This summer saw the launch of the first UK National Subject Profile for Higher Education Programmes in Materials. In the first of a series of articles by the team behind it, Tim Bullough, Senior Lecturer in Materials at The University of Liverpool, UK, explores the development of this university discipline.

Gary Price talks to Dr Laura Cohen, the new Chief Executive Designate of the British Ceramic Confederation, about the challenges that lie ahead for the industry and the importance of transferable skills.

A team of UK scientists are developing a non-contact railhead scanning device that can pinpoint minute cracks on a rail line at speeds of 125 miles per hour (mph).

Seabed mining, arctic exploration, and sourcing underdeveloped countries, such as Afghanistan, will help secure future minerals supplies as countries face the squeeze from resource-rich developing nations. That was the message delivered by experts from the British Geological Survey (BGS) at the event, ‘Meeting the mineral commodity challenge’ event, held in London, UK, on 14 October 2008.

Finex 2008, held from 23-24 September 2008, highlighted technological advances in exploration and the financial support that has led to London, UK, regaining its role as one of the world’s great mining capitals.
The skills shortage in the mining industry was also addressed.

Synthetic fused silica (quartz) based microfluidic devices can now be etched deeper and for longer using new photoresist layers. This will enable more effective fluid control and chemical analysis in bioscience and medicine.

Graphene films that can be deposited over large areas of a substrate may be possible using modified chemical mechanical polishing, according to scientists in the USA. The material’s perfect 2D crystallographic nature and electrical properties will enable high-speed and flexible circuitry in electronic devices.

A plant that can recycle uranium dioxide from nuclear fuel fabrication incinerator ash is being built in Richland, USA.

The technology uses super-critical carbon dioxide (SC CO2) to dissolve and recover the metal, rather than organic solvents and aqueous acids, reducing the volume of second generation toxic waste effluent.

Space is running low for landfill sites, and decreasing sources of minerals and metals are conflicting with projected high demands in the future. Exploring old landfills for reusable resources is therefore becoming more appealing, but can incurr high costs.

UK researchers hope to produce a novel solid-state Raman laser using a new low birefringence synthetic chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond. The material will produce laser with a broader optical spectrum for applications in underwater, medical and multi-spectral imaging.

High-power laser targets that incorporate single-crystal chemical vapour deposition synthetic diamond have been developed by UK scientists. The behaviour of diamond under the extreme pressures of laser beam shocks is being observed for research into new forms of energy generation such as inertial confinement fusion (ICF) energy.

Researchers in Italy are using neutron detectors made from synthetic diamond in nuclear fusion experiments. Synthetic single-crystal diamond-based detectors offer high radiation hardness, band-gap, carrier mobility and breakdown voltage, and a low atomic number.

With industries feeling the pinch from the economic downturn and increased energy prices, now is the time to introduce cost-saving measures.

A prototype organic upconversion display panel that is transparent and bendable has been developed by researchers in Germany. This technology could be used to create digital newspapers, rollable television screens or ultra-lightweight laptops.

A UK consortium has announced the development of its first generation of high performance composites made from natural renewable fibres such as hemp and flax, with polypropylene and polylactic acid. The COMBINE project could help create more environmentally friendly structural components in the transport, medical and construction sectors, say researchers.