New electro materials research centre

Advances in the areas of renewable energy and sustainable industries by the newly established Australian Centre of Electro materials Science is expected to be particularly valuable to the manufacturing industry. The centre is being established by Federal Science Minister - Brendan Nelson - as an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence, with an investment of US$ 12 million in federal funding for the next five years. The Centre plans to create the electro materials required for better bionic ears, artificial muscles, nerve repairs, and biobatteries and bio-fuel cells to drive them as well. Professor Gordon Wallace - Director, Intelligent Polymer Research Institute - says the centre will also tackle some of the biggest challenges facing society, such as renewable energy and sustainable industries. "Improvements in all these areas are possible by developing electro materials with improved efficiency in the generation and transfer of electrical charge," he said. He further added that the centre's development of new nano materials and new theories to explain their behaviour would aid renewable energy research in the areas of plastic solar cells, lightweight batteries and electronic textiles. Research into sustainable industries would benefit from advances in the recovery of precious metals and new corrosion protection technologies. The centre will also provide material expertise in producing revolutionary new interfaces for coupling biology and electronics, as well as enabling novel bio fuel cell and bio battery concepts..