I ensure that the fundamental properties of the base composites are not compromised by the integration of smart nanomaterials. For example, in one of my current projects focused on enhancing sensing capabilities for structural health monitoring, I chose to implement a point-of-care and detection pattern configuration for large-area sensing, rather than converting the entire surface into a sensing medium. Although this approach helps maintain the core properties of the composites while still achieving effective sensing, it presents specialised knowledge challenges in many areas.

What does being a CMatP mean to you?

Being a CMatP marks my commitment to professional growth, and it validates my excellence in the field of materials science and engineering. I view this credential as a valuable opportunity to expand my skills and address evolving challenges in my multidisciplinary research.

What gives you the most satisfaction at work?

I’m seeing a tangible outcome from my research work, and it is incredibly fulfilling to know that my work

advances the scientific knowledge and the practical solutions. Furthermore, the opportunities to enhance my skills, share knowledge, and mentor others provide a rewarding sense of purpose in my professional journey.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

The best advice I've ever received was from my manager and mentor, Dr. Nishar Hameed: "Aim for the sky to reach the mountains. Embrace every opportunity and take feedback

from each failure." This guidance has encouraged me to set ambitious goals and continuously learn from every experience.

What are you optimistic about?

I am optimistic about the transformative impact of AI in our rapidly changing technological landscape. I believe that the unique intersection of materials science and AI will catalyse the next significant advancements in material design, discovery, and application. I am confident that smart nanomaterials and its composites will play a crucial role in harnessing the potential of AI in material applications.

What have been your greatest professional and personal achievements?

In 2020, I was honoured to receive the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) Postgraduate Research Award (PGRA) scholarship during my PhD, which granted me access to the world-class facilities and expertise at ANSTO. Through this

award, I utilised the Bilby Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) and FarInfrared Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy to conduct fundamental research on understanding the alignment of graphene in polymer composites under magnetic fields and to analyse the THz absorption characteristics.

My greatest personal achievement was achieving both my master’s and PhD degrees on scholarships, a goal I set after covering the high tuition fees for my bachelor’s degree. During my PhD, I also balanced my studies with having two children. I believe my diligence and perseverance were key to reaching these academic milestones.

What are the top three things on your “bucket list”?

Take a memorable journey in “Kovai Xpress" (caravan) around Australia to explore diverse landscapes with my family.

Share my passion for materials and inspire others on a TED stage.

Bringing my materials research to realworld applications.

Creating digital twin of graphene coated surface uisng Electrical impedance tomography.

Left: Working on Rheometer

Our Certified Materials Professionals (CMatPs)

The following members of Materials Australia have been certified by the Certification Panel of Materials Australia as Certified Materials Professionals.

They can now use the post nominal ‘CMatP‘ after their name. These individuals have demonstrated the required level of qualification and experience to obtain this status. They are also required to regularly maintain their professional standing through ongoing education and commitment to the materials community.

We now have nearly 200 Certified Materials Professionals, who are being called upon to lead activities within Materials Australia. These activities include heading special interest group networks, representation on Standards Australia Committees, and representing Materials Australia at international conferences and society meetings.

A/Prof Alexey Glushenkov ACT

Dr Syed Islam ACT

Prof Yun Liu ACT

Dr Avik Sarker ACT

Dr Olga Zinovieva ACT

Prof Klaus-Dieter Liss CHINA

Mr Debdutta Mallik MALAYSIA

Prof. Jamie Quinton NEW ZEALAND

Dr Amir Abdolazizi NSW

Ms Maree Anast NSW

Dr Edohamen Awannegbe NSW

Ms Megan Blamires NSW

Prof John Canning NSW

Dr Phillip Carter NSW

A/Prof Igor Chaves NSW

Dr Evan Copland NSW

Mr Peter Crick NSW

Mr Seigmund Jacob Dollolasa NSW

Prof Madeleine Du Toit NSW

Dr Ehsan Farabi NSW

Prof Michael Ferry NSW

Dr Yixiang Gan NSW

Mr Michele Gimona NSW

Dr Bernd Gludovatz NSW

Dr Andrew Gregory NSW

Mr Buluc Guner NSW

Dr Ali Hadigheh NSW

Dr Alan Hellier NSW

Prof Mark Hoffman NSW

Mr Simon Krismer NSW

Prof Jamie Kruzic NSW

Prof Huijun Li NSW

Dr Yanan Li NSW

A/Prof Xiaopeng Li NSW

Dr Hong Lu NSW

Dr Tim Lucey NSW

Mr Rodney Mackay-Sim NSW

Dr Warren McKenzie

NSW

Mr Edgar Mendez NSW

Mr Sam Moricca

NSW

Dr Ranming Niu NSW

Dr Anna Paradowska NSW

Prof Elena Pereloma NSW

A/Prof Sophie Primig

Dr Gwenaelle Proust

Miss Zhijun Qiu

Dr Blake Regan

Mr Ehsan Rahafrouz

Dr Mark Reid

Prof Simon Ringer

Dr Richard Roest

Dr Bernd Schulz

Dr Luming Shen

Mr Sasanka Sinha

Mr Robert Small

Mr Frank Soto

Mr Michael Stefulj

Mr Carl Strautins

Mr Alan Todhunter

Ms Judy Turnbull

Mr Jeremy Unsworth

Dr Philip Walls

Dr Alan Whittle

Dr Richard Wuhrer

Dr Vladislav Yakubov

Mr Deniz Yalniz

NSW

Dr Michael Bermingham QLD

Mr Michael Chan QLD

Prof Richard Clegg QLD

Mr Andrew Dark QLD

Dr Ian Dover QLD

Mr Oscar Duyvestyn QLD

Mr John Edgley QLD

Dr Jayantha Epaarachchi QLD

Dr Jeff Gates QLD

Mr Payam Ghafoori QLD

Mr Mo Golbahar QLD

Dr David Harrison QLD

A/Prof Mainul Islam QLD

Dr Janitha Jeewantha QLD

Dr Damon Kent QLD

Mr Jaewon Lee QLD

Mr Jeezreel Malacad QLD

Mr Sadiq Nawaz QLD

Dr Saeed Nemati QLD

Mr Bhavin Panchal QLD

Mr Bob Samuels QLD

Mr Ashley Bell SA

Ms Ingrid Brundin SA

Mr Neville Cornish SA

A/Prof Colin Hall SA

Mr Brendan Dunstall SA

Mr Nikolas Hildebrand SA

Mr Mikael Johansson SA

Mr Rahim Kurji SA

Mr Andrew Sales SA

Dr Thomas Schläfer SA

Dr Christiane Schulz SA

Prof Nikki Stanford SA

Prof Youhong Tang SA

Mr Kok Toong Leong SINGAPORE

Dr Muhammad Awais Javed VIC

Dr Ossama Badr VIC

Dr Christian Brandl VIC

Dr Ivan Cole VIC

Dr John Cookson VIC

Miss Ana Celine Del Rosario VIC

Dr Yvonne Durandet VIC

Dr Mark Easton VIC

Dr Rajiv Edavan VIC

Dr Reza Emdad VIC

Dr Peter Ford VIC

Mr Bruce Ham VIC

Ms Edith Hamilton VIC

Dr Shu Huang VIC

Mr Long Huynh VIC

Dr Jithin Joseph VIC

Mr. Akesh Babu Kakarla VIC

Mr Russell Kennedy VIC

Mr Daniel Lim VIC

Dr Amita Iyer VIC

Mr Robert Le Hunt VIC

Dr Thomas Ludwig VIC

Dr Roger Lumley VIC

Mr Michael Mansfield VIC

Dr Gary Martin VIC

Dr Siao Ming (Andrew) Ang VIC

Mr Glen Morrissey VIC

Dr Khurram Munir

Dr Mostafa Nikzad VIC

Dr Chrysoula Pandelidi VIC

Dr Eustathios Petinakis

Dr Leon Prentice

Dr Dong Qiu

Mr John Rea

Miss Reyhaneh Sahraeian VIC

Dr Christine Scala VIC

Mr Khan Sharp VIC

Dr Vadim Shterner VIC

Mr Mark Stephens VIC

Dr Graham Sussex VIC

Dr Kishore Venkatesan VIC

Mr Pranay Wadyalkar VIC

Dr Wei Xu VIC

Dr Ramdayal Yadav VIC

Dr Sam Yang VIC

Dr Matthew Young VIC

Mr Angelo Zaccari VIC

Dr Yuman Zhu VIC

Mr Mohsen Sabbagh Alvani WA

Dr Murugesan Annasamy WA

Mr Graeme Brown WA

Mr John Carroll WA

Mr Sridharan Chandran WA

Mr Conrad Classen WA

Mr Chris Cobain WA

Mr Adam Dunning WA

Mr Stuart Folkard WA

Mr Toby Garrod WA

Prof Vladimir Golovanevskiy WA

Mr Chris Grant WA

Mr Mark Hamilton WA

Dr Paul Huggett WA

Mr Ivo Kalcic WA

Mr Srikanth Kambhampati WA

Mr Ehsan Karaji WA

Mr Ka-Seng Leung WA

Mr Mathieu Lancien WA

Dr Evelyn Ng WA

Mr Deny Nugraha WA

Mrs Mary Louise Petrick WA

Mr Johann Petrick WA

Mr Biju Kurian Pottayil WA

Dr Mobin Salasi WA

Mr Daniel Swanepoel WA

Why You Should Become a Certified Materials Professional

Source: Materials Australia

Accreditation as a Certified Materials Professional (CMatP) gives you recognition, not only amongst your peers, but within the materials engineering industry at large. You will be recognised as a materials scientist who maintains professional integrity, keeps up to date with developments in technology, and strives for continued personal development.

The CMatP, like a Certified Practicing Accountant or CPA, is promoted globally as the recognised standard for professionals working in the field of materials science.

There are now well over one hundred CMatPs who lead activities within Materials Australia. These activities include heading special interest group networks, representation on Standards Australia Committees, and representing Materials Australia at international conferences and society meetings.

Benefits of Becoming a CMatP

• A Certificate of Membership, often presented by the State Chapter, together with a unique Materials Australia badge.

• Access to exclusive CMatP resources and website content.

• The opportunity to attend CMatP only networking meetings.

• Promotion through Materials Australia magazine, website, social media and other public channels.

• A Certified Materials Professional can use the post nominal CMatP.

• Materials Australia will actively promote the CMatP status to the community and employers and internationally, through our partner organisations.

• A CMatP may be requested to represent Materials Australia throughout Australia and overseas, with Government, media and other important activities.

• A CMatP may be offered an opportunity as a mentor for student members.

• Networking directly with other CMatPs who have recognised levels of qualifications and experience.

• The opportunity to assume leadership roles in Special Interest Networks, to assist in the facilitation of new knowledge amongst peers and members.

What is a Certified Materials Professional?

A Certified Materials Professional is a person to whom Materials Australia has issued a certificate declaring they have attained all required professional standards. They are recognised as demonstrating excellence, and

possessing special knowledge in the practice of materials science and engineering, through their profession or workplace. A CMatP is prepared to share their knowledge and skills in the interest of others, and promote excellence and innovation in all their professional endeavours.

The Criteria

The criteria for recognition as a CMatP are structured around the applicant demonstrating substantial and sustained practice in a field of materials science and engineering. The criteria are measured by qualifications, years of employment and relevant experience, as evidenced by the applicant’s CV or submitted documentation.

Certification will be retained as long as there is evidence of continuing professional development and adherence to the Code of Ethics and Professional behaviour.

Further Information

Contact Materials Australia today: on +61 3 9326 7266 or imea@materialsaustralia.com.au or visit our website: www.materialsaustralia.com.au

New Origami-Inspired System Turns Flat-Pack Tubes Into Strong Building Materials

Source: Sally Wood

Engineers at RMIT University have designed an innovative tubular structural system that can be packed flat for easier transport and pop up into strong building materials. This breakthrough is made possible by a self-locking system inspired by curved-crease origami — a technique that uses curved crease lines in paper folding.

Lead researchers, Dr Jeff (Ting-Uei) Lee and Distinguished Professor Mike (Yi Min) Xie, said bamboo, which has internal structures providing natural reinforcement, inspired the tube design.

“This self-locking system is the result of an intelligent geometric design,” said Lee from RMIT’s School of Engineering.

“Our invention is suitable for largescale use — a panel, weighing just 1.3 kg, made from multiple tubes can easily support a 75 kg person.”

Flat-pack tubes are already widely used in engineering and scientific applications, such as in biomedical devices, aerospace structures, robotics and civil construction, including pop-up buildings as part of disaster recovery efforts. The new system makes these tubes quicker and easier to assemble, with the capability to automatically transform into a strong, self-locked state.

“Our research not only opens up new possibilities for innovative and multifunctional structural designs, but it can also significantly improve existing deployable systems,” said Xie from the School of Engineering.

“When NASA deploys solar arrays, for example, the booms used are tubes that were packed flat before being unfurled in space,” Lee said. “These tubes are hollow though, so they could potentially deform under certain forces in space. With our new design, these booms could be a stronger structure.”

The research is published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Other contributors to this work include Drs Hongjia Lu, Jiaming Ma and Ngoc San Ha from RMIT’s School of Engineering and Associate Professor Joseph Gattas from the University of Queensland.

Xie said their smart algorithm enabled control over how the structure behaved under forces by changing the tube orientations. “With our origamiinspired innovation, flat-pack tubes are not only easy to transport, but they also become strong enough to withstand external forces when in use. The tube is also self-locking, meaning its strong shape is securely locked in place without the need for extra mechanisms or human intervention.”

Next Steps

The team will continue to improve the design and explore new possibilities for its development.

“We aim to extend the self-locking feature to different tube shapes and test how the tubes perform under various forces, such as bending and twisting,” Lee said. “We are also exploring new materials and manufacturing methods to create smaller, more precise tubes.”

The team is developing tubes that can deploy themselves for a range of applications without needing much manual effort.

“We plan to improve our smart algorithm to make the tubes even more adaptable and efficient for different real-world situations,” Xie said.

Top: Dr Jeff Lee with a flat-pack tube. Image credit: Will Wright, RMIT. Above: Distinguished Professor Mike Xie (left) and Dr Jeff Lee. Image credit: Will Wright, RMIT. Below: Members of the research team (L to R): Ngoc San Ha, Jiaming Ma, Mike Xie, Jeff Lee and Hongjia Lu at RMIT University’s Bundoora East campus. Image credit: Will Wright, RMIT.

Unlocking the Secrets of Lithium Battery Powder Impurities

Source: ATA Scientific

The surge in demand for lithium-ion batteries, driven by the rapid adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy storage solutions, has placed a premium on the quality and efficiency of battery materials. At the heart of this technological revolution lies a challenge: identifying and analysing impurities in lithium battery powder to ensure optimal performance, safety and longevity. This article highlights how the Thermo Scientific Phenom ParticleX Desktop SEM is addressing this critical need.

The Importance of Impurity Analysis

Lithium-ion batteries are recognised for their high energy density and long cycle life, which make them popular for use, however, battery safety and durability can be compromised by impurity particles that may cause internal short circuits and thermal runaway. These short circuits may occur when large-size impurity particles mechanically pierce the separator or when metal impurity particles in the high-potential cathode undergo a dissolutionprecipitation process. Copper (Cu), characterised by its low dissolution potential and commonly generated in raw material manufacturing, poses a high risk of dissolving on the cathode side, diffusing to the anode side, growing and depositing along the separator’s pores, connecting the anode and cathode, and causing micro short circuits. Manually identifying impurity particles is a time-consuming and labour-intensive task. To address this issue, Thermo Scientific Perception Software reduces the time per particle analysed to less than one second, providing quick results and generating detailed, conclusive reports.

Automated Impurity Analysis

Perception Software integrates SEM control and automates particle analysis, facilitating the entire particle analysis process. Analysing impurity particles takes only a few steps from loading the sample into the sample holder, setting the analysis area, loading the recipe and initiating the analysis for impurity particle analysis. This can run overnight, unsupervised and produce an automatically generated report. The criteria for analysing particles of interest can be defined, such as specifying the size parameters (diameter, aspect ratio, etc.) of particles to be analysed and their composition. Users can analyse impurity particles for e.g. larger than 15 micrometres in diameter within LiFePO4, or particles larger than 5 micrometres in diameter within NCM powder. During runtime, particles falling outside the specified size range are automatically skipped.

A recent publication “Automated impurity analysis for lithium-ion batteries with Perception Software” showed results from a sample prepared by mixing

than 5 µm on the sample.

Table 1 reports whether particles within different size ranges meet the specified standards. Rows represent particle categories, while columns display the size distribution of particles. Red, yellow, and green indicate particle conductivity. At the bottom of the table, “CCC”

Table 1: Results

represents the defined cleanliness standard. The results show cleanness level for column D is 9, exceeding the set value of 8. Therefore, the bottom section of the table is marked in red and displays “Does not pass specification.”

Table 2 reports whether each particle category meets the requirements and can be customised by limiting the particle count. The result shows that 1,260 iron-rich particles and 8,693 Cu-rich particles rich were detected, exceeding the maximum acceptable particle count of 100. As a result, the bottom row of the table is marked in red, indicating that it did not meet the requirements.

Par$cle limits

To investigate detected impurities, the particle information table displays representative particles rich in Cu or Fe, presenting particle images, mask images, particle positions, morphology information and labelled spectra. In the Perception Software UI, particles can be revisited for further analysis and confirmation. The report software provides table and chart plugins to display particle data that can be customised, saved as a template and integrated into the particle analysis recipe. Alongside each run, a .pxz file containing all particle information is generated, making it possible to integrate the analysis results into data management software.

Particle Information

Conclusion

Metal impurity particle analysis is attracting increasing attention in the battery industry, especially after the implementation of the Chinese standard GB/T 41704-2022, which has streamlined the analysis process. By ensuring the quality and cleanliness of raw materials and the manufacturing process, potential internal short circuits caused by metal impurities can be effectively minimised. Perception Software automates the impurity particle analysis process, enhancing measurement efficiency and data reliability. The information on impurity particle morphology, composition, and classification aids in tracing the source of impurities and improving production process optimisation. Furthermore, Perception Software can automatically generate reports, providing immediate results on whether quality control requirements are met. By adopting Perception Software’s automated analysis solution, users can enhance quality control processes and ensure the safety and reliability of lithium-ion batteries.

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References:

[1] Thermo Fisher Scientific. (n.d.). Impurity analysis of lithium battery powder using automated SEM/EDS particle characterization. RJL Micro & Analytic. Retrieved from https://www.rjl-microanalytic.de/wpcontent/uploads/Thermo-ParticleX-Impurity-Analysis-Lithium-BatteryPowder.pdf

Table 2 reports whether each par9cle category meets the requirements and can be customised by limi9ng the par9cle count. The result shows that 1,260 iron-rich par9cles and 8,693 Cu-rich par9cles rich were detected, exceeding the maximum acceptable par9cle count of 100. As a result, the bo4om row of the table is marked in red, indica9ng that it did not meet the requirements.

Table 2: Particle Limits

Polariton Laser Displays Surprising Purity

Source: Sally Wood

A laser based on exciton-polaritons, hybrid particles of light and matter, may boost precision laser technology to another level.

A team from the Quantum Science and Technology (QST) Department and FLEET found polariton lasers have unexpectedly high spectral purity. This quality, combined with their extremely low power requirements and very small footprint, means they could potentially have an important role in reducing the energy consumption of lasers used in optical communications, PhD scholar Bianca Rae Fabricante said.

“I thought I was just making a commonplace measurement of the laser linewidth, but to then discover the spectral purity was on par with existing technology was exciting,” said Fabricante, who is a member of QST and FLEET, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies.

Fabricante is the lead author in the publication of the research, in the journal Optica. High spectral purity means that a laser emits a very narrow band of frequencies, which indicates exceptional stability – a sortafter quality for applications.

Polariton lasers were first demonstrated over two decades ago, and their low power characteristics were quickly recognised.

This is because polariton laser light originates from particles that are already in a coherent quantum state, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). In contrast, conventional lasers rely on the coherent triggering of a collection of individual atoms that have been excited to a high energy state – requiring start-up energy that polariton lasers don’t need.

Polariton laser spectral purity was not expected to be remarkable: scientists were aware that alongside the BEC, there was always a collection of other particles that were not behaving coherently, and it was assumed these incoherent particles would introduce significant noise to the polariton laser

and degrade the purity of its emission.

However, other published results suggesting that polariton lasers might have good spectral purity prompted the group to investigate more closely.

Using a polariton laser made from a high-quality sample of ultrathin semiconductor sandwiched between two mirrors, they chose a different method from previous work to measure the spectral purity (as quantified in the related properties coherence time and linewidth).

Rather than a Michelson interferometer, which hinges on averaging that can wash out precision, the team used a FabryPerot interferometer. To their surprise the new method revealed that the line width was 56 MHz or 0.24 µeV, ten times smaller than previously published results. This places polariton lasers on par with the current leading technology, vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELS).

“Polariton lasers are potentially better than VCSELS for low-energy applications since they can operate at lower powers,” Dr Mateusz Król said.

A narrow linewidth means a long coherence time, in this case at least 5.7 nanoseconds.

This is enough time to perform, in principle, thousands of successive operations on the source of the laser, a macroscopic quantum state of condensed exciton-polaritons. This is a critical step for quantum information processing, the leader of the research Dr Eliezer Estrecho said.

"Our work not only pushes the boundaries of exciton-polariton laser technology but also opens up new avenues for utilising exciton-polaritons

for classical and quantum computing."

Polariton lasers may hold more surprises. The current measurement pushes the linewidth measurement to its resolution limit – finer measurement techniques could reveal an even narrower linewidth.

“Polariton lasers are predicted to exhibit interesting properties because the underlying particles interact with each other,” said Dr Estrecho.

“For example, the polariton BEC itself is predicted to be in a squeezed state, a quantum state with noise lower than the standard quantum limit, which is useful for many light-based quantum technologies. Measuring the linewidth is one way of measuring phase noise, so this research is really one of the first steps towards understanding the state.”

As researchers gain a deeper understanding of polariton lasers, their unique characteristics will define the uses they can be put to, group leader Professor Elena Ostrovskaya said.

"Ever since their discovery, lowthreshold polariton lasers that do not require a population inversion, have been waiting for practical applications. Our study suggests that such applications can be broader than previously thought."

Council officers and the RMIT research team were present for the pour of the coffee concrete for the footpath trial in Gisborne. Image Credit: Carelle Mulawa-Richards, RMIT University.

FIVE COMPELLING REASONS TO USE THE PHENOM DESKTOP SEM

Ease of use is what the Phenom Pharos name has come to mean. All the capabilities of a floor-standing FEG-SEM have been housed in a tabletop model with the simplicity that Phenom desktop SEMs are known for.

1. Super fast, sharp, high contrast images

Speeds up project work and provides high -end imaging and analysis critical for many fields from materials, forensics to industrial manufacturing and even life sciences.

2. Unsurpassed user experience

Easy to use without extensive training or SEM experience means the Phenom is accessible to everyone.

3. Multiple detectors reveal finer details

Fully integrated EDS and SE detector together with a low -kV beam (1 kV) allows thin contamination layers on the surface can be observed (Phenom Pharos).

4. Intuitive software with advanced automation

Simply click and go to work or use automated recipes with elemental mapping and line scan functionality.

5. Huge time and money saver

Provides rapid, multi -scale information in-house for process monitoring and improvement.

• Field Emission Gun (FEG) SEM with 1 - 20 kV range

• NEW STEM Sample Holder

• For

automated LUXOR sputter coaters reduce risk for sample damage

✓

MADE IN GERMANY

Phenom Particle X

Gold microparticles taken using Phenom Pharos

Sophie Primig, Alcoa Distinguished Professor at UNSW Sydney

Sophie Primig is currently an Alcoa Distinguished Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney. Her research contributions are in processing-structureproperty relationships of structural alloys. Sophie combines state-of-the-art experimental techniques such as multiscale correlative microscopy with mechanical testing and contemporary modelling approaches. Her research philosophy is to achieve a balance between fundamental discovery and industrial application.

She was awarded her PhD from Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria) in 2012. After a short period of postdoctoral research and a role as leader of a group with strong industry linkages at the same university, she moved to UNSW in 2015. She holds two UNSW Graduate Certificates in Education and Management. She is a passionate student-focused teacher, editor of the Journal of Materials Science, current TMS Phase Transformation Committee Chair and active Materials Australia member.

Sophie recently received a $1,205,600 Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships to investigate built-in 3D microstructural gradients into high-performance alloys. Commercially, this could lead to opportunities for domestic production of engineering parts, reducing reliance on international trade. Environmentally and socially, the project promises lower emissions through improved mechanical design and workforce training opportunities.

Describe your current job and how to do juggle your time?

I describe myself as a metallurgist and engineer who is passionate about building teams that can tackle current global challenges using materials science & engineering skills. I am currently an Alcoa Distinguished Professor in the School of Materials Science & Engineering at UNSW Sydney.

The mission of my research group (www.engineeringmicrosturctures.com) is the design and discovery of next generation structural metallic materials. We aim to achieve better properties than currently available by engineering of the microstructure of alloys, via conventional thermo-mechanical such as forging or advanced processing such additive manufacturing (AM) routes. Our research philosophy is to achieve a balance between fundamental discovery and industrial application. We are most well-known for our research on Ni-based superalloys, stainless steels, and Ti-alloys for aerospace, energy, tooling, and defence.

I am a passionate university lecturer although my current teaching load is low. I have recently been awarded a research-focused Future Fellowship by the Australian Research Council that I will start in early 2025. My Fellowship is on a current hot-topic in AM, aiming to engineer gradient microstructures for unlocking superior and site-specific materials properties. This was partly inspired by the unusual site-specific microstructure evolution my group encountered in a stainless steel that was 3D printed using a concentric laser powder bed fusion scan (see Figure 1).

I am equally passionate about leadership and mentorship. Some of my current roles include editor of Journal of Materials Science and chair of the TMS Phase Transformations committee. I also lead the Transport and Infrastructure theme group in my School. I used to be active in Materials Australia (more on that later), although I am currently taking a break from that. One of my strategies to juggle my time is to avoid wearing too many different hats at the same time.

I would describe my job as diverse and occasionally challenging. However, leading with a diverse research group, traveling the world to collaborate with international leaders in my field, and tackling materials engineering challenges together with my industrial partners are some of the main reasons why I love my job.

How did you end up in your current job?

My first degree is a Master’s in Materials Science & Engineering with strong physical metallurgy focus from back in Austria where I grew up. The portrait photo (Figure 2) is from one of my many recent visits back home. I think enrolled into this program mainly because I was unable to make a choice between Physics, Chemistry and Maths. I went to Montanuniversität Leoben, a small but

prestigious mining and materials focused university. I was impressed by their low student-to-academic-ratio and high employability. I ended up staying in Leoben for fourteen years, as student assistant, then as MEng and PhD student, PostDoc, and finally in an academic role working closely with various local companies.

In 2015, I felt ready for new challenges in a much bigger university and moved to UNSW Sydney, initially as a Lecturer.

What has been the most productive period in your research career and why?

Although I was grateful for the new opportunity at UNSW, the following years were probably the hardest of my career. It seemed like that whatever I tried would fail, somehow. This is not unusual for a junior academic; especially given I had to start from scratch in a new country and university without any existing networks.

I tried hard to start new collaborations with industry and experienced my various first and unsuccessful attempts at getting funding for fundamental research. It seemed to take ages until my small new group started to produce anything publishable.

The hard groundwork paid off. Starting with the award of a DECRA Fellowship by the Australian Research Council in 2018, I was soon awarded several grants and fellowships, including a major five-year program on AM via the socalled AUSMURI program together with the University of Sydney and six great US-based universities. My next and more enjoyable challenge was to build a bigger and more diverse research group capable of achieving great outcomes in all those projects. I believe I have accomplished this.

What do you think are your most significant research accomplishments?

In my applied research, I have helped several national and international manufacturers of aerospace materials to tackle processability challenges such as cracking during forging, leading to poor yield and/or poor mechanical properties. Advancements in the understanding of processing-structureproperty relationships, often underpinned by through-process modelling, has enabled my industry partners to make superior products at lower cost, and their customers to design and build more fuelefficient aeroengines.

In my fundamental research, my group and I have explored the poorly understood physical metallurgy of AM processes that are highly non-equilibrium in nature. Our findings have usually been enabled by advanced multiscale characterisation and modelling. We started this research stream at the right time and place, roughly six years ago in Sydney where amazing characterisation facilities are available via Microscopy Australia. My leadership in AM has recently been recognised by the invitation to contribute a major chapter on the physical metallurgy of AM to the next edition of Hono & Laughlin ‘Physical Metallurgy’, a leading textbook in my discipline.

What are the big issues in your research area?

The perhaps biggest future challenge in my field is how we will continue to make progress in a world with increasingly limited resources but ever-growing demands for more and better engineering materials. If I had to pick my undergrad specialisation today, I believe I would go for process rather than physical metallurgy. A couple of decades ago, this meant learning about crushing and refining ores and understanding dirty blast furnaces. However, today it is time for the brightest minds of the next generation to reinvent these often >100 years old dirty and energyintensive metallurgical processes to make them net-zero.

How would you go about motivating an early career researcher who is going through a low point?

I was fortunate to have many great mentors at UNSW and beyond. One of the perhaps most useful tips in my early days in Australia was to get involved in a local professional organisation. I attended the annual NSW Materials Australia CMatP conference at UNSW in 2015, where I was recruited to join the NSW council. I later became a CMatP myself and was the NSW branch president from 2020-2022. An article about my research on Ni-based superalloys with a European partner company in the Materials Australia magazine in 2017 ended up being the basis for my first ARC Linkage grant with a local manufacturer.

Hence, my message to a struggling ECR would be around trying to pursue many different avenues that could potentially lead to success. If you are cut-out for a challenging but ultimately rewarding career in academia, good things will eventually start to happen as long as you keep trying hard.

Figure 1: Laser-powder bed fusion of 17-4 PH stainless steel leading to site-specific formation of (a) coarse versus fine grains and (b) austenite (FCC) versus ferrite (BCC) due to the thermal signature of (c) a concentric scan pattern. For more information and detailed discussion of the underlying phase transformation pathways, please refer to the original open access paper by M. Haines et al. in Additive Manufacturing (https://doi. org/10.1016/j.addma.2023.103686).

Bruker Introduces Most Advanced Benchtop Stylus Profilometer New Dektak Pro Expands Measurement Area and Accuracy for Critical Analyses

Source: Coherent Scientific

Bruker Corporation has announced the release of the Dektak ProTM stylus profilometer, the next-generation profiler in the industry-leading Dektak® product line. Incorporating over 55 years of innovation, the new benchtop system provides an expanded measurement area up to 200 mm of full-sample access for semiconductor applications, as well as a shortened time to results with improved user experience and measurement accuracy. Dektak Pro incorporates advancements that solidify the brand as the world’s most advanced stylus profiler, positioning it to address R&D, process development, and QA/QC present and future needs across a host of industrial and research markets.

“The name Dektak has become synonymous with stylus profiling, and for good reason. Hundreds of Dektak systems are installed around the world every year, proving an enduring need for this technology,” added Samuel Lesko, Senior Director and General Manager of Bruker’s Tribology, Stylus and Optical Metrology Business. “With Dektak Pro, we have taken the next step in measurement capability and ease of operation while maintaining the value and reliability that Dektak is so well known for, and I really look forward to seeing the many ways our customers will use the system in the years to come.”

About Dektak Pro

Widely utilised in microelectronics, semiconductor, display, solar, medical, and materials science markets, Dektak stylus profilers are an essential precision metrology instrument found in literally hundreds of production, research, and failure analysis facilities around the world. Dektak systems are employed in both 2D profilometry and 3D surface profiling applications to measure stress, nanometre film

thicknesses, and step heights with better than 4 angstrom repeatability. The new Dektak Pro introduces step height and stress measurement updates that expand its usage. A streamlined automatic step detection routine requires less user-defined parameters for a simplified analysis that reduces user-based variability. 2D stress measurement analysis is now more customizable than ever, allowing for user-defined areas and refining precision through artifact thresholds. Fast characterisation of wafer warpage and 3D stress analysis are also made possible by new automatic centring and wafer mapping features.

For further information please contact Coherent Scientific Pty Ltd sales@coherent.com.au www.coherent.com.au

Surface & Dimensional Analysis

Dektak Pro Stylus Proﬁlometer

Proven technology, enhanced performance

Unmatched accuracy and better than 4 Å repeatability

200mm stage option

Accelerated measurement and analysis speed

Tribology

Universal tribology platforms

Fast and cost-effective in-lab rapid screening of new friction materials

Optical Proﬁling

Next generation ContourX platforms

Improved optical resolution

Unmatched precision and repeatability

Nanoindentation

In-situ TEM/SEM nanomechanical instruments

Stand alone nanomechanical test systems

Wide range of environmental measurement options

High-resolution AFM Microscopes

New NanoScope 6 platforms, improved speed and data capability

High resolution for all applications, all environments

Advancing MicroED/3DED Analysis with Metro Counting Camera

Source: Arnab Chakraborty, Sales and Application Specialist, Coherent Scientific

The rise of electron microscopy techniques like microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) or three-dimensional electron diffraction (3DED) has opened new doors for studying beam-sensitive materials. A recent study highlights the use of the Metro electron counting camera from Gatan for MicroED/3DED experiments, showcasing its ability to perform under ultra-low electron doses.

The Need for Low-Dose Techniques

Traditional crystallography methods, like single-crystal x-ray diffraction, are often ineffective for nanoscale samples, such as the PPEA (9,10bis–(perchloro-phenyl)-ethynylanthracene) molecule. PPEA forms micrometer-long crystals with widths ranging from 100-200 nm, making them too small for conventional analysis. This makes electron microscopy an alternative choice but also challenging, as beam-sensitive materials such as PPEA are prone to structural damage during such analysis.

Figures A and B below illustrate the molecular structure and conformation of PPEA within its crystal structure:

UQ’s research team was awarded

A: Molecular structure of PPEA and its conformation within the crystal structure. Figure B: Confirmation within the crystal structure of the PPEA.

$390,000, over three years, in 2020, to develop the graphene aluminium ion technologeseaect in 2020.

To overcome these limitations, this study deployed the Metro camera in a transmission electron microscope (TEM), enabling high-quality imaging and diffraction to minimize sample degradation during data acquisition. The direct detection capability of the Metro camera was key, allowing for real-time electron counting with a low-dose approach. By reducing the dose rate to 0.0311 e-/A²/s, researchers achieved total dose rates of less than 2 e-/A²— essential for protecting delicate PPEA crystals during data collection.

from Gatan. This approach enhances our understanding of beam-sensitive materials and broadens the scope of research into other complex structures that were previously too fragile for analysis.

Methodology and Outcomes

MicroED/3DED data was acquired over a tilt range of -30° to 30°. The Metro camera allowed for seamless diffraction imaging without the need for a beam stop, capturing highresolution patterns from the crystals with a resolution exceeding 1 Å.

Figure C shows a frame from a selected MicroED/3DED dataset with higher-order reflections.

The study emphasized the importance of maintaining the natural state of the material during data acquisition with minimal electron-beam interference. The Metro camera, with its advanced electron counting technology, demonstrated significant improvements in both imaging and structural analysis of beam-sensitive materials.

Future Directions

The experiment paves the way for more advanced, high-throughput MicroED/3DED analyses, especially when paired with automated data collection software like Latitude® D

Reference:

1) Gorelik, T.E., Ulmer, A., Schleper, A.L., Kuehne, A.J.C., Crystal Structure of 9,10-bis-((perchloro-phenyl)-ethynyl) anthracene Determined from ThreeDimensional Electron Diffraction Data, Z. Kristallogr. (2023), https://doi.org/10.1515/ zkri-2023-0009

Figure

Figure C: Single frame from a continuous diffraction tomography dataset showing higher-order reflections. Special thanks to Dr. Tatiana Gorelik at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research for providing the sample.

Deltech Furnaces Unveils Custom Rotary Kiln Systems for Hazardous Environments

By Mary F. Stevenson, Ph.D. – Deltech Furnaces

Deltech Furnaces has successfully completed the design, manufacturing, and installation of two advanced rotary kiln systems tailored for hazardous locations.

These bespoke systems incorporate cutting-edge features such as HMI (Human-Machine Interface) controls for precise multi-zone management and data acquisition, along with volumetric feeders mounted on precision linear drives for exact material distribution. The systems have undergone rigorous NRTL testing and meet stringent NFPA 86, UL 1203, and Class 1, Division 2 (Groups D and G) standards.

Rotary tube furnaces are a cornerstone in applications like calcining, continuous material processing, and oxidation, especially for materials such as alumina and iron ore pellets. Designed to operate

under extreme temperatures, these furnaces provide unparalleled process control, ensuring superior product quality.

Deltech’s rotary tube furnaces stand out for their bespoke design, allowing for custom configurations and features tailored to specific operational needs, including compliance with hazardous environment standards. The company also adheres to ASME NQA-1:2008 standards, ensuring safety and reliability in demanding industries.

Key features of Deltech rotary tube furnaces include:

• Resistance heating with silicon carbide or molybdenum disilicide elements for temperatures up to 1,700°C.

• Single or multi-zone configurations.

• Customizable rotation speeds and gradients.

• Fully integrated, programmable control panels.

• Capability for processing in air, oxygen, or inert atmospheres.

• Optional gas mixing, detection, and alarm systems.

• Integrated exhaust scrubbers and gas control systems.

This latest project exemplifies Deltech’s commitment to delivering innovative, high-performance solutions for specialized industrial processes. Learn more about Deltech’s custom rotary kilns and furnaces: https:// www.deltechfurnaces.com/

A New Mass Spectrometry Alternative

By Dr. Cameron Chai and Peter Airey

Do you have solid samples and need to know their chemical composition? If you are interested in a hassle-free method that can generate results with trace-level sensitivity in just minutes and are fed up with the limitations of existing mass spectrometry and other chemical analysis technologies read on.

LALI-TOF-MS

LALI-TOF-MS which is short for Laser Ablation Laser Ionisation

Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry is the brainchild of Jeff Williams, founder of EXUM Instruments. As a researcher, he was frustrated with the complexity, time required and limitations of existing technologies, and so developed LALI-TOF-MS.

LALI-TOF-MS provides high versatility, high-throughput, broad elemental coverage and low detection limits and requires virtually no sample preparation. As such it has the potential to disrupt existing chemical analysis techniques used in academia and industry across sectors such as pharmaceuticals, mining and minerals to materials science and batteries.

How Does LALI-TOF-MS Work?

LALI uses one laser to remove material from a solid sample and a second laser to subsequently ionise neutrals. The ability to analyse solid samples avoids the need for complex digestion and calibration requirements, simplifying sample preparation. Furthermore, by targeting neutral particles, the ionisation technique removes many of the matrix effects and interferences that plague traditional plasma-ionising methods.

After ionisation, the TOF mass analyser creates a full mass spectrum at each laser spot. The entire process is performed under vacuum, greatly improving ion transmission efficiency compared to other techniques. There is also no need for inert gas, minimising running costs.

What Can LALI-TOF-MS Tell You?

LALI-TOF-MS can provide you with:

1. Chemical mapping with a resolution from 5-200µm

2. Depth profiling

3. Rapid screening - including pass/ fail analysis

Case Study – Nickel Alloy Analysis

In this example 2 Nickel alloy CRMs were analysed, where one was treated as an unknown. Samples analysed using 3 x 0.2mm² raster areas.

As can be seen there is excellent agreement between the LALITOF-MS analysis and the certified values. The average accuracy for quantified elements is 12%. Excluding outlier W, the average accuracy is 8%, while internal precision is 4%, indicating the technique has excellent repeatability.

Summary

LALI-TOF-MS is a promising new chemical analysis technique available in the Exum Instruments Massbox.

It is suited to research, quality control and failure analysis with results matching those of traditional analytical methods. It is ideal for:

· Quantifying low mass elements (e.g., carbon, oxygen, etc.), trace elements, and metallic constituents in the same analytical session

· Directly analysing solid materials and pelletised powders without complicated sample prep.

· Determining chemical distributions and homogeneity

· Investigating elemental composition as a function of depth e.g. analysis of coatings or plated materials

Novel System for Upcycling Metal Powders

By Dr. Cameron Chai and Peter Airey

For those involved with in metal additive manufacturing disposing of metal powders has been an environmental issue. That was until Amazemet, an innovator in metal powder production introduced their novel Powder2Powder atomisation system at Formnext in November. This system allows you to transform scrap or out-of-spec powder into new usable satellite-free powder with excellent sphericity and narrow particle size distribution, ideal for re-using.

Amazemet achieves this using unique technology that combines plasma processing and ultrasonic atomisation. Unlike plasma spheroidisation, the P2P technology allows powder size to be independent of the initial feedstock, making it the only technology capable of direct atomisation of pulverised Ti-feedstock.

Extensive trials using +200 μm oversize and irregular Ti alloy powders have shown exceptional results with the P2P system. Operating at a frequency of 40 kHz, the system consistently achieved a powder morphology with an aspect ratio (D50) exceeding 0.95. The particle size distribution (PSD) was precisely controlled, producing powders with D90 < 80 μm and yielding particles <63 μm at ≥80%. Nearly 97% of the resulting powder was suitable for AM processes, including Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), Directed Energy Deposition (DED), and Electron Beam Melting

(EBM), highlighting the system’s potential to enhance sustainability in metal powder production.

The P2P system can be used to create customised prealloyed powders with precise compositional control by blending elemental powders. This capability is invaluable for both research and industrial applications. This patented technology addresses two critical challenges in the AM industry - upcycling of powder waste and custom powder production - delivering advanced functionality that surpasses traditional recycling methods.

For more details, visit axt.com.au

Open-Source Software Helps Streamline 2D Materials Research With Scanning Tunnelling Microscope Automation

Source: Sally Wood

A new open-source software package developed by Monash University researcher Julian Ceddia aims to significantly streamline the study of materials using scanning tunnelling microscopes (STMs).

The software, named Scanbot, automates the time-consuming probe optimisation and data acquisition processes essential for STM experiments, helping to accelerate 2D materials research by enabling detailed investigation after the STM tip has been automatically optimised and sharpened.

"We hope that Scanbot will benefit STM labs around the world and represent a meaningful step towards full automation of STM experiments," says A/Prof Agustin Schiffrin, also at Monash.

Transforming Materials Research With STM Automation

Exploring and characterising the atomic landscape of surfaces has become a fundamental pursuit in modern science. STMs are among the most powerful tools that let scientists probe and interact with the world at this unimaginable scale, providing

images and spectroscopic data that enable us to peer into the quantum realm and see how materials behave at the atomic level.

STMs work by scanning a probe, sharpened down to a single atom, across the surface of a material while monitoring an electric current. This current carries all the information necessary to build up atomic-scale images of the surface.

However, achieving these breathtaking images is no easy feat. A probe sharpened to the size of a single atom is extremely fragile, and even the slightest contact with another atom, molecule, or debris can drastically alter the probe's effectiveness, requiring researchers to spend considerable time optimising the instrument to ensure it captures high-quality, reliable data.

Scanbot uses tip imprints to predict image quality. a–c) Tip imprints created by sharp, blunt, and doubled tips, respectively, on a clean metal surface. The insets in the top right show what the tip might look like at the atomic scale, based on the imprints, which were created with a

gentle crash depth of just 0.9 nm. d–f) STM images of a 2D metal-organic framework acquired by tips with the corresponding imprints in a–c).

The quality of the STM images reflects the size and geometry of the imprints created by the scanning probe. The white circles in f) highlight regions where ghosted or doubled features can be seen in the image. These features are present because signal is coming from the multiple apexes of the scanning probe simultaneously.

Introducing Scanbot

Researchers at Monash University, led by Julian Ceddia, have developed a reliable way to automate this STM optimisation process, resulting in the creation of Scanbot—a freely available open-source software package.

Ceddia explains that a revelation came to him after getting tired of the hours he routinely wasted optimising and sharpening the STM tip just to get meaningful data. "After countless hours spent fine-tuning the STM during my Ph.D., I discovered that the quality of the probe could be easily quantified by imaging imprints that it leaves behind after being poked just a few angstroms into the surface."

These imprints carry information about the arrangement of atoms at the tip of the scanning probe and are key to predicting how good the data will be before acquiring it. "Basically,

Lead author and Scanbot developer FLEET PhD candidate Julian Ceddia (Monash University). Image credit: Monash University.

Scanbot autonomous survey: a) An autonomous survey of a 2D metal-organic framework comprised of 49 STM images in a 7×7 grid stitched together, acquired by Scanbot after it prepared a ‘good STM tip’ automatically. b) A single STM image extracted from the automated survey (blue box in a)).

sharper tips leave behind smaller imprints. So, Scanbot automates the process by repeatedly pressing the tip into the surface until the imprint shows that the tip is sharp enough for high-quality imaging," Ceddia explains.

This straightforward approach to "tip shaping" avoids many of the challenges associated with using machine learning for similar tasks. "Instead of training an AI on vast amounts of labelled data to recognise high-quality images, Scanbot uses simple algorithms to measure the size and symmetry of the probe apex based on the imprints it leaves," adds Dr. Benjamin Lowe, a key collaborator on the project.

But Scanbot's capabilities extend beyond just tip shaping. It also automates common data acquisition techniques, such as sample surveying, making STMs easier

to operate overall. "My goal with Scanbot was to make STM more accessible and user-friendly," says Ceddia. "That's why I invested a lot of time into designing an intuitive user interface and writing comprehensive documentation."

Industry Recognition and Impact Scanbot's potential was aptly captured by former Monash University researcher Jack Hellerstedt, who also made significant contributions to the project, "Scanbot has the heretical potential to getup-and coming surface scientists thinking about the data instead of clicking the button."

The industry is already taking notice of Scanbot's capabilities. SPECS, a leading company in STM system control, recently contacted Ceddia after discovering Scanbot.

"Receiving an email from SPECS

STMs are powerful tools that allow atomic-scale exploration and characterisation of material surfaces, but considerable time must be spent optimising the instrument. Image credit: Monash University.

asking to include links to Scanbot in their documentation was incredibly encouraging," Ceddia reflects. "It's a strong validation that our work could genuinely make a difference in the way STMs are operated."

tip

predict image quality. a-c) Tip imprints created by sharp, blunt, and doubled tips, respectively, on a clean metal surface. The insets

what the tip might look like at the atomic scale, based on the imprints, which were created with a gentle crash depth of just

nm. d-f) STM

and

of a 2D metal-organic framework acquired by tips with the corresponding imprints in a-c). The quality of the STM images

These

by the scanning probe. The white circles in f) highlight regions where ghosted or doubled features

are present because signal is coming from the multiple apexes of the scanning probe simultaneously.

Scanbot uses

imprints to

in the top right show

0.9

images

reflects the size

geometry of the imprints created

can be seen in the image.

features

BREAKING NEWS

$35 million to Launch Groundbreaking Optical Microcombs Research At RMIT

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science (COMBS) launched recently, bringing together eight Australian universities to develop tools to explore new planets, prevent strokes or monitor natural disasters.

COMBS received $35 million from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and will be based at RMIT University, which will also invest more than $9 million, with significant support from the other participating universities.

COMBS will advance the science and technology of optical microcombs, the world’s most accurate measurement tools, which have the potential to transform medical diagnosis, communications, navigation, precision measurement and space exploration.

“Optical frequency combs are still generally confined to the most advanced science labs due to their size and complexity, however our team at COMBS aims to transform these systems into light-powered chips the size of a fingernail,” COMBS Centre Director Professor Arnan Mitchell said.

“We will do this through partnering with scientific and industrial end-users to create new approaches and solutions in biomedical imaging, communications, precision measurement and astronomy.”

COMBS will bring together experts from RMIT and across Australia in optical physics and semiconductor technology, with its research into microcombs having impacts in a variety of fields such as information processing, navigation, defence, biomedical imaging, environmental sciences and space exploration.

“The launch of COMBS marks a new chapter not just for RMIT, but for Australian science,” said Professor Alec Cameron, RMIT Vice-Chancellor and President. “COMBS will enable RMIT and Australia to lead in global scientific research, contributing to national capabilities in advanced manufacturing, environmental monitoring and medical technologies.”

Twisted Light Made Simple

A new approach to creating materials that interact selectively with different twists in light, known as chiral responses, greatly simplifies their fabrication, and could pave the way for advances in biosensing, photochemistry, and quantum optics.

A team from Australian National University’s (ANU) Nonlinear Physics Centre were exploring chiral metasurfaces when they came up with the idea. Metasurfaces are patterned with regular arrays of structures smaller than the wavelength of light; the exact geometry of the structures determines responses to light, that can be dramatically different from naturally occurring materials.

ANU PhD student Ivan Toftul was designing a chiral metasurface, which requires asymmetry to produces the chiral effects. An example effect would be blocking right circularly polarised light while letting through left circularly polarised light.

Chiral metamaterials have been created previously, based on individual asymmetric elements in a regular array. Instead, Toftul began thinking about the overall arrangement of the array, and realised the effect they were looking for could also be created by symmetric elements arranged in an asymmetric way.

“To create individual chiral or, equivalently, mirror asymmetric elements is very challenging, you need advanced fabrication facilities,” he said. “So we looked at this from a different perspective and realised a simple shift of the whole lattice would break all the in-plane mirror symmetries, and give a chiral response, even if the individual elements were symmetric.”

Chiral properties allow the polarisation of light to be manipulated, which can be used in quantum optics experiments, for example for cryptography or information processing. Also, many biological molecules are chiral, occurring in left or right-handed configurations that respond to one circular polarisation of light more strongly than the other.

This new metasurface’s ability to produce and process polarised light will be a boon in the identification of the different configurations. For example, some drugs are chiral, and only active in one symmetry – the other symmetry may be inactive, or worse still, harmful.

The team at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science (COMBS).

ANU PhD student Ivan Toftul. Image credit: ANU.

Next-Gen Batteries Using Food-Based Acids

Hit Sustainability Sweet Spot

A novel battery component that uses food-based acids found in sherbet and winemaking could make lithium-ion batteries more efficient, affordable and sustainable.

The prototype, developed and patented by UNSW chemists, reduces environmental impacts across its materials and processing inputs while increasing energy storage capability.

The single-layer pouch cell currently being optimised is similar to what you’d use in a mobile phone, only smaller, said lead researcher Professor Neeraj Sharma from UNSW Science.

“We’ve developed an electrode that can significantly increase the energy storage capability of lithium-ion batteries by replacing graphite with compounds derived from food acids, such as tartaric acid [that occurs naturally in many fruits] and malic acid [found in some fruits and wine extracts].”

Food acids are readily available, typically less aggressive and contain the necessary functional groups or chemical characteristics, he said. “[Our battery component] could potentially use food acids from food waste streams, [reducing their environmental and economic impact]. Its processing uses water rather toxic solvents, so we’re improving the status quo across multiple areas.”

Food waste costs the Australian economy around $36.6 billion each year and accounts for about three per cent of our annual greenhouse gas emissions.

“By using waste produced at scale for battery components, the industry can diversify their inputs while addressing both environmental and sustainability concerns,” Professor Sharma said.

Professor Sharma leads the solid state and materials chemistry group, part of the cross-faculty batteries research community of practice at UNSW. They work with government and industry partners across all aspects of battery life.

IFM Discovery Unlocks New Power For Piezoelectric Effect

Solid materials have been key to generating the piezoelectric effect, however researchers at the Institute for Frontier Materials have demonstrated for the first time that liquids can not only generate the piezoelectric effect but enhance energy storage technologies.

The piezoelectric effect is typically found in certain solid materials that can generate electricity when their shape is compressed. This phenomenon is used to power everyday electronic devices such as microphones, laptops and sensors. The first practical use of piezoelectric materials was during World War I for sonar technology to detect and locate submarines.

IFM researchers Masters student Žan Simon, Dr Bhagya Dharmasiri, PhD candidate Tim Harte, Professor Luke Henderson and RMIT’s Dr Peter Sherrell, demonstrated that solvate ionic liquids can generate the piezoelectric effect with bulk electrical potential when pressure is applied.

The IFM research group had previously investigated the use of solvate ionic liquids with carbon fibre for energy storage devices. Unusual observations led the team to investigate whether the piezoelectric effect could occur with their solvate ionic liquid as it does with an energy storage electrolyte.

“The piezoelectric effect has been studied in many materials before, but never in solvate ionic liquids,” IFM researcher and Masters student Žan Simon said. “By investigating this effect in solvate ionic liquids, we are exploring a completely new territory in which these liquids themselves could have an additive effect to energy storage devices.”

“The potential implications are significant. If solvate ionic liquids can generate electricity when stressed, it could lead to more efficient energy storage devices.

“Imagine a battery that not only stores energy but also generates additional power when it’s squeezed or bent during normal use. These findings open new possibilities for designing more efficient, multifunctional energy storage systems that could have far-reaching implications in fields ranging from portable electronics to electric vehicles and beyond.”

Professor Neeraj Sharma. Image credit: UNSW Sydney / Richard Freeman.

IFM researchers PhD candidate Time Harte, Masters student Zan Simon, and Dr Bhagya Dharmasiri. Image credit: Institute for Frontier Materials.

Spin Gapless Semiconductors: Pioneering Future Innovative Tissue Regeneration Battery Promotes Faster Wound Healing

Researchers at the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), in collaboration with Jilin University in China, have created a pioneering solution for wound healing using a bioelectronic patch powered by a magnesium-based battery.

The study demonstrates how this tissue regeneration battery can speed up skin repair by combining electrical stimulation with an anti-inflammatory chemical environment that supports healing.

The research, ‘A Mg Battery-Integrated Bioelectronic Patch Provides Efficient Electrochemical Stimulations for Wound Healing’, delves into the concept of a tissue regeneration battery and how all of the processes occurring during discharge can be used to promote skin regeneration. The paper was a collaboration between IPRI Director Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace and Associate Professor Caiyun Wang with researchers from Jilin University.

There is much evidence to suggest that electrical stimulation plays a positive role in facilitating regeneration of various tissue types, including skin. The hardware traditionally used to deliver such stimulation is cumbersome. The batteries used are such that isolation from the tissue is required.

“The tissue regeneration battery (TRB) concept was conceived when we looked at conventional batteries and thought, what a waste of space and why are they not designed to interact with tissue directly?” Professor Wallace said.

“This work illustrates that if we are clever with electrode choice, we can address these issues and get more effective, direct electrical stimulation. Then we can take things to a new level by using the byproducts of battery discharge to provide a chemical environment that is anti-inflammatory and promotes proliferation of healthy cells.”

As with all batteries, the structure described in the paper comprises of two electrodes and an electrolyte.

Nanoscale Insights to Improve Organic Solar Cell Thin Films

A large international team led by scientists from the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre in Taiwan in collaboration with research groups in Germany from have provided an understanding of how nanoscale interactions affect the thermal stability of a type of next generation organic solar cells in research reported in ACS Applied Nano Materials.

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have numerous advantages, including flexibility, light weight, manufacturing economies, a wide range of applications, less environmental impact and semitransparency.

However, energy experts suggest there is a need for an increase in efficiency, as well as an improvement in long-term stability. Bulk heterojunctions (BHJs), a blend of electron donors and acceptors, need methods to optimise their structure at the nanoscale.

“The material tested in this study was a blend of a reputable polymer donor PffBT4T which provides good device performance and a new generation nonfullerene acceptor, ITIC, which was known to cause a performance drop,” explained Dr (Ian) Tzu-Yen Huang, lead author.

The blended material, which was tested in different concentrations of the donor and acceptor materials, is only tens of nanometres thick, approximately 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of A4 paper. Thermal annealing, heating up the material during manufacture, is done to improve the performance of a BHJ.

Measurements on the Spatz neutron reflectometer at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering revealed how annealing above 150° C affected the vertical structure of the BHJs and caused structural instability. Thermal annealing made the interface of the BHJ thin films more diffuse at the interface in the ITIC molecules, increased aggregation in the ITIC and film roughness.

Dr Ian Huang and Dr Le Brun examine a thin film sample. Image credit: ANSTO.

IPRI Director Distinguished Professor Gordon Wallace. Image credit: University of Wollongong.

Making New Metamaterials With Quantum Dot Lego

Australian National University (ANU) scientists have created materials with surprising optical properties, from arrays of lego-like cubes, made of caesium lead tribromide. Caesium lead tri-bromide is in a class of material known as perovskites, and, as cubic nanocrystals of size ten nanometres, acts as a quantum dot.

By assembling the cubes like Lego into ordered spheres, or supercrystals, an international team, including researchers from the Research School of Physics were able to manipulate the wavelength and brightness of the light emitted from the structures.

The effect is due to the supercrystals operating as metaatoms: structures smaller than the wavelength of light, which, as arrays called metamaterials, exhibit behaviours completely unlike natural, homogenous materials.

This work shows the first use of meta-atoms made from smaller components, said the leader of the Nonlinear Physics Centre, Professor Yuri Kivshar. “The idea of composite meta-atoms appeared some time ago, but it came as a science fiction theory concept. It turns out that meta-atoms really can be made complex, with the properties being controlled at will. It is surprising that after several years we may say that science fiction became a reality.”

The team chose perovskite nanocrystals because they have an exciton resonance, which leads to strong fluorescence. Collaborators from ETH Zurich in Switzerland created the supercrystals using self-assembly techniques, to form spheres ranging from fifty to several hundred nanometres in diameter and sent them to ANU for the experiments.

ANU PhD Student Pavel Tonkaev then conducted photoluminescence experiments and was able to show that the supercrystals supported Mie resonances, which, combined with the exciton resonance, enhanced the fluorescence, speeding it up by a factor of 3.3.

The supercrystals also shifted the peak wavelength of the fluorescence, by an amount related to their size. Comparing their room temperature experiments with results at 6 degrees kelvin, they also saw the fluorescence peak split into two.

Professor Joanne Etheridge awarded Walter Boas Medal for Ground-Breaking Work in Electron Microscopy

Professor Joanne Etheridge FAA has been awarded the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) Walter Boas Medal for Excellence in Research for her development of new methods to ‘see’ the structure of materials at the level of atoms.

It’s the first time a Monash University researcher has won the award in its’ 40-year history.

Her research improves the capability of electron microscopes, allowing scientists and engineers to observe and analyse structural features in materials that were previously unseen. Understanding the structure of a material is critical for understanding its properties.

These methods open up possibilities for material and device design in fields as diverse as energy storage and production, computing, drug delivery, sustainable energy, communications and lighting.

Professor Etheridge, who is the Scientific Director of the Monash Centre of Electron Microscopy (MCEM) and the Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, said she couldn’t have achieved the result without the support of the Monash scientific community.

"This award is a testament to the many talented researchers and students I have had the privilege to work with,” she said.

“It could not have happened without the exceptional research environment at Monash University, in particular the expert capability at the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy and more broadly in the School of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Materials Science and Engineering."

Professor Etheridge’s work utilises electron microscopy and diffraction which is a technique that uses beams of electrons to probe matter to determine its structure and composition. These methods are used to examine the structure-property relationships in distinctive materials.

Professor Joanne Etheridge. Image credit: Monash University.

ANU PhD Student Pavel Tonkaev. Image credit: ANU.

Coffee Concrete Makes Debut in Major Infrastructure Project

An innovation developed at RMIT University has been used for the first time in a major infrastructure project, being laid into a footpath along a busy road in Pakenham as part of Victoria’s Big Build.

Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) and project contractor BildGroup have used concrete mixed with biochar made from spent coffee grounds, as a replacement of a portion of the river sand that is normally used, in the Pakenham Roads Upgrade.

Organic waste going to landfill, including spent coffee grounds, contributes 3% of greenhouse gas emissions. This waste cannot be added directly to concrete because it would decompose over time and weaken the building material, which is why the used coffee is converted into biochar before being added to the concrete mix.

Australia generates 75 million kilograms of ground coffee waste every year – most of it goes to landfills, but it could replace up to 655 million kilograms of sand in concrete because it is a denser material. Globally, 10 billion kilograms of spent coffee is generated annually, which could replace up to 90 billion kilograms of sand in concrete.

For this project, Earth Systems converted 5 tonnes of spent coffee grounds – about 140,000 coffees worth of grounds – into 2 tonnes of useable biochar, which has been laid into the 30 metres cubed footpath along McGregor Road in Pakenham.

The use of coffee biochar is one of several circular economy initiatives delivered for the Pakenham Roads Upgrade that include reusing the in-fill soil and material for the Princes Freeway embankments and using foam bitumen and rubber tyre road barriers.

MRPV Program Director Brendan Pauwels said coffee concrete had the potential to cut costs and remove vast amounts of waste material from landfill.

“These numbers are remarkable in terms of ecological benefit, and we’re excited to see the Pakenham Roads Upgrade be the first Victorian Big Build project to use the coffee concrete,” he said.

Quantum Computing Experts Conquer Entanglement Challenge in Silicon Chips

A team of UNSW quantum engineers has demonstrated a world-first: the quantum entanglement of two electrons, each bound to a different atom of phosphorus, placed inside a silicon quantum computer chip.

Entanglement is the most striking of quantum phenomena: two particles can exist in a state of perfect mutual correlation, while having no state of their own. Its consequences have baffled scientists and philosophers for decades.

“But today, entanglement is a resource, the most important one for building powerful quantum computers,” said UNSW Professor Andrea Morello, leader of the team that conducted the research.

The UNSW team specialises in building quantum computer devices where information is encoded in the magnetic orientation, or ‘spin’, of individual electrons, bound to atoms of phosphorus that are implanted inside an almost conventional silicon chip.

This approach to building quantum computers is very powerful: it combines the large-scale manufacturability of silicon computer chips – a trillion-dollar industry that underpins the totality of our digital world – with the minuscule size and natural quantum behaviour of atoms.

Dr Holly Stemp, the lead author of the paper, explained: “The spin of a phosphorus atom is an excellent quantum bit. But because the atoms are so small, it’s not easy to make them ‘talk’ to each other, let alone create genuine quantum entanglement. This is, in fact, the first time the provable entanglement has been created between two atoms in silicon. Electrons are not just particles but also waves, and when two waves overlap with each other, they give rise to the socalled ‘exchange interaction’, which is what we used here to entangle the atoms.”

From the strength of the interaction, the researchers estimated that the atoms are about 20 nanometres apart, or 1/1000th of the thickness of a human hair.

Bird's eye view of the coffee concrete footpath being laid along a busy road in Pakenham. Image credit: HiVis Pictures.

Dr Holly Stemp and Professor Andrea Morello. Image credit: UNSW Sydney.

CSIRO Unveils Prototype Nanofibre Uniform to Safeguard Australian Troops

Researchers at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, have successfully developed a next-generation uniform prototype that employs nanofibres to safeguard Australian troops from chemical and biological threats.

The innovative material is a lightweight fabric that effectively filters out harmful particles while remaining light-weight and breathable, keeping the wearer comfortable in extreme temperatures.

CSIRO Manufacturing Research Unit Director, Dr Marcus Zipper said this textile innovation was the result of collaboration with industry and research partners, including DMTC. “Our nanofibre technology, pioneered by CSIRO scientists, has the potential to significantly improve the level of protection soldiers’ uniforms provide and can also be used for non-military applications, including protecting emergency responders and hazmat crews.”

“CSIRO research and development in materials science looks to improve how a particular material functions –we work across a broad range of advanced materials including metals, composites, polymers, adsorbents and nanofibres,” Dr Zipper said.

The initial phase of this project was funded by the Department of Defence. The successful nanofibre suit prototype was coordinated by DMTC Limited.

Also involved in supporting the project are Bruck Textiles, Defence Science and Technology Group and RMIT University.

CSIRO project lead Dr Yen Truong said key to the prototype’s success lies in its innovative nanofibre technology, developed by CSIRO scientists.

“We harnessed the unique properties of nanofibres to create a lightweight fabric that effectively filters out harmful particles while remaining highly breathable. In rigorous testing, the prototype surpassed all performance targets for air filtration, air permeability, thermal comfort, and chemical protection.”

Researchers Secure Grant To Transform Contaminated Biosolids into Sustainable Nutrient-Rich Fertiliser

Engineers have invented energy-efficient bricks with scrap Almost 350,000 tonnes of dry biosolids, or treated sludge from wastewater, are generated annually in Australia. This is a significant potential new nutrient source for the agriculture industry. However, heavy metals and emerging contaminants, particularly PFAS, found in biosolids is putting a considerable constraint on its use.

This research will investigate if the thermal conversion of biosolids to biochar creates a safe nutrient source for agricultural use.

A team at the University of Newcastle, led by Distinguished Laureate Professor Ravi Naidu and Dr Yanju Liu, has been awarded $919,840 from the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for High Performance Soils. This research will investigate if the thermal conversion of biosolids to biochar, the charcoal created when burning organic materials, creates a safe nutrient source for agricultural use.

While biosolids have been used as a rich source of nutrients for a long time, the recent discovery of the presence of PFAS in these materials has led to a ban on the use of biosolids in farming. As a result, millions of tonnes of biosolids are being stockpiled in countries globally.

This project aims to determine if turning biosolids in biochar will remove organic emerging contaminants ensuring its safe use as a slow-release fertiliser. It will also look at the benefits of biochar to soil health and soil texture improvement. This research will be critical for both the water and agriculture industries by providing strategies to use a current waste product as a viable and cost-effective fertiliser. It will be significant in assisting to minimise the biosolid stockpiles, leading to a reduction of billions of dollars in management costs.

CSIRO project lead Dr Yen Truong (L) and Head of Program Management at DMTC, Deepak Ganga (R) with the prototype uniform. Image credit: CSIRO.

The research will investigate if the thermal conversion of biosolids to biochar creates a safe nutrient source for agricultural use. Image credit: University of Newcastle.

Shielding the Future: Innovations in Radiation Protection Materials

In our increasingly technological world, the need for effective radiation shielding has never been more critical. From medical facilities to nuclear power plants, and from space exploration to everyday electronics, the quest for superior radiation protection materials continues to drive innovation in materials science and engineering.

Radiation shielding is the practice of reducing the effects of ionising radiation on people and equipment through the use of specialised materials. These materials attenuate or block various types of radiation, including alpha and beta particles, gamma rays, X-rays, and neutrons. As our understanding of radiation's effects on human health and electronic systems has grown, so too has the sophistication of the materials we use to shield against it.

The history of radiation shielding materials is closely intertwined with the discovery and utilisation of radioactivity itself. In the early 20th century, as scientists began to unravel the mysteries of radioactivity, the need for protection became apparent. Marie Curie, the pioneering physicist and chemist who conducted groundbreaking research on radioactivity, tragically died from aplastic anaemia, likely caused by her prolonged exposure to radiation.

The first significant breakthrough in radiation shielding came with the recognition of lead's effectiveness. Lead's high atomic number and density made it an excellent absorber of gamma radiation and X-rays. During the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, lead became the go-to material for shielding in nuclear research and development. However, lead's toxicity and weight have long been concerns, spurring research into alternative materials. In the 1950s and 1960s, concrete became widely used for shielding in nuclear power plants due to its effectiveness against neutron radiation and its relatively low cost.

The space race of the 1960s brought new challenges and innovations in radiation shielding. NASA developed lightweight polymer composites to protect astronauts from cosmic radiation whilst minimising the payload weight of spacecraft.

In recent decades, the focus has shifted towards developing more efficient, lightweight, and environmentally friendly shielding materials. Researchers have explored various composites, nanomaterials, and novel alloys to achieve superior radiation protection with reduced weight and toxicity.

Shielding Materials Research in Australia

Australia has established itself as a significant contributor to the global research landscape in shielding materials. With world-class universities and research organisations, the country is at the forefront of developing innovative technologies. This section highlights some of the key institutions and projects driving shielding materials research in Australia.

Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has been a key player in radiation shielding research. Their work on advanced concrete formulations has led to the development of highdensity concrete that offers improved gamma and neutron shielding properties. In 2018, ANSTO researchers published findings on a new concrete mix incorporating recycled heavy metal oxide glasses, which not only enhanced shielding properties but also addressed waste management issues.

The University of Wollongong

At the University of Wollongong, the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) has been pioneering the use of graphene in radiation shielding. Professor Xiaolin Wang and his team have demonstrated that graphene oxide can effectively shield against gamma radiation whilst being significantly lighter than traditional lead shields. Their 2019 study showed that a graphene oxide composite could achieve the same level of protection as lead with just one-third of the weight.

RMIT University

RMIT University has been exploring the potential of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for radiation shielding. Dr Ravichandar Babarao's team has developed MOFs that can selectively capture radioactive ions from water, with potential applications in nuclear waste management and environmental remediation. Their work, published in 2020, demonstrated a novel MOF that could remove over 99% of uranium from contaminated water.

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney's School of Physics has been investigating the use of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) for space radiation shielding. Professor Marcela Bilek's research group has shown that BNNTs can effectively shield against both electromagnetic and particle radiation, making them promising candidates for protecting spacecraft and astronauts on longduration missions. Their 2021 study demonstrated that BNNT-reinforced polymer composites could reduce radiation exposure by up to 45% compared to conventional materials.

Monash University

At Monash University, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has been working on advanced ceramic composites for nuclear applications. Professor Joanne Etheridge and her team have developed novel silicon carbide composites that offer excellent radiation resistance and thermal properties. Their research, published in 2022, showed that these composites could maintain their structural

integrity under extreme radiation conditions, making them suitable for next-generation nuclear reactors.

The CSIRO

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has also made significant contributions to the field. Their Materials Science and Engineering division has been developing smart nanomaterials that can adapt to different types of radiation. In 2023, CSIRO researchers unveiled a new class of responsive polymers that can change their structure to optimise shielding against varying radiation types and intensities.

Innovations and Breakthroughs

Looking to the future, the field of radiation shielding materials is poised for further innovation and breakthroughs. Several trends are likely to shape the development of next-generation shielding materials:

The University of Wollongong’s Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials.

Multifunctional materials:

Researchers are increasingly focusing on materials that can provide radiation shielding whilst offering additional benefits such as structural support, thermal management, or even energy harvesting capabilities.

Bio-inspired materials: Taking cues from nature, scientists are exploring biological systems that have evolved radiation resistance, such as certain bacteria and fungi, to develop new shielding strategies.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning: These technologies are being employed to accelerate the discovery and optimisation of new shielding materials, allowing researchers to explore vast material combinations and predict their properties.

Additive manufacturing: 3D printing technologies are enabling the creation of complex, customised shielding structures that can be tailored to specific applications and geometries.

Sustainable materials: With growing environmental concerns, there is a push towards developing shielding materials from renewable resources or recycled materials, reducing the reliance on mined elements.

Nanoscale engineering: Advances in nanotechnology are allowing for precise control over material properties at the atomic level, potentially leading to ultra-efficient shielding materials.

As we continue to push the boundaries of technology and explore new

frontiers, from deep space missions to advanced medical treatments, the demand for innovative radiation shielding materials will only grow. Australian research institutions, with their world-class facilities and expertise, are well-positioned to lead the way in developing the next generation of radiation protection solutions.

The future of radiation shielding materials is not just about blocking harmful radiation; it's about doing so in ways that are smarter, lighter, more sustainable, and more adaptable to our evolving needs. As we face the challenges of the 21st century and beyond, these innovations will play a crucial role in safeguarding human health, enabling technological progress, and expanding our horizons in science and exploration.

Researchers Identify Effective Materials For Protecting Astronauts From Harmful Cosmic Radiation On Mars

Researchers have identified specific materials, including certain plastics, rubber, and synthetic fibres, as well as Martian soil (regolith), which would effectively protect astronauts by blocking harmful space radiation on Mars.

These findings could inform the design of protective habitats and spacesuits, making long-duration Mars missions more feasible. Because Mars lacks Earth's thick atmosphere and magnetic field, astronauts exploring the planet would be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.

Dimitra Atri, Investigator, Centre for Astrophysics and Space Science and Group Leader of the Mars Research Group at NYU Abu Dhabi's Centre for

Astrophysics and Space Science, and lead author Dionysios Gakis from the University of Patras in Greece, report these new findings in ‘Modeling the effectiveness of radiation shielding materials for astronaut protection on Mars’, appearing in the journal The European Physical Journal Plus.

Using computer modelling to simulate the radiation conditions on Mars, the researchers tested various standard and novel materials to see which best shielded cosmic radiation and determined that compound materials like certain plastics, rubber, and synthetic fibres would all perform well. Martian soil (regolith) was also somewhat effective and could be used as an extra layer of protection.

In addition, they demonstrated that the most widely used aluminium could also be helpful when combined with other low atomic number materials. The study also used real Mars data from NASA's Curiosity rover to confirm these findings.

"This breakthrough enhances astronaut safety and makes longterm Mars missions a more realistic possibility," said Atri. "It supports the future of human space exploration and potential establishment of human bases on Mars, including the UAE's Mars 2117 project and its goal of establishing a city on Mars by the year 2117."

"Several materials were specifically tested in a simulated Martian environment, making our results directly applicable to future missions and optimising the combination of advanced materials with the natural resources available on Mars," Gakis added.

Visualization of the rays’ trajectories originating from a pencil beam with a small beam angle. Image Credit: The European Physical Journal Plus (2024).

Transistors And NASA's Radiation Paradox: Strength In Detection, Weakness In Space Operations

The nature of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect

Transistors (MOSFETs) present a fascinating paradox in space exploration. Their strength in radiation detection becomes their weakness in space operations, exposing an Achilles' heel for NASA. Yet, these same devices monitor radiation doses received by humans – on earth and in space. These tiny transistors have transformed everything from consumer electronics to advanced scientific applications. They are essential components in radios, MP3 players and iPods, powered satellite communications and now drive the artificial intelligence age. Their unique ability to measure radiation by capturing changes in electrical characteristics when exposed to ionising radiation is critical in both space exploration and cancer treatment.

Australia leads the development of MOSFET-based radiation detectors for radiation monitoring. In a recently published work, ANSTO scientists and collaborators showed how four MOSFETs can be used to precisely measure radiation doses that patients receive during Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT).

Ironically, this property that we rely on for measuring radiation nearly doomed NASA's Europa Clipper mission, due to the risk of radiation damage compromising the operation of its MOFET-based systems. Understanding this dual interaction with radiation highlights the importance of innovative solutions in both space missions and healthcare. It is also a great example of how mission-based research impacts everyday life.

The Versatility of MOSFETs

MOSFETs are a key component in modern electronics. Following Moore's Law, the number of transistors in a circuit has increased exponentially over time enabling more powerful and energy-efficient technologies. Companies like

NVIDIA use billions of MOSFETs in their GPUs, such as the A100, which is the backbone of high-performance AI systems. These transistors allow the efficient power management and rapid switching that is necessary for handling the complex operations in machine learning and AI applications.

In jointly published research, ANSTO and University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers used a Quad-MOSFET array to precisely measure radiation quality in boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Each MOSFET was coupled to a different moderator (material that interacts with radiation) and measures different energy levels to allow accurate radiation monitoring during treatment.

Another example is the MOSkin dosimeter, developed at the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics at the University of Wollongong. MOSkin is a skin-mounted MOSFET device that provides real-time radiation dose measurements during radiotherapy. This technology is already being used in clinical settings to improve safety and accuracy in radiation treatments.

MOSFETs in Space Exploration

MOSFETs are integral to managing systems and instruments in spacecraft due to their efficiency and low power consumption. However, space environments, especially around Jupiter, expose these devices to intense radiation—a challenge NASA faced with the Europa Clipper mission.

The radiation delivers a harsh cocktail of ionising particles. This radiation can cause single event effects (SEE), where high-energy particles flip a MOSFET's state from "on" to "off," causing them to malfunction. It can also cause total ionising dose (TID) effects, a situation in which radiation slowly degrades the MOSFET's performance by trapping charges and creating defects in the semiconductor material.

Radiation Hardness and Testing

Radiation hardness refers to a device's ability to withstand ionising radiation. MOSFETs for Earth-based applications aren't usually hardened against the intense radiation found near Jupiter. To protect them, design strategies like the use of thicker oxide layers or radiation shielding, are adopted but even these methods may fall short in extreme conditions.

At ANSTO's Centre for Accelerator Science and the Australian Synchrotron, space agencies and aerospace companies test the radiation hardness of their instruments and detectors for space missions to assess how well they will handle these environments.

To address radiation-induced damage in MOSFETs on the Europa Clipper, NASA engineers used annealing, a process where heat is applied to redistribute trapped charges and repair defects. Interestingly, this is the same process applied to "heal" MOSFET dosimeters after their use in hospitals. This step allows them to be reused after radiation exposure during treatments.

The Impact of Mission-Based Research

The story of MOSFETs illustrates a broader principle in science: innovations often lead to applications far beyond their original purpose. Mission-based research, while not solving everyday problems, creates opportunities for scientists and engineers to develop innovative solutions with wide-ranging impacts.

Technologies developed for space missions can find unexpected uses in our daily lives. Memory foam, developed by NASA to improve the safety of aircraft cushions, is found in the sole of running shoes to make jogging comfortable.

Surprisingly, the process works both ways, and everyday inventions can prove invaluable in space exploration. Perhaps the most famous example of this crossover is Velcro – an everyday invention solved a critical problem in space.

Created by a Swiss engineer in the 1940s and inspired by the way burrs stuck to his dog's fur, Velcro has become an indispensable tool for astronauts. It is now the most widely used method for securing items to spacesuits.

Following modification to the MOSFETs, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft launched on 14 October. Europa Clipper is the first mission designed to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's moon Europa. There’s scientific evidence that the ingredients for life may exist on Europa right now. The spacecraft will travel 2.9 billion kilometre to reach Jupiter in April 2030. It will orbit Jupiter, and conduct 49 close flybys of Europa.

Left: Europa Clipper lifts off From Kennedy Space Centre. Image credit: NASA.

Top:

Right: Europa Clipper is on its own after successfully separating from its launch vehicle. Image credit: NASA.

Radiation Protection for Space

There’s a lot of radiation in space, mostly from the Sun and other cosmic rays. Earth’s magnetosphere protects us from most of this radiation. Our satellites aren’t so lucky, orbiting the Earth outside this protection, radiation can damage the satellites’ electronics. Damage can range from degradation in operational performance to complete loss of function, leading to reduced mission lifetimes or even mission failure.

There are two ways to protect satellite electronics – use radiation-hardened electronics or enclose ‘everyday’ electronics in radiation shielding material. Traditional radiation-hardened electronics are expensive and difficult to design, so the CSIRO developed an innovative radiation shielding material using metal matrix composites. This kind of radiation protection opens the door to using conventional, off-the-shelf electronics on satellites, tapping into economies of scale and decades of technology advancements.

CSIRO’s novel multi-functional radiation shielding metal matrix composites provide superior radiation shielding

while maintaining structural stiffness and minimising on weight due to shielding. The embedded functional properties can be controlled to provide effective shielding of particle radiation and other benefits including improved tolerance to high temperatures, controlled pathways for heat conductivity and dissipation, and increased hardness.

These metal matrix composites consist of metals, intermetallics, ceramics, and occasionally polymers, which can be tailored to a mission’s unique needs. The resulting material can form any size and shape the base alloy can form and provides affordable radiation protection for a wide range of applications.

Ground testing has demonstrated superior radiation protection, with a 40-50 per cent improvement in proton radiation Linear Energy Transfer (LET) compared to standard aluminium alloy.

The technology will be going through its first space flight test on board Curtin University’s Binar 234 satellites, scheduled for launch from the International Space Station in September 2024.

Graphene-Based Nanocomposites As GammaAnd X-Ray Radiation Shield

Source: Filak-Mędoń, K., Fornalski, K.W., Bonczyk, M. et al. Graphene-based nanocomposites as gamma- and X-ray radiation shield. Sci Rep 14, 18998 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69628-5

Abstract

Commonly used materials for protection against ionizing radiation (gamma and X-ray energy range) primarily rely on high-density materials, like lead, steel, or tungsten. However, these materials are heavy and often impractical for various applications, especially where weight is a key parameter, like in avionics or space technology. Here, we study the shielding properties of an alternative light material—a graphene-based composite with a relatively low density 1 g/cm3.

We demonstrate that the linear attenuation coefficient is energy of radiation dependent, and it is validated by the XCOM model, showing relatively good agreement. We also show that the mass attenuation coefficient for selected radiation energies is at least comparable with other known materials, exceeding the value of 0.2 cm2 /g for higher energies. This study proves the usefulness of a commonly used model for predicting the attenuation of gamma and X-ray radiation for new materials. It shows a new potential candidate for shielding application.

Introduction

The development of new materials serving as a shield for ionizing electromagnetic (EM) radiation is crucial for various industrial and scientific areas, like radiation medicine, the nuclear industry, or the aerospace sector1,2,3,4. High energy photons, namely gamma and X-ray, interact with matter in a few different ways: as Thomson scattering, Rayleigh scattering and photoelectric effect for lower energies, and as Compton scattering for medium energies, and pair creation for high energies. All those effects are described by their proper cross-section values (a measure of the probability that a scattering process will occur), which are higher for heavier elements5,6,7,8

That is why materials like lead, concrete or steel are commonly used as radiation shields against ionized radiation9,10,11 Although these popular heavy materials are commonly used for ordinary shielding tasks, they are not practical in many applications because of their heterogeneity, moisture variation12 and lack of plasticity, overshadowing their benefits13,14

On the other hand, light element-based materials, like carbon, have much smaller values of cross sections because their nucleus contains much fewer protons with much fewer electrons around them, making them much less useful as a shield against ionized radiation. Therefore, recent research focuses on materials that can be used as efficient radiation shields while exhibiting good mechanical durability and flexibility as well as low weight4,15,16.

Most lightweight materials have poor attenuation properties in the gamma and X-ray energy ranges. However, novel nanocomposites containing e.g. bismuth oxide nanoparticles17, cobalt-doped titania18, carbon nanotubes or graphene oxide flakes19 or their combination, can present a new approach for high energy radiation shields, showing moderate effectiveness. A recent review article discussed the topic of carbon-based (graphite, graphene oxide) materials for radiation shielding in X-ray and gamma ranges, highlighting novel ideas for radiation protection applications in medicine and industry19

In one of our previous works, we studied the interaction of bare thin graphene film with ionizing radiation, demonstrating a potential candidate for serving as a light and flexible EM shield20. But composite based on pure graphene flakes has not yet been reported to show shielding properties in the ionizing energy ranges.

In this work, we explore the shielding properties of graphene/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) composites in several distinct radiation energies in the X-ray and gamma regimes. We show that the shielding efficiency (mass/linear attenuation coefficient) depends on the radiation energy and, in some cases, outperforms other known materials. Finally, we have validated the experimental results with a commonly used XCOM theoretical model21,22,23,24.

Materials and Methods

Composite Fabrication

Graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were obtained from Sigma-Aldrich. GNPs were supplied in powder form, with an average lateral dimension of 25 µm and a surface area ranging from 50 to 80 m2 /g. Individual flakes have a thickness in the range of 1–5 nm (verified by AFM—not shown here). Commercially available ABS was utilized as the polymer matrix.

The fabrication process of the nanocomposite involved two simple steps. Firstly, the GNPs were mixed with the ABS matrix using a classical mechanical mixer. The weights of the polymer matrix and the GNPs were calculated to achieve the 10 weight percentage of the graphene filler loading. The mixing process was carried out for 60 min at a rotational speed of 100 rpm, using a three-dimensional mixer to ensure a homogeneous filler distribution within the matrix.

Subsequently, the polymer/GNP mixture was subjected to hot pressing using a laboratory platen press (LabEcon 300 Fontijne). The purpose of hot pressing was to consolidate the powder material into solid samples (see Fig. 2a). The hotpressing parameters included a heating temperature of 190 °C and a downforce of 250 kN. The thickness of the samples fabricated via the hot-press method was controlled by employing a spacer during the process. Samples with different thicknesses (~ 3 and 15 mm) and a diameter of 60 mm have been used for the radiation measurements.

The composition of nanocomposite indicates the proportion of each component in the material, with graphene nanoplatelets making up 10% of the total weight, styrene comprising 45%, acrylonitrile accounting for 27%, and butadiene contributing 18% to the overall weight. The density of the nanocomposite determined using hydrostatic weighing at room temperature of 21.7 °C was 1.064 g/cm3. This information is used later in the XCOM calculation.

Radiation Measurements

Measurements of gamma radiation attenuation were carried out in three independent laboratories: Silesian Centre for Environmental Radioactivity (Central Mining Institute – National Research Institute, GIG, Katowice, Poland), Department of Individual Monitoring and Calibration (Central Laboratory of Radiological Protection, CLOR, Warsaw, Poland), and Department of Quality Control and Radiation Protection (Medical University, UM, Łódź, Poland). Figure 1 depicts the general schematic diagram of the radiation measurement setup.

In the GIG laboratory, the experimental setup consisted of a spectrometric system, a radioactive point source (Pb-210, Ba133 and Cs-137) in a lead collimator, and a shielding house (15 cm of aged lead covered by tin and copper). The collimator thickness was 5 cm. The diameter of the hole in the collimator was 1 mm. l Detector crystal parameters: active diameter 81 mm, active area 5000 mm2, thickness 31 mm, window material—carbon epoxy, window thickness—0.5 mm. The graphene samples were placed directly on the detector. The measurements were conducted by considering the number of counts in the appropriate photopeak for analysis and measurement times ranged from 5000 to 25,000 s, depending on the peak shape and count statistics. The goal was to obtain a peak with an uncertainty statistic of less than 5%. During the measurement, the sources had the following activities: Pb-210 approximately 138 kBq, Cs-137 approximately 130 kBq, and Ba-133 approximately 16 kBq.

In CLOR, the measurements were conducted using the TM23361 ionization chamber. The samples with different thicknesses were positioned between the source and the ionization chamber, ensuring the entire chamber was within the attenuated beam. The measurements were conducted in dose measurement mode. Seven one-minute exposures were performed without a sample to determine the reference value. It was made at the beginning and end of measurements to be sure nothing had changed during this time. The mean value (14 points) was taken as a reference value. Between these measurements, the procedure was repeated using samples. Additionally, the CLOR laboratory conducted the graphene nanocomposite examination using an X-ray generator model HF 320 produced by PANTAK with the X-ray tube MXR-350/26. The Cs-137 activity source is 410 ± 40 GBq.

The research conducted by the laboratory at the Department of Quality Control and Radiation Protection at the Medical University in Łódź focused on the use of three isotopes as sources of radiation: cobalt, barium, and cesium with photon energies of 122, 356, and 662 keV, respectively. The sources had the following activities: Co-57 approximately 175.5 MBq, Cs-137 approximately 370 kBq, and Ba-133 approximately 9912 kBq. For each radiation source, a calibration measurement was performed to verify the correct positioning of the detector’s energy window. Due to the limited energy resolution of the scintillation probe, photons within a specific energy range were recorded for each of the: Co-57: 104–156 keV; Ba-133: 320–392 keV; Cs-137: 562–761 keV. During the measurements, additional samples were added: for each material and thickness (~ 3 and 15 mm), three 1-min beam intensity measurements were taken, and the average count rate was used to calculate the gamma radiation attenuation coefficient.

In all three laboratories, the radiation measurements on the ABS/GNP composites were conducted in gamma and X-ray ranges. In each case the ionizing radiation detector compared photon counts with (N(x)) and without (N0) ABS/GNP composite layer, to determine linear (µx) or mass (µd) attenuation coefficient 25:

where x is the absorber’s thickness, and ρ its density. This was necessary to verify its theoretical calculations by the popular XCOM model21 which can determine crucial radiation properties of the vast majority of elements (or their mixture). The XCOM model is a widely used method for the prediction of highenergy photons interaction with matter21

Radiation protection applications are usually based on the mentioned linear or mass attenuation coefficient. However, in some medical cases, a more practical factor is HVL (half-value layer), which means the material that gives a 50% reduction of the radiation beam and is calculated by the following equation26: where μμx (cm-1) is the linear attenuation coefficient of the absorber, mentioned earlier.

Results and Discussion

Scanning electron microscope (Raith e-line +) provides an indication of the lateral dimension of the GNPs (see Fig. 2b) immersed in a composite as filler. For the analysis of the chemical composition and structure of the composite material, Raman Spectroscopy was employed (Renishaw inVia, 785 nm line, 50 × long-distance objective). In Fig. 2c, the Raman spectrum for pure ABS (bottom spectrum) and the ABS/GNP nanocomposite (top spectrum) are presented. For ABS, the main peak visible at 1001 cm-1 can be attributed to the breathing vibration of the benzene ring in the styrene-acrylonitrile part of ABS27,28 .

(a) Hot-pressed nanocomposite samples containing 10 wt% with a different dimension, (b) typical SEM image of graphene flakes immersed in the composite matrix, (c) normalized Raman spectra of pristine ABS and ABS/GNP nanocomposite showing the peaks corresponding to graphene and ABS, d) Raman map reflecting the relative intensity ratio of peaks corresponding to graphene and polymer base from the measured ABS/GNP (10wt%) composite sample.

The typical collected Raman spectrum of the ABS/GNPs nanocomposite, apart from the main polymer peak (with intensity lower than in the case of pure polymer), shows typical graphene bands (D, G and 2D), at 1315 cm-1, 1578 cm-1 and 2645 cm-1 , respectively29,30,31. Statistical Raman mapping shows that the graphene-related bands are detected in every place of the sample (based on the relative intensity of graphene G peak), thus confirming the uniform dispersion of graphene flakes within the polymer matrix (Fig. 2d). Further evidence of the graphene filler homogenization is reflected in the volume resistivity measurements reaching the value of ~ 180 S/m (measured using a single-post dielectric resonator QWED). Finally, we note that the EMI shielding properties for our graphene-composite have already been confirmed for a very broad range of frequencies, from megahertz up to terahertz radiation32

For the experimental investigations of gamma radiation of the ABS/GNP nanocomposites, we utilized four gamma-ray isotopes: Lead (Pb-210), Cobalt (Co-57), Barium (Ba-133), and Cesium (Cs-137) with a gamma photon energy of 46, 122, 356 and 662 keV, respectively. Every laboratory used their own radioactive sources. All results—linear attenuation coefficient— are presented in Table 1 and Fig. 3 (squares), together with the theoretical predictions based on the XCOM model21.

Table 1 Comparison of linear (µx) attenuation coefficients for four different isotopes, and their theoretical predictions based on the XCOM model.

1. All uncertainties represent two standard deviations.

Figure 3.

(a) Comparison of the beam (linear) attenuation coefficient for the Lead (Pb-210), Cobalt (Co-57), Barium (Ba-133), and Cesium (Cs-137) isotopes obtained by four different laboratories. Additionally, round points cover the results of X-ray irradiation for two different energies. The black solid line represents theoretical calculations (XCOM model). All uncertainties represent two standard deviations, (b) experimental and expected (XCOM) half value layer (cm) as a function of photon energy with arbitrary linear fit.

All attenuation coefficients are in the range of 0.07–0.5 cm-1 and are consistent with the theoretical prediction (XCOM model), however, some data scattering noise is observed, especially in the case of GIG results. The best agreement between theory and experiment is observed for gamma sources from UM and CLOR laboratories. The X-ray data points correspond to the mean energy values of the standard X-ray spectra, with horizontal error bars representing two standard deviations calculated from the energy distributions described in Supplementary information. Overall, these results show that the XCOM model is a useful tool for precise calculations of radiation attenuation coefficients and cross-sections of carbon-based composites.

All points are located in the energy region where Compton scattering dominates (with a weak influence of the photoelectric effect for the lowest energies). Electron–positron pair production is forbidden for this energy range. This means that all analyzed samples interacted with gamma and X-ray radiation via electrons interaction only, which may be important from the point of view of the specified electron structure in graphene. The XCOM model assumes that each absorbing material is a composition of single chemical elements with a standard electron structure. This means that different electron structures, especially with different bounding energies, can slightly influence the results where Compton scattering and photoeffect dominate (both are photon-electron interactions). Due to the graphene structure and the possibility of its modification (e.g., by negative charging of graphene), there is a chance to change its attenuation coefficient 20. This does not mean that an analogical situation was observed here—but the trend observed in Fig. 3a leaves room for further discussion.

The same results can be presented in a simple comparison between experimental and expected results of the linear attenuation coefficient for gamma and X-ray radiation (see: Fig. 3b). The experimental data represent the averaged values of the linear coefficient obtained from various laboratories. The results indicate that the experimental data is well-aligned with the theoretical data.

Typically, the predominant approach used to assess the overall filtration of material to the quality of the radiation beam, often referred to as penetrating energy, is defined by the half-value layer (Eq. 2). Therefore, we show HVL values, both for experimental and theoretical results in Fig. 4a. A noticeable correlation between photon energy and HVL suggests that higher energies penetrate more and require a greater thickness of an absorber to reduce radiation intensity by half. Also, the comparison of HVL values allows for additional validation of the theoretical model, confirming its consistency (see Fig. 4b).

(a) Comparison of experimental linear attenuation coefficient (cm-1) for gamma and X-ray radiation with theoretical data from XCOM, (b) experimental and theoretical HVL (cm) comparison.

An important criterion for validation of the shielding performance of our composite compared with other existing materials is the mass attenuation coefficient (linear attenuation coefficient divided by the material density). For the analysis, an averaged attenuation coefficient value from various laboratories for a specific photon energy was employed. The mass attenuation coefficients for two radiation ranges for selected materials and composites9,34,35,36,37,38,39,40 are presented in Fig. 5. For energies higher than 100 keV (that are widely used in industrial radiation sources), the radiation properties of our samples are better than other nanocomposite materials (GIG) or at least comparable (CLOR, UM).

Comparison of the mass attenuation coefficient for (a) X-ray and (b) gamma radiation for nanocomposite samples from the presented study and samples developed by other researchers (see: Supplementary information, Table S3).

Another validation of the shielding performance of our composite is the comparison with classical materials used as typical shields in radiation protection, namely aluminum, iron, copper, and lead. We used the data delivered by the Department of Quality Control and Radiation Protection (UM) for three photon energies mentioned earlier: 122, 356, and 662 keV. The result of that experimental investigation is presented in Supplementary information in Table S3.

Conclusions

We demonstrated pure graphene-based nanocomposites that can serve as potential radiation shields against ionizing radiation in the gamma and X-ray ranges, boasting a mass attenuation coefficient exceeding 0.2 cm2 /g. Experimental investigations show that their radiation properties are consistent with the theory (XCOM). This could enable the construction of e.g., appropriate radiation shields for industry and medicine, as the attenuation coefficients (linear or mass) are necessary to calculate the absorbing material thickness.

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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