On August 29th, the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Official Languages, announced that the Government of Canada is supporting over 4,700 outstanding researchers and their projects throughout Canada.

"Our government is funding the top-tier researchers and scientists whose work makes Canada a world leader in research and innovation,” says Boissonnault.

Professor Milad Kamkar from the Department of Chemical Engineering is one of those top-tier researchers. His group’s research initiative, Engineering Multifunctional All-Liquid Soft Materials and Ultra-light Weight Aerogels is one of the projects receiving funding through the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Kamkar's project aims to address environmental and health concerns such as safeguarding Canadians from the adverse effects of electromagnetic waves, which are known to cause cancer and disrupt the performance of sensitive electronics. The project suggests utilizing cutting-edge techniques developed by Kamkar, such as Liquid Streaming, to create advanced soft materials and lightweight aerogels. These materials aim to offer shielding against electromagnetic waves emitted by devices like 5G cell phones.

To achieve this, Kamkar’s research group works on synthesizing diverse magnetic or electrically conductive nanomaterials by controlling their chemical and physical features in nano-scale. After synthesizing these nanomaterials, Kamkar’s research group, Multi-scale Materials Design Centre (MMD) controls their micro-scale assembly to develop 3D printable inks (soft materials).

This approach allows control over rheological features (e.g., viscosity) of the inks by managing the assembly and interactions of nanomaterials. Kamkar’s group uses advanced 3D printers to 3D structure materials with high rheological features, like pastes or gels. These 3D printable gels/pastes contain high amounts of nanomaterials (high solid contents).

A black aerogel coil on a white block held by red pincers which glove covered hands

The above picture shows an electrically conductive and magnetic worm-like ultra-lightweight aerogel  attached to a magnet. This aerogel was made by all-liquid soft materials templating via Liquid Streaming. The above photo and the banner image are reprinted from Advanced Materials (2023):2302826

However, shaping soft materials with low viscosity, such as water, is an arduous challenge. Recently through Liquid Streaming, Kamkar’s group was also able to shape even low-viscosity inks containing a small amount of nanomaterials (very low solid contents). With this advanced manufacturing technique novel types of all-liquid soft materials have been introduced for the first time. Afterward, these all-liquid soft materials can be transformed into ultra-lightweight aerogels via special drying techniques. These innovative lightweight materials, featuring fine-tuned magnetic or electrical properties (see picture on left) have significant implications for the aerospace industry and national defense.

“The Liquid Streaming technique is also cost-effective, often using a hundred times less expensive nanomaterials than other processes while creating a product that has improved performance and better mechanical properties,” says Kamkar. “This technology allows for structural improvements to be economically viable while shielding people and important structures from the deleterious impact of electromagnetic waves.”

Due to the multifunctionality of these aerogels, they can also be used in multiple applications such as thermal management, wastewater treatment, sensors, and oil spill remediations.

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