School of Materials News
University of Manchester is part of £4.5m consortium for new super microscope funding
The University of Manchester has been awarded part of a £4.5m grant because of the quality of its microscopy research.
The grant, from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), has been given to the SuperSTEM consortium, consisting of the Universities of Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford and led by the University of Leeds,
This award reflects the internationally-leading research carried out under the existing smaller SuperSTEM consortium, notably the recent characterisation of graphene contributing to the Nobel Prize winning work of Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at The University of Manchester, and the future capabilities of the widened SuperSTEM consortium that carried the bid forward.
Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) uses computer-controlled lens correctors to form a probe of electrons smaller than the width of an atom. This is used to image nanostructures in atomic projection and also analyse the type of atom and its chemical bonding. Aberration-corrected STEM is a prime tool for the characterisation of nanostructures and nanotechnological devices.
Access to an aberration-corrected STEM facility is a key requirement for many areas of physics, chemistry, biochemistry and materials science and the new EPSRC National Facility for aberration-corrected STEM will provide "free at point of use" access to cutting-edge instruments for EPSRC funded researchers within the UK, and also for non-EPSRC and commercial users within the utilisation limits of the facility.
In addition, by widening the consortium, users of the EPSRC National Facility will also have access to other specialised aberration-corrected instruments at both the consortium universities and external partner universities such as Cambridge, Sheffield and Warwick, where required. These will provide access to additional important capabilities for STEM users.
SuperSTEM1, established in 2001, was the first instrument of its kind in Europe to incorporate a special lens system to correct for lens aberrations. It was soon followed by SuperSTEM2 - an even further corrected instrument.
Both instruments are situated at the SuperSTEM core site at the STFC Daresbury Laboratories in a purpose-built low-vibration laboratory and allow for a range of atomic resolution imaging and analysis techniques at various incident electron beam energies.
The SuperSTEMs excel in a special imaging technique, so-called atomic resolution high angle dark field (HAADF) imaging, which enables direct depiction of a material’s atomic structure, almost like showing its ball-and-stick model, especially suited to investigations of nano-material structures.
In a unique combination with atomic resolution electron loss spectroscopy detection, identification and site specification of individualatoms can be achieved, thus enabling spotting of a single impurity atom.
At Manchester, researchers have applied this technique to investigations of a number of exciting new materials, such as novel functional ceramics (perovskites), nano-materials for green energies (shelled semiconductor nano-particles), materials for silicon-based integrated opto- electronics (rare-earth doped Si-nanocrystals), uniquely doped carbon nanotubes and, especially, graphene.
SuperSTEM has also played an important role in a 'detective story' about uncovering secrets of gem diamonds, in collaboration with the Diamond Trading Company, a DeBeers group.
The vast majority of mined diamonds are brown in colour and considered worthless to the gem trade. However, these diamonds can be rendered sparkling and colourless like their gem-quality counterparts through high pressure heat treatment, so they could be bought for next-to-nothing and sold for large amounts of money.
Although ultra-violet spectroscopy can give some indication of original brownness, in order to take fundamental measures against tampering and rogue trade, DeBeers researchers have tried for many years to find the origin of the brown colour.
This was to no avail, because in terms of impurities (chemical content) and microstructure (defects) brown and colourless diamonds are identical. It was only through electron microscopy that it first emerged that tiny bubbles (vacancy clusters) – so far undetectable – might cause the difference in optical absorption.
SuperSTEM experiments accompanied by HAADF image modelling showed for the first time without doubt that nano-scale bubbles really exist in brown diamonds - his could only be evidenced in HAADF at atomic resolution, where cavities comprising of 50 or so missing atoms are visible. In addition, after high high temperature treatment (at ~25000C) under high pressure the colour, together with the cavities, has disappeared, leaving a perfect atomic lattice.
For further information please contact Dr Ursel Bangert, School of Materials at The University of Manchester, or visit the SuperSTEM website.
New Director for the Materials Performance Centre
The University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor M. Grace Burke as the new Director of the Materials Performance Centre.
Professor Burke is internationally-recognised in the fields of advanced microstructual characterisation, electron microscopy and irradiation embrittlement. She comes to Manchester from the Bettis Laboratory in Pittsburgh, where she was a Consultant in Materials Technology. Professor Andrew Sherry, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, said, "We are extremely pleased to welcome Professor Burke to Manchester.
"Professor Burke brings an international reputation for the use of advanced analytical techniques to understand materials issues in nuclear applications.
"Her appointment as Director of the MPC will strengthen the University's capability to support industry and research councils, and will further enhance the Materials Performance Centre's status as a centre of excellence in this field."
Professor Burke said, "I am delighted to be joining the MPC, and as Director I am looking forward to further developing and expanding our university/industry research partnerships.
"I aim to continue the Centre's advancement of fundamental understanding of the behaviour of materials in power generation systems."
Professor Burke joined Westinghouse Science and Technology Center in 1987, and transferred to the Westinghouse Bettis Laboratory in 1994. Prior to Westinghouse, at the US Steel Research Laboratory, and at the University of Pittsburgh, she performed the first atom probe analyses of neutron-irradiated pressure vessel steel welds, identifying the ultrafine solute clusters responsible for irradiation embrittlement of these materials.
She is a Fellow of ASM International, the Microscopy Society of America, and the Royal Microscopical Society, and is a member of TMS, IMS, IOM3 and the International Group on Radiation Damage Mechanisms in Pressure Vessel Steels. Professor Burke was also President of the Microscopy Society of America (2005). She has been an Associate Editor of Materials Characterization, and has served as an Editor of the Journal of Materials Science, and a member of various University Advisory Committees and DOE review panels.
Her research has dealt with the role of microstructure in the environment-sensitive behavior of materials, particularly austenitic stainless steels, low alloy steels and welds, and Ni-base alloys. She has extensive expertise in the application of advanced analytical techniques (AEM, STEM-EDXS microanalysis, HVEM, SEM, APFIM, etc.) to characterize metals and alloys with the objective of understanding material behavior.
IoM3 Prize Winning Academics
Three academics from the School of Materials have been recognized in the 2011 Awards and Prizes of the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining. Professor Paul O'Brien has been awarded the The Colin Humphreys' Education Awards in recognition of the contribution he has made to enhancing students' scientific or technological literacy through the teaching of materials.
Professor Robert Young has been awarded the Holliday Prize in recognition of his significant contribution relating to composite materials and Dr Joseph Robson has been granted the Grunfeld Memorial Award and Medal in recognition of his professional contribution which has had significant influence on the engineering application of components made from alloys in the metallurgical industries.
- Further details are at http://www.iom3.org/content/award-winners-2011
Implant jab could solve the misery of back pain
University of Manchester scientists have developed a biomaterial implant which could finally bring treatment, in the form of a jab, for chronic back pain.
Chronic lower back pain is a major problem for society – behind only headaches as the most common neurological ailment – and is frequently caused by degeneration of the intervertebral disc.
Researchers have worked for many years to find a way of repairing the wear and tear on the lower back.
Now, in results published in the journal Soft Matter, they have discovered how to permanently replace the workings of the invertebral disc.
It is estimated that back pain affects 80% of people at some point in their lives. In the United States it is the most common cause of job-related disability, a leading contributor to people missing work.
The University of Manchester cross-faculty team have been working with microgel particles, which are swellable nanoscopic polymer particles, for a number of years.
Previously, they have demonstrated that an injectable fluid of these particles could transform into a gel that restored the mechanical properties of damaged model intervertebral discs.
Lead researcher Dr Brian Saunders, of the School of Materials, and his team have now succeeded in linking the microgel particles together to form injectable durable, elastic gels capable of sustaining large permanent changes in shape without breaking.
Pupils given a taste of university life
Children from Glossopdale Community College and St Luke's Primary School were able to get a taste of life in the world of Materials Science when they visited The University as part of an outreach day.
Dr Nick Stevens, a lecturer in Corrosion and Protection, lead the day's events with help from Max Rowe, an outreach co-ordinator for the school, and Stephen Pool, an artist who works with students to make core subjects more accessible.
Children from both year six and year nine attended the event, and the year nine students will be completing a project that follows on from what they learnt on the day, before presenting it to the year six pupils who will be joining them at Glossopdale later in the year.
Sea Creatures and Cell Research
Sea creatures and cell research may seem like a strange pairing, but they have helped James Dugan become the first student in the UK to win the prestigious Graduate Student Award from the American Chemical Society’s Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division.
His paper, based on research carried out during the second year of his PhD in Materials Science, supervised by Dr Stephen Eichhorn and Dr Julie Gough, focuses on how Nanowhiskers – a type of fibre derived from tunicates – can be used to influence cell behaviour.
Nanowhiskers, at a mere 5-15 nanometers in diameter, are the smallest structures able to cause skeletal muscle cells to align parallel to each other.
Student Enterprise Success
Final year students on the Textiles Design and Design Management (Bsc) course have taken a task set as part of a third year module and turned it into a viable business.
The project, part of the compulsory Design Enterprise module, asks students to come up with a product or service and take it into the marketplace. The aim of the exercise is to allow students to simulate running a 'live' company.
The group of seven, who called their company TRingkets, chose to create a collection of unique rings.
Read moreNew scanning cabinet for School of Materials
The School of Materials has come into possession of a NX-16 cabinet scanner that combines body sizing technology and pattern creation in a single step.
The scanning cabinet looks like a simple brown box from the outside, but inside lurks sixteen lights and thirty-two cameras capable of creating a body map to within a one millimetre accuracy.
This technology, which connects to software developed at The University of Manchester, is revolutionising the clothing industry by allowing the creation of perfect pattern samples that can be altered at the touch of a button.
NCCEF now accredited
The National Composite Certification and Evaluation Facility (NCCEF) has received accreditation for its world class testing facilities from the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), the sole government-authorised accreditation body.
The NCCEF was set up a year ago, with the aim of supporting the North West aerospace composites industry by providing technical expertise and testing capabilities.
Approval from UKAS means that the NCCEF is able to forge stronger links with industry players. It is one of the few accredited centres in the country that is able to provide endorsed evaluation facilities with the intellectual support of a world class university research base.
Professors honoured by Royal Society for excellence in science
Two University of Manchester academics have been awarded prestigious awards for the excellence of their scientific work.
The Royal Society awarded Professor Andre Geim the Hughes Medal for his revolutionary discovery of graphene, and explanation of its remarkable properties.
The director of the Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology adds the medal to his long list of awards which reflect his stature in the world of scientific research after the discovery of graphene – the world's thinnest material – in 2004.
The Armourers and Brasiers Award was won by Professor Philip Withers, Professor of Materials Science and director of the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, for his pioneering work with neutron and X-ray beams.
Professor Withers was recognised for his use of these highly-penetrating beams to map stresses and to detect defects across a vast range of materials.
His work helps to introduce new manufacturing methods safely and identify potentially catastrophic cases of high stresses or defective materials for engineering components where mechanical failure is unacceptable, such as aeroplane engines or nuclear materials.
Professor Withers' team is regularly invited all over the world to carry out experiments at large facilities.
For his award, Professor Geim paid tribute to his colleagues, saying: "I am honoured to receive this award that recognises original discoveries in the physical sciences.
"Graphene is a supreme representative of a new class of materials that are one-atom-thick and until recently remained missing from our perception of the universe. During the last five years, graphene has become one of the hottest research topics, and the interest shows no sign of receding. “The area continues deliver a new exciting science, and the applications are no longer wishful thinking. Our work previously attracted a number of awards, and the recognition by the Royal Society is of course a great source of personal pride.
"Also, it is testament to the hard work and dedication taking place here at the University of Manchester, with my many colleagues contributing to this achievement."
Professor Withers added: "Of course it is nice to be honoured in this way. It is also a credit to all the PhD students and post doctoral fellows who travel all around the world carrying out these experiments, often working very long hours at a stretch to make an experiment a success.
"Through this work we can gain a unique picture of materials and how they perform in 3D. I am delighted to have this recognition from the Royal Society and thank them greatly for it."
The Professors will receive their awards on November 30th 2010. The Royal Society, the UK's independent academy for science, recognises excellence of scientific work and the profound implications their findings have had for others working in their relevant fields and wider society.
Weighty transport problem gets £5.7m boost
Scientists at the University of Manchester will use a £5.7m grant to help develop new super-light materials solutions for building greener cars and aircraft.
The five and a half year collaborative project – led by the University – aims to help deliver dramatic reductions in the environmental impact of transport, by finding ways of improving the design of high performance light alloys in the transport sector.
A team of eight multi-disciplinary academics, led by Professor George Thompson in the School of Materials, will investigate techniques for forming complex component architectures, joining advanced alloys and dissimilar materials, and engineering surfaces for low environmental impact, while ensuring low cost and recyclability.
Another area they will investigate is the use of coatings with self-healing properties to protect critical materials used in new design solutions.
Researchers will also exploit innovative approaches to process modelling and simulation in order to accelerate the use of new techniques and technology in industry.
The LATEST2 (Light Alloys Towards Environmentally Sustainable Transport 2nd Generation) Project is being funded by a Programme Grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
George Thompson, Professor of Corrosion Science and Engineering, said: "This important grant provides us with secure funding over several years to develop the scientific understanding to meet the challenge of building lighter vehicles and aircraft with lower carbon emissions and better fuel economy."
"It also enables us, in conjunction with academic and industrial collaborators, to promote awareness of the importance of engineering and physical sciences – and materials in particular – to the fabric of everyday life."
EPSRC Programme grants are a flexible mechanism to provide funding to world-leading research groups to address major research challenges. They are intended to support a suite of related research activities focusing on one strategic research challenge.
The Programme Grant will build on the success of the original LATEST Portfolio Partnership. More details.
An official project launch event will be held at the University of Manchester in June 2010.
University puts art of science into focus
A sinister late night shadow of Archimedes and the jagged and intimate properties of a ceramic – just two of the winning entries in a new science photography competition held in the School of Materials. The contest was launched to encourage students in the School of Materials to explore their artistic side and to promote the quality of their work and the Materials discipline in an exciting way.
And organisers were delighted with the response, which saw around 50 images submitted from over 20 students.
In the Undergraduate category, Sean Lyons, a final year student studying Fashion and Textile Retailing, took first prize for 'Breaking-out'. Taken late at night after Sean had been working in the Sackville Street Building on the North campus, the photo captures the light created from the building but also other sources of light, fabricating the shadow created from the statue of Archimedes.
In the Postgraduate category, Margaret Wegrzyn, who is taking a PhD in Piezoelectric Ceramics in Materials Science, scooped first prize for her image showing the piezoelectric properties of a ceramic. Piezoelectric materials are a vital part of our modern world, with applications as diverse as spark igniters, micropositoners in cameras and fuel injection systems in cars. The ceramic studied in this image is NKLN – a candidate material to replace the harmful piezoelectric ceramics containing lead.
Full story here, and full image gallery here. The BBC in Manchester also covered the story with an online image gallery entitled 'The Art of Science'.
Scientists 'virtually restore' 16th century tapestry at Hampton Court Palace
Scientists from the School of Materials are to turn back the clock 500 years - to reveal the original splendour of a faded 16th century tapestry.
Professor Chris Carr, Dr. Huw Owens and Ruth Perkins, from the School of Materials, have spent the past three years scrutinising every thread of 'The Oath and Departure of Eliezer', which was commissioned by King Henry VIII and now hangs at Hampton Court Palace. Read more here...
Spring 09
School Newsletter
The latest School newsletter is available to download here.
This second issue has focused on research that is happening in the school, with an introduction by Professor George Thompson laying out the strategic goals for research in Corrosion and Protection.
Features in this issue include:
- Launch of the Materials Network - the interactive alumni website where you can catch up with friends, link up with local alumni groups in your part of the world, and keep up to date with University reunion events and news!
- Long Lost Thesis Sparks
Manchester Memories
Dr Adrian Roberts, alumnus of the University and leading figure in the nuclear engineering industry, has been reunited with a long lost PhD thesis he completed 40 years ago – thanks to the efforts of staff at The University of Manchester - Sugar Study is Sweetener for Stem Cell Science
- Research within The Materials Performance Centre
- DIAMOND - Decommissioning Immobilisation and Management of Nuclear Waste Disposal
- Funding for a Pathfinder project focused on delivering an MSc in Technical Textiles.
- Distance Learning - Top-up or learn new skills with Manchester Materials Masters
- 3D grain mapping by Diffraction Contrast Tomography
- Armourers and Brasiers' Fellowship for Manchester PDRA Dr Xiaofeng Zhao
- Royal Society of Chemistry award for Professor George Thompson
- Riaz Akhtar has been awarded the British Heart Foundation Advanced Training Fellowship
- Lessons in Paper for the conservation team from the John Rylands University Library
School of Materials scientists create bedtime 3D fun
Chris Carr and colleagues from the School of Materials has teamed up with Manchester based licensed textile company Character World and brand management firm Brand 360 to produce an innovative range of 3D Spider-Man duvet covers and bed linen.
The University of Manchester has teamed up with Manchester based licensed textile company Character World and brand management firm Brand 360 to produce an innovative range of 3D Spider-Man duvet covers and bed linen.
The new product range – recently featured on BBC's Newsround - uses an innovative digital processing and printing technique, which incorporates both 2D and 3D imagery. This means that when viewing normally a striking Spider-Man image can be seen, but when 3D glasses are worn, the third dimension instantly becomes apparent.
The design technology, developed by Textiles Research at the School of Materials and Tri-D Textiles – a company started by academics at the University - will feature exclusively in the Autumn/Winter Argos catalogue. Professor Robert Young, Head of the School of Materials, said: "This has been an excellent opportunity for the University and Tri-D Textiles Limited. We've broken dimensional shackles to create dynamic imagery on textiles. We'll be working with Character World and Brand 360 to bring more innovations to the market."
Danny Schweiger, director at Character World, said: "This new product range is a first for Character World and I’m confident our innovative design will fly off the shelves. It looks fantastic without the glasses and even better with them when the final dimension is revealed. We are planning to apply this technique to other characters that we license in the near future."
Imaging Graphene
Research into graphene, a two dimensional crystal consisting of a single atomic plane of carbon atoms, has gone from strength to strength since its discovery by Andre Geim's group in the Physics Department at Manchester University.
Uschi Bangert from the School of Materials and her colleagues have, for the first time, obtained atomic scale images of free-standing single layer graphene by using the high angle annular dark field imaging technique, carried out in an aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (the Daresbury SuperSTEM). The atomic lattice seen to the left is a direct depiction of the ball-and-stick model of a sheet of carbon atoms, where bright contrast corresponds to atoms and dark contrast to the gaps in between (figure1). This means also that defects, such as missing atoms, are immediately visible (see black region on left hand side of the image).
Colour X-ray Imaging
Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed a new X-ray technique that uses the multiple wavelengths of X-rays (or colour) to create an image. This extra information can be used to specifically identify the material that scattered the X-ray beam.
The rapid technique, developed by a team of scientists led by Professor Bob Cernik from the School of Materials, is known as Tomographic Energy Dispersive Diffraction Imaging or TEDDI. The TEDDI method is a non-destructive multidisciplinary technique that is highly applicable to a wide range of application including tissue identification; security scanning for explosives or in aerospace engineering to measure strain in manufactured components. The TEDDI method is not new but building a rapid scanning system involved two major engineering challenges. These were the design and construction of advanced detectors and collimators pioneered at Daresbury Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and The University of Cambridge.
The prototype has been used to make test images and further trials are progressing to examine larger, denser objects.
For more details, see this news article in New Scientist.
The innovative work is reported in The Journal of the Royal Society Interface (2008) 5, 477-481doi:10.1098/rsif.2007.1249 Published online 27 November 2007
Professor Paul Hogg takes up the New Chair in Composite Materials
The School is delighted to welcome Professor Paul Hogg, a leading expert in the field of Composite Materials, who took up the new Chair in Composite Materials on 1 January 2008. Professor Hogg will be involved with two of the School's centres of research - the Northwest Composites Centre and the Aerospace Research Institute (UMARI) – and will be an important link to a number of leading universities in China, including the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Previously the Head of Materials at Queen Mary, University of London, Professor Hogg is a distinguished member of the Materials community - recently elected as a Freeman of the Armourers and Brasiers Livery Company, Professor Hogg also won the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining's prestigious Leslie Holliday Prize in 2007.
Cell printing pioneer short listed for major prize
Professor Brian Derby, who has developed technology that allows tailor-made tissues and bones to be grown, has been short listed for a major international prize that recognises world changing ideas.
Professor Derby uses inkjet printing technology to fabricate complex tissue scaffolds on which cells can be grown.
His aim is to use inkjet printing to build 3-D structures that contain both the living cells and the scaffold materials. The ability to print skin and bone and, ultimately, whole artificial organs is a possibility.
Professor Derby attended a finals ceremony of the Saatchi and Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas in New York on 21 February, where ten finalists exhibited their innovations.
Nanofibre production facility
The Textiles and Paper group in The School of Materials is set to benefit from a new cutting-edge nanofibre production facility.
The facility will create a technology pipeline to supply its own world leading weaving and knitting facilities with the raw material to engineer the next generation of technical textiles.
By incorporating the tailor-made fibres into sophisticated 3D woven and knitted fabrics, the group will reinforce its position as one of the major University textiles centres in the world.
The innovative new facility is being established with support from The Clothworkers' Livery Company.
Professor Chris Carr, Head of the Textiles and Paper group, expects this integrated approach to provide a global focus for industry to create revolutionary textile structures, composed of nanofibrous materials containing nanoparticles, which will offer a new level of performance in composites, filtration, personal protection, medical textiles and sportswear.
Another aim is to present the first nanofibre fashion collection in the world, incorporating innovative design with groundbreaking aesthetics.
Tissue Engineering Laboratories
The School of Materials has recently been awarded a Wolfson Refurbishment Grant from The Royal Society for a suite of new Tissue Engineering laboratories. The labs will open in the summer of 2007 and provide additional new space and facilities for research and teaching. Comprising a microbiology laboratory with radiation facilities, a cell culture suite, dedicated microscope facility, and large bio / nanotechnology laboratory, with future developments including a confocal microscope, the state-of-the-art tissue engineering laboratories will be the newest addition to the School's world-class facilities.
Sunday Times Gold Award
Materials Science at the University of Manchester has been rated as a gold standard Centre of Excellence by the Sunday Times Good University Guide. This is based on the school's international research rating over the past 10 years.