New Materials
When Chemical Engineers and Materials Scientists work together, new and exciting opportunities are generated.
Chemical Engineers don’t just design chemical plants. In today’s world, we also work at the nano-level. This is a very active area of research in Newcastle because of the integration of Chemical Engineering and Materials.
Nanoscale optoelectronics: We are developing exciting new processes to form nano-diamonds. These have important applications as biological markers as a result of their unique optical properties.
Functionalised nanoparticles: Nanoparticles are used in a wide range of products – all the way from cosmetics to water treatment in developing countries. We design nanoparticles with novel properties to improve, for example, sunblocks.
Tissue engineering: Tissue engineering has the potential to deliver exciting future technologies. It may surprise you to know that we are working on tissue engineering for embryonic heart development with the Newastle Medical School.
Property modelling: Will it ever be possible for Chemical Engineers to model a chemical plant starting from behaviour at the molecular level and quantum mechanics? We take our understanding of behaviour at the atomic level and use it to create models which describe relationships between the structure of a material and its properties. This work has been used in the design of real products such as solar-control coatings.