Sustainable Materials and Manufacture

A huge amount of adverse environmental impact is created by the materials we use. Whether it is through waste, such as non-biodegradable plastic waste – or their manufacture, including energy and rare materials usage. 

Our research tackles the pressing need for alternative materials and processes that can lead to high performance and durability that compete with current petrol-derived resources, increasing the use of sustainable materials for advanced applications, or reducing the reliance on critical minerals. At QMUL’s Centre for Sustainable Engineering, we approach this challenge by: 

  • Combining innovative and scalable manufacturing techniques with advanced in situ / in operando characterisation methodologies that enable the design of highly functional materials based on sustainable and non-toxic earth abundant elements. These include oxide and sulphide-based thermoelectrics, lead-free dielectrics, metal halide perovskites for solar cells, biomass-derived carbons and recycled plastic for application in batteries. 

  • Sustainable material design such as self-repairing materials and recycling 

  • The recycling of the end-of-life rubber products such as tyres. 

  • Computationally-intensive physics-based and data-driven modelling to design new grades of advanced materials suitable for additive manufacturing. 

  • Design and manufacture of high-performance structural composites derived from renewable, bio-based, and recycled materials to reduce environmental impact while maintaining the mechanical integrity required for engineering applications. 

  • Advanced organic-solvent nanofiltration and molecularly engineered membranes as manufacturing tools, enabling the continuous, energy-efficient synthesis, purification, and scale-up of high-value chemicals, pharmaceuticals, polymers, and functional materials with precise molecular control. 

  • Use of electrospinning to produce freestanding fibre mats from biopolymers for energy applications 

  • Development of new materials supported by modelling methods, such as molecular dynamics, ab-initio and numerical modelling, and machine learning. 

  • Implementing life cycle assessment (LCA), our research aspires to design and develop materials with the lowest practical carbon footprint. 

We actively collaborate with industry and engage with other academic institutions to maximise the impact of our breakthroughs and create an effective pathway to promote sustainable solutions to materials engineering. Our goal is to contribute to Net Zero and the Sustainable Development Goals through innovation in materials design and manufacturing processes, to build a greener future using sustainable resources.