Creating breakthroughs with emerging materials

Monoporous membranes

Inkjet printed MEMS

Imagine a world where you could re-grow part of the human heart. Or how about one where switching on the lights didn’t make you feel guilty about global warming? These aren’t pipe dreams: they’re breakthroughs that are happening because of the work our materials scientists are doing on “emerging materials”.


Meeting people’s needs
The term “emerging materials” refers to any new material that is currently being developed, in many cases to address a particular need. Frequently, these materials are not created from scratch, but are formed by combining existing materials, often at the level of “nano”-sized particles. The nano level has opened a whole new world for materials sciences, because nano-sized particles of a particular material may behave quite differently to larger particles of the same material.


“When you combine them, you can create some really breakthrough solutions – especially in the area of sustainability,” says senior scientist Hans van Sprang. “That’s the power of materials science.” Although finding the perfect combination of materials is no easy task, Researchers are successfull in areas ranging from packaging to solar power to solid-state lighting. For example, one group of Researchers is currently developing a new method for building “stripy” nanowires, which use zinc to enhance control of optical and electrical properties in tiny semiconductors – a development that could lead to a number of important advances, including more energy-efficient LEDs.


Cradle to cradle
To raise awareness of the many possibilities offered by emerging materials, a symposium was held for Researchers in Aachen in February. “There we also discussed the relationship between sustainability and emerging materials,” says Dirk Broer, senior scientist at the Biomolecular Engineering department.. “There are still major challenges in this area. Emerging materials can help us reduce energy consumption, preserve scarce resources and improve people’s quality of life. But when materials have been integrated at the nano level, it is incredibly difficult to separate them again. Research effort needed to make it either for recycling or for the safe disposal of toxic elements. The materials scientists at Research are realizing some real advances, and will meet the cradle to cradle requirements in the area of sustainability as well!”