A skin-on-a-chip device for investigating wound healing. This project aims to research the mechanism of skin wound healing. It will design a skin-on-a-chip microfluidic device that mimics human skin in vitro. This device will reduce the need for animal studies and assess how active compounds heal wounds. This project will design smart polymers with superior properties for controlled delivery of multiple active compounds in this device and choose the most effective combination of compounds to boo ....A skin-on-a-chip device for investigating wound healing. This project aims to research the mechanism of skin wound healing. It will design a skin-on-a-chip microfluidic device that mimics human skin in vitro. This device will reduce the need for animal studies and assess how active compounds heal wounds. This project will design smart polymers with superior properties for controlled delivery of multiple active compounds in this device and choose the most effective combination of compounds to boost skin healing rate. This knowledge may ultimately be used to develop wound dressings that maximise healing rate for various skin defects such as chronic wounds and decrease health care costs.Read moreRead less
Engineering the next generation of scaffolds. Engineering the next generation of scaffolds. This project aims to develop high efficiency quantum dots based on carbon nanomaterials, integrated with scaffolds and viable tissue cells, which can be used to develop smart implants with monitoring capabilities to reduce patient trauma and expenses. In certain cases, more than 50% of medical implants fail. Improving effective intervention is urgently needed, particularly monitoring of implants and early ....Engineering the next generation of scaffolds. Engineering the next generation of scaffolds. This project aims to develop high efficiency quantum dots based on carbon nanomaterials, integrated with scaffolds and viable tissue cells, which can be used to develop smart implants with monitoring capabilities to reduce patient trauma and expenses. In certain cases, more than 50% of medical implants fail. Improving effective intervention is urgently needed, particularly monitoring of implants and early diagnosis to prevent rejections and adverse reactions. Current methods are inefficient, expensive, and induce toxicity. A non-toxic and non-invasive method to monitor the progress of tissue regeneration and wound healing is expected to place Australia at the forefront of developing implants.Read moreRead less
Powder blending for dry powder inhalers: a new approach for direct control of powder structure. Over 80 per cent of pharmaceutical products involve the processing of powders. This project will generate new knowledge of how to assemble fine and cohesive particles into the structure required for dry powder inhaler products, leading to the development of new low-cost medicines in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
Very thin, highly oriented and featured diamond films. The technology for making very thin diamond films, having sculpted surface features and fabricated from tiny and highly oriented individual diamond crystallites, would enable widespread potential applications, including eg surface acoustic wave devices, optical biosensors for ?lab-on-a-chip?, and field emitter arrays for paper thin, bright and wide angle flat panel displays, amongst others. Diamond is uniquely suited to these applications, ....Very thin, highly oriented and featured diamond films. The technology for making very thin diamond films, having sculpted surface features and fabricated from tiny and highly oriented individual diamond crystallites, would enable widespread potential applications, including eg surface acoustic wave devices, optical biosensors for ?lab-on-a-chip?, and field emitter arrays for paper thin, bright and wide angle flat panel displays, amongst others. Diamond is uniquely suited to these applications, and the capability to manipulate film properties and features which is the key requirement, is within grasp.Read moreRead less
Production of hydrogen from biomass by integrated catalytic aqueous hydrolysis and reforming in subcritical water. The outcomes of this project will lead to the development of a novel process for efficient and cost-effective hydrogen production from renewable biomass using integrated hydrolysis and catalytic aqueous reforming at low temperatures. Such technological innovation will provide significant benefits to Australia as a whole for transition to a truly sustainable hydrogen economy. The nov ....Production of hydrogen from biomass by integrated catalytic aqueous hydrolysis and reforming in subcritical water. The outcomes of this project will lead to the development of a novel process for efficient and cost-effective hydrogen production from renewable biomass using integrated hydrolysis and catalytic aqueous reforming at low temperatures. Such technological innovation will provide significant benefits to Australia as a whole for transition to a truly sustainable hydrogen economy. The novel reaction system and research methodologies proposed in this proposal will certainly enhance Australia's science and technology capability and international competitiveness, in the area of reaction engineering. Also of the national benefit is the successful training of a postgraduate at PhD level who will no doubt add to future scientific research workforce.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100952
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
A chemical looping process for carbon fibre production from plastics. This project aims to develop Mineral Looping Plastic Reforming (MLPR), a chemical looping reforming process for tonnage production of carbon nanofibers from plastic waste. This efficient process uses naturally occurring minerals (limestone, dolomite and ilmenite) to convert plastic waste to carbon nanofibers. The project will research the inner working of the MLPR process and the reforming reactions of plastics in the presence ....A chemical looping process for carbon fibre production from plastics. This project aims to develop Mineral Looping Plastic Reforming (MLPR), a chemical looping reforming process for tonnage production of carbon nanofibers from plastic waste. This efficient process uses naturally occurring minerals (limestone, dolomite and ilmenite) to convert plastic waste to carbon nanofibers. The project will research the inner working of the MLPR process and the reforming reactions of plastics in the presence of naturally occurring mineral mixtures. This project is expected to make Australia a leader in waste use, facilitate the uptake of abundant waste streams to produce high value products, and resolve sustainability, energy and environmental issues in Australia.Read moreRead less
Perfect particles: Accurate breakage predictions by 3D printing of granules. Granule breakage of micro-structured specialty products impedes manufacturing and degrades product performance. Predictive breakage models have had limited success as each granule has a unique structure. Differences between the model predictions and experimental breakage test results could be due to inaccurate models or irreproducible experimental results due to granule structure differences. This project is expected to ....Perfect particles: Accurate breakage predictions by 3D printing of granules. Granule breakage of micro-structured specialty products impedes manufacturing and degrades product performance. Predictive breakage models have had limited success as each granule has a unique structure. Differences between the model predictions and experimental breakage test results could be due to inaccurate models or irreproducible experimental results due to granule structure differences. This project is expected to be the first ever application of three-dimensional printing for reproducible breakage testing. The project aims to: create the first ever multiple identical copies of complex granules using polyjet three-dimensional printing; model and experimentally measure granule breakage; and develop sophisticated Digital Elevation Models of granule breakage for practical use in industry.Read moreRead less
Improvements and Optimisation of Water Electrolysis for Hydroxy Gas Production for Metal Cutting Applications. The current technique for metal cutting mainly uses oxygen-acetylene flames, which means for the large number of Australian remote communities oxygen and acetylene bottles have to be transported from major cities. This incurs significant transport costs and associated environmental emissions and presents major safety concerns. Hydroxy flames using electrolysis of water can alleviate the ....Improvements and Optimisation of Water Electrolysis for Hydroxy Gas Production for Metal Cutting Applications. The current technique for metal cutting mainly uses oxygen-acetylene flames, which means for the large number of Australian remote communities oxygen and acetylene bottles have to be transported from major cities. This incurs significant transport costs and associated environmental emissions and presents major safety concerns. Hydroxy flames using electrolysis of water can alleviate these problems and, by utilising renewable electricity, the new technology to be developed in this research will transform tens of thousands of Australian metal workshops to be more environmentally friendly, safer and more cost-effective, thus contributing to the development of an environmentally sustainable Australia. Read moreRead less
Epitaxial Stacking of Nanoporous Nanosheets for Next-generation Membranes. The project aims to develop high-precision selective membranes which are urgently needed in Australian key industries for solute-solute separation by constructing vertically-aligned and chemically-tailorable nanochannels using two-dimensional porous nanosheets as building blocks. The project expects to generate advanced knowledge in the areas of nanosheet synthesis and functionalisation, membrane design and fabrication, s ....Epitaxial Stacking of Nanoporous Nanosheets for Next-generation Membranes. The project aims to develop high-precision selective membranes which are urgently needed in Australian key industries for solute-solute separation by constructing vertically-aligned and chemically-tailorable nanochannels using two-dimensional porous nanosheets as building blocks. The project expects to generate advanced knowledge in the areas of nanosheet synthesis and functionalisation, membrane design and fabrication, selective transport of solutes and applications. The membranes developed in the project should make existing separation processes more effective and sustainable and advance emerging applications in pharmaceutical, dairy and mining industries, providing significant economic and environmental benefits to Australia.Read moreRead less
High performance electrode materials for Reversible Solid Oxide Cells. This project aims to develop high-performance electrode materials used in reversible solid oxide cells (RSOC), which are a promising electrical energy storage technology. RSOC can work as solid oxide electrolysis cells for fuel production from electricity and as solid oxide fuel cells for electricity generation from fuel. The RSOC technology has the potential to provide a large-scale electrical energy storage solution for the ....High performance electrode materials for Reversible Solid Oxide Cells. This project aims to develop high-performance electrode materials used in reversible solid oxide cells (RSOC), which are a promising electrical energy storage technology. RSOC can work as solid oxide electrolysis cells for fuel production from electricity and as solid oxide fuel cells for electricity generation from fuel. The RSOC technology has the potential to provide a large-scale electrical energy storage solution for the widespread penetration of intermittent renewable energy resources into the electrical grid.Read moreRead less