Scientific projects

The Food Science Project

The Food Science Project applies neutron and X-ray scattering methods to investigate fundamental and industrial problems of national significance in food science. The current interests of the group relate to determining structure-function relationships in food-based systems, such as proteins and polysaccharides, with direct applications to food processing and human nutrition.

Thermo-Mechanical Processes

Modern Diffraction Methods Applied to Thermo-Mechanical Processes in Materials Science.

This project will use diffraction methods to study deformation processes in metals, particularly related to high-temperature processing and performance under extreme conditions. This project brings together the experts of instrumentation, materials physics and mechanical engineering.

Neutrons for the Hydrogen Economy

The main idea is to provide a more coherent focus to work on energy-related materials, using the neutron scattering tools at OPAL for studies which are well matched to the neutron method. This will necessarily involve strong collaboration with external parties like CSIRO, the universities, CRCs and industrial companies.  We will focus almost entirely on the areas in which we are already strong: (1) gas-storage materials (mainly hydrogen); (2) battery materials; and (3) fuel-cell electrolytes.