Materials Design, Processing and Characterisation

Our research focuses on designing, processing and characterising materials; understanding the underlying material science and taking into account sustainability and socio-economic aspects.

Fastblade composite material design and fabrication

Research Overview

Materials science and engineering research for applications such as renewable energy, structural engineering, separation technology and biomedical devices.

Specific material areas covered:

  • Composite materials
  • Polymers
  • Inorganic materials
  • Nanomaterials
  • Membranes
  • Phototcatalysts
  • Porous materials
  • Materials synthesis
  • Snow and ice
  • Soft matter
  • Materials at extreme conditions
  • Materials manufacture

Research Facilities

Academics

  • Dr Jane Blackford: Metals, ice and snow, polymers, tribology, surfaces & interfaces 
  • Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh: Continuous-fibre reinforced polymer composites, thermoplastic and thermoset polymers, fatigue, permeability, crystallisation 
  • Dr Cher Hon Lau: Scale-up production of porous nanomaterials/polymers, gas separation membranes, nanofiltration membranes 
  • Professor Xianfeng Fan: Photocatalysts, wetting, enhanced oil/gas recovery, microwave enhanced reactors, particle technology, CO2 technology 
  • Dr Yi (Harvey) Huang: Porous materials, ultrathin membranes, Zeolite/MOF Nanostructures for drug delivery, ultra-stable catalysts 
  • Professor Konstantin Kamenev: Instrumentation design including finite-element methods for high-pressure research, materials at the extreme conditions 
  • Professor Vasileios Koutsos: Soft matter, polymers, surfaces, interfaces, coatings, films, composites, nanocomposites, friction, adhesion, wetting, surface metrology & characterisation, AFM 
  • Dr Edward McCarthy: FRP composites, impact damage reductions, self-sensing systems, fatigue and fibre fragmentation, thermoplastic and biphasic polymers 
  • Dr Frank Mill: Managing and modelling entire product lifecycle, ECM process modelling and experimental validation 
  • Dr Norbert Radacsi: Nanostructured materials, (3D) electrospinning, fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors, tissue engineering, biosensors, pharmaceuticals 
  • Dr Dipa Roy: Polymers and composite materials, CF/PEEK composites, thermoplastic fibre-metal laminates, in-situ polymerisation, biocomposites 
  • Dr George Serghiou: Engineering of chemicals, extreme conditions, new bulk and nanomaterial landscape 
  • Dr Wei Li: Photocatalysis for environmental applications, materials in biology and healthcare 
  • Dr Samuel Tammas-Williams: Additive manufacture of metal components, X-ray computed tomography, materials integrity, functionally graded materials 
  • Dr Parvas Allam: Biomimetic design, mechanical metamaterials, biocomposites engineering 
  • Dr Santiago Romero-Vargas Castrillon: transport process in environmental systems, membrane systems, water quality control
  • Dr Dongmin Yang: Manufacturing and structure of composite materials, computational modelling 
  • Dr Nan Yu: Digitally supported processes, large-scale metrology, advanced plasma technologies, ultra-precision manufacturing 
  • Dr Ignacio Tudela-Montes: Electrochemical reactors, electrode materials, sonochemical reactors, tribology 
  • Dr Tayebeh Ameri: Printed semiconductors, organic photovoltaics, perovskite photovoltaics, and hybrid detectors for energy, electronic and medical applications 
  • Dr Colin Robert: Advanced manufacturing of polymer composites