Research

Enhanced ceramifying polymers 

The objective of this research is to develop ceramifying polymer materials for passive fire protection applications with enhanced properties, particularly improved strength, thermal resistance, thermal insulation, fire retardance and intumescence.

The industrial participant in this project, Ceram Polymerik, is developing a range of ceramifying polymer materials for passive fire protection applications. These materials are intended to be processable and functional, with properties similar to standard plastics and rubbers. In a fire situation they transform to a porous ceramic material that can act as a fire barrier. To be effective as passive fire protection materials, other characteristics need to be combined with ceramification. These include flame retardancy, intumescence and thermal resistance. To support the development and commercialisation of these materials, this project seeks to: provide a detailed understanding of ceramifying reactions; identify ceramic systems with enhanced performance; provide greater understanding of the transition from the polymer to the ceramic; study the fire performance of the materials and products through testing and modelling; and apply the technology in various polymer systems, addressing processability in particular.
 

Nanoengineered materials 

This project is making polymer-based materials which are nanoengineered for specialty applications by controlling the microenvironment around compounds or nanoparticles in the polymer matrix.

Tailored specialty polymers which alter the microenvironment in the immediate vicinity of compounds and nanoparticles in polymer matrices can significantly alter both the chemical and physical behaviour of the compounds and the effectiveness of the nanoparticles in property modification, allowing the production of polymer-based nanoengineered materials with enhanced properties. The technologies have potentially wide applications, but the research in this project has been directed towards additives for toughening polymers, novel materials for data storage, and photochromic dyes with tailored rates of fade in polymer matrices.
 

Polymer additives for improving nickel extraction processes 

This research is developing a functional polymer additive that changes the surface properties of talc selectively to aid its separation during the nickel extraction process.

The tendency for talc to float reduces the efficiency of many nickel extraction processes. The effect can be reduced to some extent by adding natural polymers such as guar gum. The improvement brought about by such reagents is, however, both variable and marginal. Moreover, no clear and coherent explanation for the way in which these polymers function exists.