Could steel pipes or airplane wings one day repair a surface crack in their own structures, just as white blood cells trigger repair in teh human body to a scratch that has broken the skin? That’s one question researchers at BP’s Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM) are posing as a ten-year $100 million industry-university partnership funded by BP gets underway.
“The BP-ICAM gives us a pathway to develop critical mass in key fields that will have a real impact,” said BP-ICAM Director Phil Withers, professor of materials science at Manchester University’s Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.
The first ICAM projects focus on three key areas with potentially high impact for industry: structural materials such as new metallic alloys that can work at higher pressures and more extreme temperatures; smart coatings that will enable materials to survive under harsher conditions over longer periods of time, including self-healing materials; and membranes, some of which could be used to desalinate water and separate water from biofuels.
To read the full, original article click on this link: $100M international research centre is a model for getting industry-academic collaborations up and running quickly - Science|Business
