Tag: aluminium alloys

Folding, thinner, lighter, and stronger wings signals a quiet retreat for aluminium in aerospace

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Airbus has just announced the next phase of its Wing of Tomorrow programme: a three-year flight-test campaign, unveiled at Farnborough, that will bolt full-scale wing extensions onto an A321neo to trial the longer, higher-aspect-ratio wings destined for the successor to its best-selling single-aisle family. The extensions are several metres long and stand in for a … Continue reading Folding, thinner, lighter, and stronger wings signals a quiet retreat for aluminium in aerospace

How much radiation damage can you do in seconds?

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Qualifying materials for future fission and fusion reactors is painfully slow. Neutron irradiation is costly, time-consuming and leaves samples radioactive, while ion-beam alternatives require competitive proposals and scheduled beam time at oversubscribed accelerator facilities. In a new preprint, we ask whether an instrument already sitting in many microscopy labs — the plasma focused ion beam … Continue reading How much radiation damage can you do in seconds?

A new way to “see” inside aluminium alloys

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What if a single microscope image could simultaneously show nanoclusters, dislocations, grain boundaries, and corrosion pores – all in under a minute? We have found a way to do exactly that and we described recently in a paper published it in Small Methods! The method, called differential phase contrast (DPC), is not new to electron … Continue reading A new way to “see” inside aluminium alloys

The nanoscale secrets of melting in eutectic systems

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Eutectic systems have shaped mankind for millennia — bronze, solder, casting alloys — and yet, for all their industrial pedigree, the nanoscale mechanics of how they actually melt has remained stubbornly out of reach. Experimental resolution simply could not keep up with the physics. A new preprint from our group closes that gap, using in … Continue reading The nanoscale secrets of melting in eutectic systems

Grateful to be among the 2025 Rising Stars in Materials Science

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I am deeply humbled and grateful to the American Chemical Society and the editors of ACS Materials Au for selecting me as part of the 2025 class of Rising Stars in Materials Science. This recognition came as a wonderful surprise, and I am truly thankful to be included alongside 13 other outstanding early-career researchers from … Continue reading Grateful to be among the 2025 Rising Stars in Materials Science

New Preprint: Unlocking Nanoscale Detail in Aluminium Alloys with DPC Segmentation

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We are pleased to share our latest preprint, now available on arXiv: Unlocking nanoscale microstructural detail in aluminium alloys through differential phase contrast segmentation in STEM (arXiv:2603.11643). In this work, we show how differential phase contrast (DPC) imaging in scanning transmission electron microscopy can be turned into a powerful, quantitative tool for characterising the microstructures … Continue reading New Preprint: Unlocking Nanoscale Detail in Aluminium Alloys with DPC Segmentation

Atom-by-atom materials shaping future technology

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What will the materials powering tomorrow's clean energy systems, quantum computers, and deep-space missions actually be made of — and how do we design them? We are thrilled to share our latest featured article in The European magazine, where we explore how cutting-edge research is engineering matter at the atomic scale. From the nanolaminated MAX … Continue reading Atom-by-atom materials shaping future technology

Our Paper Among the Most Read Articles on ACS! 🚀

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We are excited to share that our recent perspective review, “The Legacy and the Future of Aluminum Alloys: Space Exploration and Extraterrestrial Settlement,” has been featured among the Top 20 Most Read Articles in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Materials Au! https://pubs.acs.org/action/showMostReadArticles?journalCode=amacgu Most Read Articles are refreshed daily and are based on full-text downloads (PDF … Continue reading Our Paper Among the Most Read Articles on ACS! 🚀

Metal-carbon interfaces

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The final version of our manuscript “Is nitrogen doping of diamond-like carbon films a viable strategy for bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane fuel cells?” is now available to download! We are investigating the corrosion response of diamond-like carbon coatings onto aluminium alloys under simulated proton exchange membrane fuel cells environment. In addition, we investigate … Continue reading Metal-carbon interfaces

Dr. Aster’s Breakthrough in Aluminium Alloy Design with Cluster-Hardnening

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In his recent work, Dr. Philip Aster delivers a remarkable contribution to the understanding of microstructural evolution in Al-Mg-Zn-Cu crossover alloys, with a particular focus on the role of copper in long-term aging (LTA) conditions. Through advanced atom probe tomography (APT), Dr. Aster demonstrates how Cu additions not only promote finer clustering and T-phase precursors … Continue reading Dr. Aster’s Breakthrough in Aluminium Alloy Design with Cluster-Hardnening