Innovations in UK Ceramic Research: Collaborative Advancements for Futuristic Applications

1. Diversification in Advanced Ceramics: Working with Academics for Superior Ceramic Process and Product Development. Prof. Bill Lee, Director, Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics (CASC) and Dept of Materials, w.e.lee@imperial.ac.uk Presentation to A New Ceramics Era, Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent October 14th 2010

2. UK Universities Ceramics Research. • Rising quality and quantity in range of advanced ceramics areas. • Large programmes in bioceramics, defence ceramics (armour, ultra high temperature), nuclear ceramics and functional ceramics. • Number of well attended technical meetings. • Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics (CASC). • Academics already work with many companies (Pilkington, Morgan Matroc, Rolls Royce, Shell, DSTL etc.) • Good opportunities for collaborating with world-leading research groups e.g. through TSB, EPSRC and EC programmes.

3. Ceramics Research at UK Universities.

4. Imperials Materials. • Research Groups in Materials Department: • Advanced Alloys • Ceramics and Glasses • Nanotechnology • Thin Films and Coatings • Materials Theory and Simulation • Nanoscale Characterisation • Biomaterials • Major materials areas include: • Energy (esp. nuclear and fuel cells) • Biomaterials, Tissue Eng. & Regenerative Medicine • Transport (aerospace, land vehicles) • Novel Electronic Devices (thin films, sensors, photonic crystals) • Environment (clean up, pollution control & prevention) • Multi-departmental and multi-disciplinary research groups enabling world-leading research including: • Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics (CASC) • London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) • Centre for Nuclear Engineering (KNOO, Eng. Doc.) • Institute for BioMedical Engineering (IBME) • Thomas Young Centre for Materials Theory • Energy Futures Lab/UKERC.

5. Imperial’s Department of Materials • 36 Academics, £11M annual research income. • 3 EPSRC Platform Grants (in thin films, metals and fuel cells), joint awards of 2 Programme Grants in Plasmonics, NanostructuredFunctional Energy Materials and 2 Doctoral Training Centres (Materials Theory and Plastic Electronics) and the Nuclear Eng Doc. • Other large EPSRC grants including CASC , KNOO, TITAN, SIMS/LEIS. • 7 Technicians, 6 Research Officers, 11 Dept. Support staff (Admin/PA’s/Secretarial/Clerical). • ~300 UGs, ~110 PhDs, ~40 PDRAs. • ~15 Visiting Scientists, Professors and Emeritus Profs. • 6 spinouts: Ceres Power, BioCeramicsTherapeutics, STS, IMPT, Novathera and OSspray.

6. Ceres Power: A Ceramics Success. • Founded 2001 by Brian Steele, John Kilner, Alan Atkinson, Bob Rudkin in Materials and Nigel Brandon in ESE. • Exploiting fuel cell technology arising from ~10y EPSRC-funded research at Imperial College into ion-conducting ceramics. • 1kW fuel cell stack nearing market generating sufficient CHP for average home from natural gas. • 50 employees, £250M value.

7. VHTR Bill Lee Research Group: Ceramics and Glasses for Extreme Environments • Dr. D Daniel, Dr. E Zapata-Solvas and E Eakins: Processing,Characterisation and Oxidation of ZrB2-SiC Ultra High Temperature Composites. • Dr. M Gilbert: Radiation Damage and Gas Accumulation in Nuclear Ceramics (with Robin Grimes and Neil Hyatt). • Dr. SivaldoCorreira: Using Waste Fired Clay Bricks in Concretes. • H Jackson: Processing and Modelling of ZrC as a Potential VHTR Nuclear Fuel Material (with Robin Grimes). • D Da Silva: Glass Matrix Composites for Optomechanical and High Temperature Applications (with Aldo Boccaccini). • TayyabSubhani: Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Silica and Bio- Glass (with Milo Shafer and Aldo Boccaccini). • R Sa: Effect of In Situ Carbon Nanotubes on Refractories Microstructure and Properties. • Bai Cui: Crystal Chemistry and Processing of Mn+1AXn Phase Ceramics. • Naeem Ur-rehman: Effect of Processing on Ballistic Performance of SiC (with Luc Vandeperre). • Chin HengPhuah: Corrosion of Spent AGR Nuclear Fuel (with Mary Ryan). • John O’Neill: Durability of Spent MOX Nuclear Fuel (with Mary Ryan). • XinTian Yang: Glass Corrosion: Parameter estimation in reaction diffusion problems involving ionic species with limited data (with Paul Tangney)

8. Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics. Started July 2008 joint between Depts. Materials and Mech Eng. with £5.5M award from EPSRC. Strong links to energy (including nuclear), aerospace and defence, transport and healthcare industries. Includes: 3 new academics in measurement of high temp. properties, high-temp. processing and multiscale and life prediction modelling plus 3 PDRAs and 3 PhDs. Full time technical manager and technician. 3 PhDs at other universities (co-supervised at Imperial). Support to host research visits. Over £1M of accessible equipment. Support to host national/international conferences.

9. New CASC Academics. • Eduardo Saiz, Staff Scientist at Berkeley Lab USA. - High-temperature capillarity & interfaces, spreading and adhesion in metal-ceramic systems. • Freeze casting, bioglass and bioceramics. • Luc Vandeperre, PhD KuLeuvenBelgium. Post Doc Cambridge. • Fracture and deformation, AlN doped SiC, mullite, ZrB2. • Ceramics for radwaste disposal e.g. cements, geopolymers. • Finn Giuliani, PhD Cambridge, Assistant Prof.Linköping University, Sweden. • Mechanical behaviour, MAX phases, FIB-TEM. • Nanoindentation.

10. Completed Refurbishment 2009. • Advanced Manufacturing Facility (AKA Machine Shop). • 4 academic offices and study space for 28 PhD students. • Ceramics Laboratory.

11. Newsletter and Website Occasional CASC newsletter provides news and contact information for visitors to the Centre and for dissemination at meetings and international visits. The first issue, in March 2010, focussed on the three CASC academics staff. website (www.imperial.ac.uk/casc) contains details of CASC staff, visitors, equipment and activities, as well as a list of future UK ceramic-related meetings.

12. UK meetings and networks The postgraduate speaking competition at CASC SG Meeting meeting selected a UK speaker Ashley White (Cambridge) who won the student speech contest at ECerS (Cracow, June 2009). CASC organised a 1-DRAC meeting at Imperial on 20 November 2009, which was attended by about 70 people. It was followed by the CASC Official Opening. CASC organised a Bioceramics meeting Sept 30th 2010 under the SCERN banner, with 75 attendees. CASC is playing a lead role in co-ordinating UK structural ceramics meetings.

13. First CASC Summer School on Ceramics First CASC summer school at Imperial College London, from 14 to 16 September 2010. The school provide tutorials focussing on current developments in ceramic synthesis, processing and mechanical characterisation with particular emphasis on practical aspects and hands-on experience. Aimed at early career engineers and researchers – working in universities or industry. 30 attendees (£200 fee for 3 days all in). Will hold again in September 2011.

14. Equipment Several large items of equipment are being purchased by the Centre to improve UK capability in the fabrication and modelling of structural ceramics: Nanoindenter Server Freeze dryer FactSage software Thermal analysis All equipment is available to the UK ceramics community. Contact Fraser Wigley (f.wigley@imperial.ac.uk) or Garry Stakalls (g.stakalls@imperial.ac.uk) if you wish to use these facilities. Thermo-mechanical testing Vacuum hot press ACerS/NIST phase equilibria software

15. CASC-Industry Consortium • To enable sustainability of the centre from 2012. • Will hold industry open day and workshop in 2011. • All members will have access to CASC academic, technical staff and facilities. • Will involve levels of membership with graduated annual fee and access to CASC facilities and people and control over projects.

16. Other National and International Funding Opportunities. • Technology Strategy Board programmes and calls. TSB supported UK industry innovation, near market development with £711M budget 2008-11 + £180M from RDAs and £120M from RCUK (www.innovateuk.org). • Materials Knowledge Transfer Network. • Knowledge Transfer Partnerships funded by Technology Strategy Board to encourage business/university collaborations (ktponline.org.uk). Associate employed by company, 40-60% TSB grant. • EPSRC programmes (www.epsrc.ac.uk) • CASE studentships • Responsive mode and Managed calls • Strategic Partnerships.

17. Other National and International Funding Opportunities. • European Community Framework Programmes (FP VII). • E.g. NMP. 20110201-1 Research and Innovation for Advanced Multifunctional Ceramic Materials. SME targetted collaborative scheme, Nov 4 deadline, £2-3Meuros (35% to SME who drive science).

18. Conclusion. • UK ceramics academic community is thriving. • There are many opportunities to access funds to work with world-leading groups in the UK.