EVENT DETAILS

Abstract

With the adoption of automation and robotics, the materials and product manufacturing demonstrate a huge development in novel polymers and composites that incorporate multiple functionalities and non-traditional behaviours. This includes polymers with tuneable physical and chemical properties and fibres and composites with smart functionalities. Important considerations are to be able to achieve fast processing rates, flexibility and formability, recyclability and self-healing behaviours in the polymers and also to develop materials that can sense and communicate with device and environments. The recent research performed in our group showcase the technical feasibility of these new functionalities in composites and coatings. Especially, the team has identified new interactions between polymers and novel functional additives that are able to transform the traditional characteristics of polymers to enable them to fit with advanced manufacturing. The complex interactions between the functional groups of compounds enable the materials to exhibit several distinct physical behaviours. These unique characteristics were achieved at different compositions, making them processable and scalable at several environmental conditions.

Dr Nishar Hameed is currently ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at Swinburne University of Technology. Nishar’s research is mainly focused on the novel and faster processing of next generation ‘smart’ polymers and composite materials. He has published more than 100 high impact journal papers, 6 book chapters, 3 edited books and 3 patents. He was invited to edit the first ever Hand Book on Epoxy Blends which was published by Srpinger in two volumes. His several achievements include many “firsts” in the field, inspiring many follow-up studies. Nishar recently developed a new method to produce flexible, toughened and fast cure resins that can be integrated to make formable and rapid cure fibre reinforced composites, concrete preforms and graphene nanocomposites. His research has also led to the development of a new, environmentally processing route to make plastics films and fibres from natural polymers (cellulose, wool, silk) and biomass. Nishar won many awards as he advances his research career including Smart Geelong Early Researcher award, Young Tall Poppy Award, Phillip Law Award and Deakin’s Best Doctoral Thesis Award, Famelab and Fresh Scinece awards, and Swinburne’s VC Industry engagement award. He has been awarded a number of prestigious fellowships including the highly esteemed Victoria Fellowship, Australian Academicy of Scinece‘s FASIC and AIEMCR Fellowhips and two Endeavour Fellowships. Nishar is a Charted Chemist at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and also holds the chair of Carbon Divion since 2017. He has held visiting appointments at Rice University, University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Kentucky, CNRS Montpellier, Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.