Spinifex Materials for Advanced Industrial applications

Globally, the building sector alone contributes to 38% of the greenhouse gas emissions, due to energy-intensive production methods, depleting resources, and unsustainable practices. Producing building materials with optimum performance at lower material consumption will help in ameliorating environmental impact of booming construction. Similarly, producing high-performance materials from sustainable resources reduces the dependency of fossil resources.

The use of engineered micro/nanomaterials from Spinifex as high-performance additives has been shown to provide controls on processability, improve performance, and expand the application areas of the materials. Under the UQ/Bulugudu partnership, this theme of research investigates different pathways of processing, biorefinery and applications of Spinifex-derived fibres and resin into various structural materials such as building materials, plastics, and composites.