NEW HYBRID MATERIALS 

Brock University

There's no mistaking the excitement in Dr. Melanie Pilkington's voice when she talks about her research. Dr. Pilkington, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Novel Hybrid Materials, aims to help advance the development of new chemical, electronic and magnetic devices, with the goal of keeping Ontario companies at the leading edge.

"My work involves developing new hybrid materials that combine properties not normally associated with a single material, for example coupling conductivity with magnetism," explains Dr. Pilkington. "Specifically, I'm looking at combining the flexibility and versatility of organic materials with the magnetic, electrical and optical properties of metal."

These materials offer a number of advantages over their inorganic counterparts. They're durable, flexible and cheap to produce which is why telecommunications, energy and electronics companies are interested in them.

"Imagine, for instance, we could make giant video screens that could be folded up and carried from room to room or laptops with all-plastic circuitry that won't break when they're dropped and who knows what else?" says Dr. Pilkington. "That's what makes it so exciting. We don't yet know the limits of this research."

Researcher: Dr. Melanie Pilkington