University joins in space metals research

Scientists at the University of Greenwich are playing a key role in a GBP 28 million project with the European Space Agency to develop the metals of the future.

Scientists at the University of Greenwich are playing a key role in a GBP 28 million project with the European Space Agency to develop the metals of the future.

The five-year programme, which will include experiments aboard the International Space Station, is testing the properties and industrial uses of new higher-performance intermetallic alloys and metal powders.

The research will enable industry to produce a new era of gas turbine blades for power generation and aero-engines as well as metal powders for catalytic devices and hydrogen fuel cells.

The university team, at the School of Computing and Mathematic Sciences (CMS), is headed by Professor Koulis Pericleous.

Professor Pericleous is taking advantage of the university's expertise in computer modelling for handling very reactive metals using magnetic fields to suspend the alloys during melting.

Meanwhile, experiments aboard the space station will examine the properties of very small particles of metals, which is not possible when they are subject to gravity.

Professor Pericleous said: "Crystalline alloys are the materials of the future with a high melting point, high strength and low density".

"There will be great benefits to industry, the environment and the economy".

"For example, using titanium aluminide could result in cutting the weight of turbine components by 50% leading to the improved thrust-to-weight rations of aero-engines, higher efficiency, reduced fuel consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions".

"Companies developing hydrogen fuel cells will also benefit since catalytic electrodes based on nickel and cobalt powders which are effective alternatives to conventional platinum electrodes - and 1000 times cheaper".

The Intermetallic Materials Process in Relation to Earth and Space Solidification (IMPRESS) project, funded by the European Space Agency, the European Union and industrial research partners, is bringing together more than 200 academic and industrial scientists from 43 research groups in 15 European countries.

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