October 17, 2008

BUILDING ONTARIO’S INNOVATION ECONOMY

Basic and Applied Research

The University of Western Ontario

Dr. Jose Herrera
Discovering new nanomaterials to benefit Ontario’s advanced materials industry
Provincial funding: $167,146

Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical carbon molecules that have remarkable properties, including extraordinary strength, novel electrical characteristics and efficient heat conduction. These properties make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. But to reach their potential, carbon nanotubes need to be chemically modified. At a new laboratory at The University of Western Ontario, Dr. Jose Herrera is using a high senstivity infrared spectrophotometer connected to a gas chromatograph with a mass detector to charaterize nanomaterials’ structure and performance in a single experiment – providing a leap forward in understanding the nature of these materials. His work will be of tremendous benefit to Ontario’s advanced materials industry. 

Dr. Gail Atkinson
Improving our ability to predict earthquakes
Provincial Funding: $186,372

Ensuring the safety of Ontario’s civil infrastructure is the goal of the Engineering Seismology Toolbox being developed at the University of Western Ontario by Dr. Gail Atkinson. The Toolbox will be a virtual infrastructure available to researchers and engineers working on hazard evaluation and mitigation. It will provide them with access to earthquake ground motion databases and software which will lead to improved seismic safety and security of infrastructure and the development of cost-effective approaches to seismic design and retrofit.

Dr. Xuelaing Sun
Using nanotechnology to develop better fuel cells
Provincial Funding: $299,499

Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale, something which results in unique properties. Among the areas where nanotechnology is expected to have a profound effect is energy generation and storage – and that’s the area that interests Dr. Xuelaing Sun at The University of Western Ontario. While nano-based solutions are being developed for a wide range of energy solutions from solar cells to hydrogen fuel cells, challenges remain. Dr. Sun aims to address challenges in fuel cell use for clean energy.

Dr. François Lagugné-Labarthet
A step forward in realizing the full potential of nano-objects
Provincial funding: $262,301

Nanomaterials are materials designed at the molecular (nanometre) level to take advantage of their small size and novel properties. They’re composed of nano-objects, which can be designed and synthesized with a variety of functions, shapes and sizes. Despite the promise of applications involving nano-objects, their full potential has yet to be realized in part because researchers haven’t been able determine the correlation between their molecular properties and structure. At a new laboratory at The University of Western Ontario Dr. François Lagugné-Labarthet is focused on doing just that. He’s using spectroscopy with microscopy to produce a detailed characterization of properties at the molecular level – which will lead to significant developments of applications using nanomaterials.

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See also:

• News Release: Ontario Turning Ideas Into Stronger Economy
• Backgrounder: Supporting Basic and Applied Research
• Backgrounder: Basic and Applied Research Projects
• Recipients