QUT offers a diverse range of student topics for Honours, Masters and PhD study. Search to find a topic that interests you or propose your own research topic to a prospective QUT supervisor. You may also ask a prospective supervisor to help you identify or refine a research topic.
Found 28 matching student topics
Displaying 1–12 of 28 results
Green polymer-inorganic composite materials
Composite materials are widely researched and widely used in applications such as aircraft, automobiles, ships, structural components and even the space industry.There is a need to create new composite materials which are environmentally friendly and do not use fossil fuel based products. Moreover, the properties of the composites need to be improved while at the same time minimising the costs involved.Consequently our research group is working on composite materials which not only include inexpensive inorganic fillers from the mining sector …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
Advanced electron microscopy for sustainable nanocatalysis
The systematic and detailed characterisation of heterogeneous catalysts is critical for design of effective and stable catalytic materials, since it allows one to understand the correlation between their structure and physicochemical properties.Especially, it is important to monitor the structural evolution of catalytic materials and their active sites in a controllable environment and under realistic reaction conditions.Thus, we propose to use a powerful combination of aberration-corrected high-resolution TEM and in situ TEM experiments which allow us to gain extensive knowledge about …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Machine Learning-based pedictive tool for energy storage
The fundamental idea behind the ML approach is to analyze and map the relationships between the physical,chemical, and energy storage properties of materials with their associated output data. This early understanding of the energy storage capabilities through the ML approach helps the material scientists to clearly understand, discover, and optimize the fabrication process to develop highly efficient energy storage systems. It also provides key steps in the device fabrication process omitting excessive experimental stages.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
How do healthy people sleep? Biomechanics, physiology, and environment - what matters most?
In the Westernized world a person typically spends one third of their life in bed, with more time spent sleeping in a bed than in any other single activity. Sleep amount and quality of sleep have a direct impact on mood, behaviour, motor skills and overall quality of life. Yet, despite how important restful sleep is for the body to maintain good health, there is a comparatively small amount of studies evaluating key multi-factorial and biomechanical determinants of restful sleep …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
The impact of automotive interior materials on user experience in the era of EVs
Materials play a crucial role in shaping people's perceptions, experiences, and emotional responses to the products they encounter. In automotive design, this significance is particularly pronounced within the interior cabin space, especially in the age of sustainability and electric vehicles (EVs).The materials utilised heavily influence how customers and users perceive the value, quality, and emotional aspects of their interactions. While numerous studies have examined the link between interior materials and traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, the advent of EVs …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice
- School
- School of Design
- Research centre(s)
-
Design Lab
Two dimensional heterostructures on SiC for new electronics
The present electronic technology is approaching the limit to the smallest circuit element achievable, and the future electronic devices will depend critically on the development of novel approaches. Two dimensional materials seem to offer an exciting perspective, and the advent of graphene (a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb structure) sparked a huge interest, but its application to electronics are limited by the absence of a band gap.A new perspective has been open by other 2D materials which …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Engineering bioartificial extracellular tumour microenvironments for Osteosarcoma personalised precision oncology
Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common malignant bone tumour affecting children and adolescents. Importantly, clinical outcomes have not improved for decades, and bone tumours remain to be a leading cause of cancer-related death in adolescents.By identifying ideal treatment approaches for each individual patient, precision oncology has the potential to significantly improve these outcomes. Yet, its widespread application is hindered by a lack of biomaterials that support the reproducible and robust generation of patient-derived osteosarcoma organoids in vitro.Therefore, this project will …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Health
- School
- School of Biomedical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Optimising bone shape with memory networks
Bone is a dynamic tissue that optimises its shape to the mechanical loads that it carries. Bone mass is accrued where loads are high, and reduced where loads are low. This adaptation of bone tissue to mechanical loads is well-known and observed in many instances. However, what serves as a reference mechanical state in this shape optimisation remains largely unknown.
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Biomedical Technologies
Developing models of failure for porous materials
Classical fracture mechanics accurately predicts the failure strength of samples with sharp flaws such as pre-existing cracks. However, to predict the failure of porous materials we need to develop an understanding of how stresses are concentrated around smooth flaws in the material such as rounded pores, and how these stress concentrations contribute to failure.Finite fracture mechanics combines the energy criterion for failure from classical fracture mechanics with a stress criterion from macroscopic failure theory. The coupled criterion has by now …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Mathematical Sciences
Bio-inspired design to create strong and toughness composites
A fundamental challenge to materials design for mechanical capability is to attain both strength and toughness at the same time in one body. Conventional metallic materials generally have relatively large plasticity due to having massive population of microstructural defects and effective plastic deformation mechanism, which have long been exploited for fabricating flaw tolerant (toughness) materials for structural applications. By the same token theseStructural defects render the materials relatively low strength, thus low load-bearing capability. In contrast, ceramics and intermetallic compounds …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Development composite electrode for next generation Li-ion batteries
Australia is rich in lithium battery materials and is poised to be the world leader in sustainable energy storage. The rapid growth in the automobile and energy sector created greater demand for high-performance Li-ion batteries with high energy density. Conventional Li-ion batteries utilise a graphite anode with a limited theoretical capacity. Therefore, we need to develop alternative electrode materials with high energy density and a longer lifespan.Silicon (Si) has received attention owing to its high specific capacity at ambient temperature. …
- Study level
- PhD
- Faculty
- Faculty of Engineering
- School
- School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
High performance energy storage materials and devices
Energy storage devices, such as supercapacitors, play an increasingly important role in our daily life as a reliable energy supplier. Supercapacitors are a type of energy storage system that possess merits of rapid energy storage and release (high power density) with a cycling lifetime of ten thousand or more. Nevertheless the energy density of conventional electrochemical capacitor is quite low.This project aims to enhance the energy density of supercapacitors without compromising their power density through innovative designing and synthesising electrode …
- Study level
- PhD, Master of Philosophy, Honours
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science
- School
- School of Chemistry and Physics
- Research centre(s)
- Centre for Materials Science
Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices
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