Fabrication of re-usable materials based on mineral particulates

人们越来越需要开发所谓的可持续材料，这些材料可以方便地、经济地重复使用，例如建筑和消费品包装。这需要一种与目前使用的材料制造方法完全不同的方法。首先，该提案通过使用天然蛋白质材料（肽）来研究可能的方法，这些蛋白质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。这些材料改变了它们的结构，因此将结构结合在一起的力可以通过外部触发器来修改。我们计划合成肽，这些肽将从包含在肽可以形成的凝胶网络中的微小颗粒（高岭土，铜金属，氧化铜等）形式的矿物中制造新的和先进的材料。我们将通过改变化学性质（pH值）来研究材料的分解，以使肽释放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;通过原子力测量了解基础科学，它们如何与不同的矿物质结合;制造新的材料结构;为这种行为产生机械和化学模型。其次，该提案研究了更有效的方法，从现有的矿物储存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，可以重复使用，但挑战是以有效和低成本的方式从混合物中分离出所需的矿物。这将基于矿物浮选的最新能力。这是一种方法，其中浸入水中的矿物根据其表面润湿性被分离，附着在气泡上并悬浮在混合物的表面以形成可被去除的泡沫。我们提出了一个基本的研究，旨在提高微小颗粒的载气气泡的附着率;使用一种特殊的气泡（称为泡沫），在气/液界面有一个双层的表面活性剂;和技术的基础上变化的洗涤速度的泡沫含有浮动矿物）。再次使用原子力显微镜测量将需要提高我们的理解和模型的发展。基本测量将建议优化分离设备设计的方法，以显着提高颗粒的分离率，通常不会被回收，由于其小尺寸。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.