As a world-class research center and an integral part of higher education, HPMI researchers focus their efforts on the following three major activities:
Materials research, by its very nature, is multidisciplinary, involving basic sciences such as chemistry and physics, as well as chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, and mechanical engineering. HPMI program teams consist of researchers with a wide range of technical backgrounds who share the vision of conducting world-class research towards making high-performance composites affordable.
The High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) is a multidisciplinary research institute at Florida State University. HPMI strives to recruit, develop and retain top quality faculty and staff who will develop HPMI into a center of excellence for research and education in the field of advanced materials. HPMI personnel established Florida’s first National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC). In 2006, the Florida Board of Governors designated HPMI as a Center of Excellence in Advanced Materials and awarded $4 M to further HPMI’s efforts in technology transfer, economic development and work force training. Under its cluster hiring program, FSU has awarded the HPMI team with an additional $4 M to recruit and hire some of the nation’s top researchers in Materials. HPMI personnel recently moved into the new $20 M, 45,000 square foot Materials Research Building, which houses the latest state-of-the art equipment and facilities for materials research, especially designed for research in nanomaterials.
Leading edge, revolutionary technology comes as the result of creativity, vision, talent, dedication and teamwork. Currently, HPMI is in the unique position in three technology areas: resin infusion between double flexible tooling (RIDFT), which is capable of rapidly and inexpensively producing composite parts in mass or for individual specifications; resin transferring molding and vacuum-assisted resin transferring molding (RTM/VARTM), which produces high quality composites parts; and nanotube optimized for lightweight exceptional strength (NOLES), which is developing technology capable of producing amazingly strong multifunctional composites. HPMI builds on its current strengths in these areas and create an array of new technologies adding to and improving the RIDFT and RTM/VARTM, as well as continue to explore and realize the astounding potentials for NOLES. HPMI’s ultimate goal is to become the major provider of advanced technology for the nation and the world.
Over the last several years, HPMI has proven a number of technology concepts that have the potential to narrow the gap between research and practical applications of nanotube-based materials. These technologies include magnetic alignment of nanotubes, fabrication of nanotube membranes or buckypapers, production of nanotube composites, modeling of nanotube-epoxy interaction at the molecular level, and characterization of SWNT nanocomposites for mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, thermal management, radiation shielding and EMI attenuation.