Loughborough University is leading a new £4.2 million research project to develop next-generation materials able to operate in the most extreme environments.
The conditions in which materials are required to function are becoming ever more challenging. Operating temperatures and pressures are increasing in all areas of manufacture, energy generation, transport and environmental clean-up. Often the high temperatures are combined with severe chemical environments and exposure to high energy and, in the nuclear industry, to ionising radiation.
The production and processing of next-generation materials capable of operating in these conditions will be a major challenge, especially at the scale required in many of these applications. In some cases, totally new compositions, processing and joining strategies will have to be developed.
Academics from Loughborough's Department of Materials will work with Imperial College London and Queen Mary University on the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded project. Ultimately the research will allow new and revolutionary compositions, microstructures and composite systems to be designed, manufactured and tested.
The most extreme example of an extreme environment that I can think of, would be the medium of interstellar space, while traveling at relativistic velocities. Any material that could survive, much more properly perform in that environment would be one tough material indeed. To read more, click here.