Fabrication of re-usable materials based on mineral particulates

越来越需要开发所谓的可持续材料，这种材料可以很容易和经济地重新使用，例如建筑和消费品的包装。这需要一种与目前使用的材料制造完全不同的方法。首先，本提案通过使用天然蛋白质材料（肽）来研究可能的方法，这些材料可以合成为分子，将颗粒结合在一起，形成可逆的材料结构。这些材料可以改变它们的结构，因此，将结构结合在一起的力可以通过外部触发器来改变。我们计划合成肽，将以微小颗粒（高岭土，铜金属，铜氧化物等）形式的矿物质制成新的先进材料，这些颗粒包含在凝胶网络中，肽可以形成。我们将通过改变化学（pH值）来研究材料的分解，从而使肽释放偶联到其特定的矿物表面。我们面临的研究挑战是：合成足够数量的肽；了解基础科学，通过原子力测量，它们如何与不同的矿物结合；制造新材料结构；为这种行为建立一个力学和化学模型。其次，该提案研究了更有效的方法，从现有的矿物储备中回收非常小的颗粒，以便它们可以重新使用，成为新材料（然后再次使用！）。这些材料的储量很大，可以重复利用，但挑战在于如何以一种高效、低成本的方式从混合物中分离出所需的矿物。这将以矿物浮选方面最近的新能力为基础。这是一个浸在水中的矿物根据其表面的润湿性被分离的过程，它附着在气泡上，并漂浮在混合物的表面，形成可以被去除的泡沫。我们提出了一项基础研究，旨在提高微小颗粒与载气气泡的附着率；使用一种特殊的气泡（称为aphron），它在气/液界面处有双层表面活性剂；以及基于改变含有漂浮物的泡沫的洗涤速率的技术。再次使用原子力显微镜进行测量将有助于提高我们对模型的理解和发展。基础测量将为优化分离设备设计提供方法，以显着提高颗粒的分离率，这些颗粒通常由于其小尺寸而无法回收。这些想法将在实践中得到检验。

There is an increasing need to develop so-called sustainable materials that can be re-used easily and economically, for example, buildings and packaging from consumer items. This requires a radically different approach to material fabrication than is currently used. First, this proposal investigates possible approaches to this by using natural protein materials (peptides) that can be synthesised as molecules to bind particles together to form reversible material structures. These materials change their configuration and hence the forces binding the structure together can be modified by an external trigger. We plan to synthesis peptides that will fabricate new and advanced materials from minerals in the form of tiny particles (kaolonite, copper metal, copper oxides etc) contained in gel networks that the peptides can be formed into. We will investigate the disassembly of the materials by using changes to the chemistry (pH) to cause the peptides to release couplings to their specific mineral surfaces. The research challenges for us are to: synthesise the peptides in sufficient quantities; understand the fundamental science, through atomic force measurement, how they couple with the different minerals; fabricate the new materials structures; produce a mechanical and chemical model for this behaviour. Secondly, the proposal investigates more efficient methods for providing very small particles to be recycled from existing mineral stockpile so that they can be re-used to become into new materials (and thereafter re-used again!). There are significant reserves of these materials that could be reused but the challenge is to separate out the desired mineral from the mixture in an efficient and low cost way. This will be based on recent new capabilities in mineral flotation. This is a process in which a mineral immersed in water is separated according to its surface wettability attaching to the gas bubble and becoming levitated to the surface of the mixture to form a foam that can be removed. We propose a fundamental study aimed at improving the rates of attachment of tiny particles to carrier gas bubbles; the use of a special gas bubble (called an aphron) that has a double layer of surfactant at the gas/liquid interface; and techniques based on varying the washing rate of the foam containing the floated mineral). Again measurement using atomic force microscopy will be required for improving our understanding and development of models. Fundamental measurements will suggest methods for optimising design of separation equipment to significantly enhance the rate of separation for particles that would not normally be recoverable due to their small size. These ideas will be tested practically.