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Knowledge Centre For Materials Chemistry
NEWSLETTER June 2010 - Edition 2
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NEW PROJECTS SUSTAIN MOMENTUM |
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One year on from our launch, and with gathering momentum in recent months, KCMC is well on track to meet and exceed expectations in helping to commercialise product and process innovation in key industry sectors.
We are leveraging the materials chemistry expertise of KCMC’s core partners across over 40 initiated or completed industry projects. Some 15 projects have been added in the first five months of 2010, continuing the high growth rate seen through the closing months of 2009. Of the total, 19 have been exclusively funded by companies, with the balancing 22 being joint industry-grant funded.
Together, these projects have already generated significant financial numbers,
with the total value of the industry programme at £4m. Total new project funds since the start of 2010 now exceed £1m.
Income from industry since end-2008 has exceeded £1.9m. and additional grant income to support industry goals reached £2m. Capital investment in KCMC assets is now well in excess of £3m.
This second newsletter variously profiles newly-added capabilities and our mission to help fast-track commercial application of new developments in materials chemistry – with key examples in electronics, healthcare and advanced materials.
With KCMC’s pace and agenda across this broad front of activity, our third newsletter - in late summer - should have much to record!
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Dr John Conti-Ramsden
KCMC Director
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THE NORTHERN WAY PRINTABLE ELECTRONICS PROJECT AND THE KCMC |
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Printable electronics is an emerging disruptive technology with the potential for global impact. The current market is around $1Bn and is estimated to grow to $48Bn by 2017, with further substantial growth in the years beyond. Through OMIC at the University of Manchester, KCMC is playing a key role in the design, formulation and scale-up of state of the art materials.
The technology exploits the use of conducting and semi-conducting organic materials, dielectrics and metal nano particles which can all be formulated and printed to generate organic circuits and electronic devices. Early market applications which have already emerged include OLED displays for mobile phones, MP3 players and the Plastic Logic Que E-reader.
To enable innovation in this key market The Northern Way, (a unique initiative formed as a partnership between the three northern Regional Development Agencies; Yorkshire Forward, Northwest Regional Development Agency and One North East) through its £15m Innovation Programme has prioritised printable electronics as one of four investment areas to support across the North.
As the North of England has an established industry and academic base in chemicals, materials, process equipment and electronics the Northern Way Printable Electronics project is seeking to exploit these core strengths to develop and build a supply chain for technology across the region. Through an investment of £6.5m the project will:
• Create a supply chain for the delivery of high value materials and components to the electronics market
• Stimulate end user interest in printable electronics technologies by delivering early demonstrator products
• Raise the profile of the North of England as a centre of expertise in the global printable electronics market
To create a supply chain for printable electronics the project has leveraged the skills, facilities and expertise across the region to focus on five keys tasks/work packages. These are (1) design and formulation of novel, state of the art materials, (2) scale up of materials syntheses, (3) flexible substrate development and selection (4) component manufacturing and (5) integration into displays.
Materials chemistry is at the heart of tasks (1) and (2) and the KCMC, through Professor Steve Yeates at OMIC at the University of Manchester, is leading the work on the design, lab scale synthesis and formulation of novel organic semiconductors. There has been significant progress with both work packages 1 and 2, with the team at OMIC continuing to design and synthesise two novel classes of organic semiconductors.
The first candidate molecule from OMIC has been tested by PETEC and has afforded a mobility in the order of 0.5cm2/Vs. To give some perspective, this material would easily satisfy the requirements for E-paper and some printed circuit applications. It is anticipated that novel molecules and formulated electronic inks will emerge from the project having mobilities in the order of 2-5cm2/Vs.
These organic semiconductor materials are being introduced into the scale up work package where good progress is being made on developing robust, highly reproducible synthetic routes to 1 kilo quantities of the final product. One of the chemical companies has scaled up some of the key intermediate steps to multi-kilo batch size, which is impressive after only one year into the programme.
The development of improved organic semiconductors having high mobility, excellent stability and solution processability will continue to be of huge interest to electronics companies across the world. As high mobility organic semiconductors and synthetic routes for their manufacture become more established and validated, the emphasis of the R&D effort is likely to shift towards improving the processability of these actives and understanding the key role that ink formulation has to play.
Beyond the first phase of the Northern Way project in March 2011, OMIC has an important role to play in the formulation development of the organic semiconducting materials and ‘hybrid’ nano-inks.
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LIVERPOOL LEADS STEP CHANGE FOR STEM CELL TRACKING |
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Marking a classic KCMC project in the Healthcare space, partner the University of Liverpool has received a prestigious EPSRC award to develop the long-term tracking of stem cells. The interdisciplinary collaboration between physical scientists and stem cell biologists aims to develop the technology to monitor stem cells using a non-invasive method called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The Principle Investigator on the project - for ultrastable targeted multifunctional hybrid nanomaterials - is Liverpool’s Prof. Matt Rosseinsky who is also one of KCMC’s academic leads.
Stem cell monitoring is crucial because if the cells migrate to other organs and tissues besides the target organ they could cause serious health problems for the patient. Stem cell monitoring is also necessary to improve the understanding of how the cells mediate their positive effects.
The technology proposed is based on tracking superparamagnetic iron
oxide nanoparticles, or 'SPIONs'. The main advantage of SPIONs is that their nanoscale dimensions enable easy introduction into cells without detrimental side effects.
Currently, a major obstacle preventing use of SPIONs for stem cell tracking is that in most cases they are not retained by the stem cells for more than a few weeks. Therapeutic or adverse effects of the stem cells would potentially manifest well beyond two weeks. A strong need therefore exists for a step change technology enabling cell tracking for much longer periods after transplantation.
To achieve the goal the group will design and chemically synthesise novel coatings for the SPIONs that will protect them from degradation. To identify the most effective coatings, a new imaging technology developed by the group will be used, allowing monitoring of the retention time of the SPIONs within single cells in a culture dish before entering into in vivo studies.
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BOLTON: NOVEL SYSTEMS FOR FIRE RESISTANT MARINE COMPOSITES |
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KCMC partner IMRI at the University of Bolton is working jointly with Southampton University to develop, construct, test and model novel, co-blended polymer matrix systems for fire-resistant structural marine composites. Collaboration with a wide range of marine industry technical interests is a feature of the advanced materials project.
These composites will have reduced weight and production cost compared to current structures and will produce minimum smoke and toxic products on burning.
This proposal is a joint endeavour by the ‘Fire Materials’ group at the University of Bolton, led by Prof. Baljinder Kandola, and the ‘Fluid Structure Interactions Research Group’ (FSIRG) at the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering sciences.
Reduced combustibility:
The main objective is to develop a modified polymeric matrix to reduce the combustibility of the vinyl ester or polyester resins currently used in marine composites. This will be achieved by blending with appropriately modified phenolic and melamine resins, which will increase the thermal stability and char-forming capacity of the matrix.
The physical and chemical properties of the modified resin will be optimised to enable the resin to be infusible for resin transfer moulding, low temperature curing, to maximize compatibility and bonding with glass fibres - and to permit up-scaling to produce large laminates.
The composite laminates thus produced are expected to comply with fire performance requirements in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) as “IMO/HSC Code” (Code of Safety for High Speed craft of the International Maritime Organisation). Predictive models of the real-time and burning-induced degradation of mechanical properties are also to be developed; these models will be validated by small to medium scale representative coupon tests.
The composites are expected to find additional applications in other engineering arenas where low-weight, thermally resistant and fire-retardant structures are increasingly being sought – including land transport and aeronautical applications.
Industry collaboration:
The project has attracted collaborators across all relevant sectors of the marine market. These range from materials suppliers (Scott Bader) to shipyards (BVT) and their wider trade body representing builders, designers, suppliers (BMF) to operators (Royal National Life Boat Institution and MoD/Dstl/Royal Navy). The collaboration also involves regulators (Lloyd’s Register and MoD) and statutory agencies (Maritime and Coastguard Agency).
They will provide guidance on practical issues in materials selection, design and topology specification and analysis, regulatory issues, statutory constraints, boat and shipyard production challenges and vessel operating issues that impinge on design and materials selection.
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MICROSTUCTURES: EUROPEAN FIRST FOR STFC DARESBURY |
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KCMC partner STFC Daresbury Laboratory’s Innovations and Technology Centre (I-TAC) has become the first in Europe to offer companies and researchers access to the Hitachi TM3000 Scanning Electron Microscope.
It facilitates open customer access to leading edge materials characterisation technology, complementing Daresbury’s various hi-tech offerings.
Hitachi's new tabletop microscope will simplify and facilitate research and observation of the microstructures of material surfaces. With a magnification of up to 30,000 times, it has a wide range of potential applications.
I-TAC provides businesses and researchers, from across the UK, with affordable and flexible access to cutting edge scientific equipment that, until its launch in February 2010, had only been readily available to academic researchers and large budget companies.
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JOINT HOSTING OF UKTI PRINTED ELECTRONICS INWARD MISSION |
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KCMC, through the Organic Materials Innovation Centre (OMIC) at the University of Manchester and the Photonics and Polymer Electronics KTN, hosted a UKTI inward mission in Printed Electronics in early May.
The inward mission comprised companies, academic institutions and NGOs from both Finland and Belgium. The meeting at OMIC was structured to provide the maximum opportunity for interaction between the inward mission delegates and companies and organisations active in printed electronics in the Northwest and the wider UK.
Ten companies and organisations from Finland, four from Belgium and eleven from the UK gave presentations, engaged in one-to-one meetings and toured the OMIC laboratories in the School of Chemistry. The consensus from all those participating was that the meeting had provide an excellent opportunity to exchange information on expertise, products, capabilities and interests and to identify a number of business opportunities to progress from these interactions.
If you are interested in participating in future UKTI initiatives in printed electronics please contact: Tricia Francis or Mike Holmes
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KCMC PARTNERS – UPDATE WRAP…. |
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BOLTON: Enhancement of smart materials and systems capability for electronics and renewable energy through
KCMC-supported capital procurement, with current installation of a melt extruder, video-extensometer and SEM cold stage.
KCMC-approved project work on hybrid piezoelectric and photovoltaic materials for device applications….and IP portfolio development, including activities on piezoelectric materials and mechanically-responsive shape-change (gradient) materials.
LIVERPOOL: New equipment for thermoelectrics, pulsed laser deposition, and new ALD capabilities see below….A new pre-competitive project in
thermoelectrics and a cluster of new Knowledge Exchange Lab projects.
Work has also begun on the three-year, seven-partner Energy Materials (Enermat)
EU Networking project, seeking to improve collaborative research and promote the offer of consortium capability to industrial partners (under UoL leadership).
MANCHESTER: The University has been awarded an £8.3m. Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA)
to increase the impact, uptake and exploitation of EPSRC research investments.
To develop manufacturing processes for aerospace, energy, marine, civil engineering, Formula 1 and other automotive applications, the new £8.2m.
National Composites Certification and Evaluation Facility (NCCEF) will be opened on 30 June.
STFC DARESBURY: Michael Gleaves has been named as New Business Development Manager with a KCMC role. STFC is to host the
North West Virtual Engineering Centre (NWVec) and the Vanguard House grow-on building (e.g for DIC tenants) is now under construction.
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KEY BUYS FOR ALD/CVD CAPABILITY... |
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Recent purchases include two new reactors to supplement the Liverpool University-based capability in atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) for applications including electronics, displays and TCO’s
New assets include the Oxford Instruments OpAl and a Picosun. The multiple wafer-coating Picosun machine is also capable of coating powders. An in-situ ellipsometer has been fitted to the Oxford Instruments OpAL to enable in-situ monitoring of film growth.
Capital investment in these increased capabilities at Liverpool in the past few months has been in the order of £0.6m.
A more detailed report and review will appear in KCMC Newsletter 3.
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OPPORTUNITIES FOR FORMULATORS... |
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Intelligent Formulation Ltd, through the Formulation Innovation Network, will be providing training and 'Continuing Professional Development' modules covering various aspects of formulation to individuals and companies working in formulating industries.
They would be pleased to receive any suggestions on what aspects of formulation would be of particular benefit to potential attendees of such CPD courses: all suggestions to info@intelligentformulation.org, or join the discussion on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3039354
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THE HARTREE CENTRE... |
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The Business Case for the Hartree Centre at Daresbury has successfully completed OGC Gateway 1 and 2 Reviews in March 2010. The centre is a new kind of UK computational sciences institute, bringing together academic, government and industrial scientists to focus on grand challenge multi-disciplinary, multi-scale, efficient and effective computation. The Project is now under consideration for capital funding with further details at
Hartree Centre. |
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KCMC PEOPLE |
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Rick Anderson – KCMC Project Scientist, Daresbury
As a member of the Computational Science and Engineering Department at STFC - Daresbury Laboratory, Rick works with mesoscale modelling techniques and their application to product formulation.
He was previously a member of the Organic Geochemistry Group at Durham University’s Department of Chemistry. Rick was involved with a multidisciplinary, industry-led project with work focused on computer simulation of hybrid organic–inorganic systems.
Rick studied for his BSc at the University of Wales, Bangor. He was awarded an entrance scholarship, the Evan Roberts prize and the Muriel Edwards Memorial prize prior to undertaking his PhD in the Computational and Theoretical Chemistry Group.
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Cong Duan-Vo – KCMC Project Scientist, Manchester
Dr Cong-Duan Vo's research interests focus on development of polymeric materials with well-defined structure, with potential for biomedical applications. He is a research associate at Manchester University’s School of Pharmacy.
He previously worked in the Department of Chemistry at Sheffield University and at the Institute for Microsystem Technology of the University of Freiburg, Germany.
Cong-Duan Vo initially studied Chemical Engineering at Da Nang University of Technology, Vietnam. In 1997 he was awarded a scholarship for his MSc study in Australia and graduated from The University of New South Wales. In 1999 he was awarded a DFG (German Research Foundation) three-year scholarship for his PhD thesis at Dresden University of Technology.
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Ravi Hadimani – KCMC Project Scientist, Bolton
Based in the Institute of Materials Research and Innovation of the University of Bolton, Ravi is currently working on hybrid piezoelectric and photovoltaic materials for device applications - investigating polymer and metal oxide based thin films, fibres and other bulk materials.
With a diverse background, stretching from magnetism to composite materials, he brings expertise in device development, material synthesis and characterisation specialised in semiconductor, magnetic and fibre composite materials.
Ravi holds a First Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Mechatronics from the University of Newcastle. He has recently completed his PhD from in Electrical Engineering Cardiff University, based on Advanced Magnetoelastic and Magnetocaloric Materials for Device Applications.
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Matt Werner – KCMC Project Scientist, Liverpool
Matt is responsible for carrying out growth of thin films by atomic layer deposition (ALD), for which the primary applications are in advanced electronic materials.
In addition to thin film growth, he has particular interest in material and electrical characterization.
Matt completed his PhD at the University of Salford. He researched damage formation and annealing of ion implanted silicon to produce ultra shallow junction source and drain regions for CMOS devices.
He worked for three years as a Research Assistant in the Department of Engineering at the University of Liverpool, focused on development of high-k dielectric thin oxide films, grown by ALD and chemical vapour deposition (CVD).
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EVENTS |
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With Chemicals Northwest (CNW), KCMC jointly hosted the 15 April event Industry-Academia Collaboration: Adding value to your Business. The event showcased world-class academia in the North West and illustrated how industry can make the most of this resource to deliver real commercial benefits.
Industrial case studies were presented by Peter Heys of SAFC Hitech and Andrew Gooda from Nanoco Technologies - both of whom are involved in KCMC activities - and a funding options presentation by Darren Ragheb of Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network (CIKTN). Sven Schroeder from the University of Manchester demonstrated the benefits of collaborating with academia and the routes to follow.
The event attracted over 60 guests and feedback suggested that the afternoon was useful, enjoyable and thought provoking. The event has already generated new potential collaborations, so watch this space for future KCMC events!
To view a short video of the event please
click here.
Chemicals Northwest hold a series of industry networking events, known as Chemical Elements
COMING SOON…
Printed Electronics – OMIC Open House…
Following the recent expansion of Printed Electronics Fabrication and Characterisation facilities at the University of Manchester, with KCMC funding, OMIC are organising an open-house event (morning session including lunch) on Wednesday 7th July.
The printed electronics - electrical devices and circuits – market is forecast to massively expand to a global £15 Bn. within the next five years. KCMC has an ongoing and industrially-driven portfolio of research, with recent facilities expenditure increasing R&D capabilities.
The Open House is an ideal opportunity for companies and academics interested in finding out more about UOM/OMIC’s expanded facilities - and exploring opportunities for access and collaboration.
To register to attend event e-mail Event Co-ordinator Anna Chan (anna.chan@manchester.ac.uk). Additional information from the KCMC Knowledge Transfer team
(www.materialschemistry.org) and Prof. Michael Turner at UOM (michael.turner@manchester.ac.uk)
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