News

Why Elon Musk uses stainless steel for his new spacecraft

José Manuel Torralba, IMDEA MATERIALES In a recent recorded conversation between Adam Burrows, an astrophysics professor at Princeton, and Elon Musk, Burrows expressed surprise at SpaceX's choice to use stainless steel for the Starship spacecraft. Instead of opting for more “aerospace”

‘Exceptional results’: DELIGHTED praised for delivering significant advances in the production of lightweight, high-strength steel alloys

THE IMDEA Materials-coordinated DELIGHTED project has been praised for delivering “exceptional results” in its successful efforts to develop Advanced High-Strength Steels (AHSS) for lightweight vehicle applications. The comments were contained within the European Commission’s (EC) final report on

Dr. Mónica Echeverry, First Junior PI at IMDEA Materials

IMDEA Materials Institute has taken a significant step in its commitment to innovation and the scientific development of young researchers by launching its new Junior Principal Investigator (Junior PI) program. This program enables postdoctoral researchers who have obtained competitive talent

We will see cheap diamonds in Tiffany’s

José Manuel Torralba, IMDEA MATERIALS A diamond awakens a world of suggestions that can lead us, depending on our age, to a cabaret in Paris where Marilyn Monroe declares to the world that they are "a girl's best friend" (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Howard Hawks, 1953); to New York's Fifth Avenue,

Materials science in focus in IMDEA Materials’ 13th annual imaging contest

IMDEA Materials Institute recently celebrated its 13th annual imaging contest featuring images related to materials characterisation and processing, simulation and the institute's everyday activities. The most competitive category was "Materials Characterisation", which this year was won by

The Congress that almost wasn’t and ended in success

Organisers of the 19th European Mechanics of Materials Conference (EMMC19) have heralded its success in putting IMDEA Materials Institute on the map in the mechanics of materials field. The event, held last week over three days at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), was organised by IMDEA

IMDEA Materials Institute opens hosting offers for 2024 MSCA PF call

IMDEA Materials Institute is seeking postdoctoral researchers for call 2024 of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship (PF) programme (deadline 11/09/2024). Our Institute has a long track record of hosting MSCA fellows (around 30 fellows hosted in total, with 8 more set

Radiation, the invisible threat to the colonisation of Mars

Jesús Ordoño Fernández, IMDEA MATERIALES The exploration of the red planet faces numerous challenges, from the effects of microgravity to space fungi and one of the most dangerous: radiation. The latter mainly comes from two sources: the Sun (and its solar storms) and outer space, distant

How High-Entropy Alloys could help shape tomorrow’s energy landscape

In the quest for greener energy solutions, hydrogen-based technologies have emerged as strong contenders. However, one of the challenges lies in efficient hydrogen storage as traditional austenitic steels, commonly used for hydrogen vessels, suffer from embrittlement during storage. With the aim

IMDEA Materials triumphs in the Madrid Science Fair 2024

For the fourth consecutive year, IMDEA Materials Institute has participated in the Madrid Es Ciencia Fair, the largest annual science outreach event in the Community of Madrid. Nearly 20 researchers, representing all areas of research conducted by the Institute, from advances in medical devices

What is the most used material in the world and the least researched?

José Manuel Torralba, IMDEA MATERIALES We live in a world of steel. It's so common that we use it as a metaphor for everyday life. Some people have nerves of steel, and the biceps of many muscular young individuals are made of ship steel. What is not a metaphor is that steel is everywhere we

“The possibility of seeing what no one has seen before in what everyone has already looked at”: Prof. Javier LLorca is awarded the National Research Prize in Engineering and Architecture

The possibility of seeing what no one has seen before in what everyone has already looked at. That is a large part of what drives Prof. Javier LLorca to continue his pioneering work after nearly four decades among the best in Spanish science and research. Scientific Director of IMDEA Materials

Do we have enough materials for the energy transition to be truly possible?

José Manuel Torralba, IMDEA MATERIALS y Miguel Ángel Rodiel, IMDEA Replacing fossil fuels brings with it challenges and side effects that must be considered by all parties involved in Europe's energy transition, vital to our future. To begin with, however, we must ask one seemingly obvious, but

Silence in the City: The New Wave of Topological Materials

Dr. Johan Christensen, IMDEA Materials Institute Imagine being on your way to a well-deserved summer vacation when suddenly you collide with another vehicle. Fortunately, the chassis of your car deforms in a controlled and programmed manner upon impact, creating a safe zone for the occupants to

IMDEA Materials Institute hosts final MAT4.0-CM Meeting as project wraps up

IMDEA Materials Institute today hosted the final meeting of MAT4.0-CM, a project designed to advance intelligent manufacturing of advanced materials for energy, transport and health. MAT4.0-CM is coordinated by IMDEA Materials and aims to promote the additive manufacturing of metallic materials

IMDEA Materials Institute celebrates its 12th Annual Imaging Contest

IMDEA Materials Institute has today celebrated the presentation of awards to finalise the 12th Annual Imaging Contest. This year's competition was dominated by the Materials Characterisation category, which contributed the majority of entries, ahead of Open Subject and Materials Simulation.

IMDEA Materials scores unprecedented success in latest MSCA Fellowship call

A new treatment for one of the world’s most prevalent tropical diseases, the discovery of cheaper alternative catalysts for hydrogen production, and the development of dynamic, load-bearing implants for tissue engineering. These are just three of the new projects that are set to get underway at

IMDEA Materials Institute represented among this year’s IOM3 award winners

IMDEA Materials Director, Professor José Manuel Torralba was on hand in London recently to receive the annual Ivor Jenkins award from the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3). And Prof. Torralba wasn’t the only award-winner with an IMDEA Materials connection on the night, as

The future of additive manufacturing on show at IMDEA Materials Institute

IMDEA Materials Institute has played host to some of the country's leading research centres and industrial partners at a technical conference on additive manufacturing. The morning session of the conference, which was organized by MATERPLAT and the Network of Excellence in Additive Manufacturing

IMDEA Materials Institute hosts first-ever research and innovation forum

The Madrid Institute of Advanced Research in Materials Science has today played host to the first-ever forum dedicated to the exchange of best practice in research and innovation between all of Spain´s 17 autonomous communities. In total, around 30 representatives from regional Ministries of Science

Scientific Highlight – 3D tissue models for studying and treating disease

3D tissue models can be used in vitro (in the lab) for the study of diseases and the testing of novel drugs, including their incorporation into microfluidic devices to form the so-called “organ-on-chip” systems. 3D tissue models can also be used in vivo (i.e. implanted in the body) to directly

Success in call 2021 of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships

Two Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship have been awarded to our Institute in call 2021, and 2 more are high on the reserve list. We submitted 11 proposals, and they received marks in the range of 97 – 59 out of 100. Almost all are above the threshold. Despite the fierce competition, our

Scientific Highlight: Computational discovery of hydrogen storage materials

IMDEA Materials has know-how and experience in developing computational high-throughput screening workflows for discovery of hydrogen storage materials. Our focus has been mostly directed towards advanced porous materials such as metal organic frameworks and related materials (Fig. 1). Our

Scientific Highlight: Fire retardant reprocessable epoxy-based composites

IMDEA Materials has developed a technology to produce Reprocessable Epoxy Resin (REP) composites with excellent fire retardancy and re-processability. Compared with pure epoxy resin with a Limited Oxygen Index (LOI) of 21.7 % and no rating in vertical burning test (UL-94), recyclable epoxy resin

Scientific Highlight: In-situ studies of defect-engineered electrodes

Diffusion independent pseudocapacitive ion storage is one of the recently investigated mechanisms for achieving ultrafast Li and Na-ion storage. It usually involves surface/ near surface charge-transfer reactions. Nevertheless, intrinsic pseudocapacitance of transition metal oxide anodes is not

Scientific Highlight: New 3D-printed alloys for extreme conditions

IMDEA Materials has recognized expertise on the design of alloys for high temperature, high strength and lightweight applications, which are suitable for the production of 3D printed components by laser-based or binder-jetting methods. Previous works include the design of superalloys for turbine

Scientific Highlight: Virtual testing of metals

IMDEA Materials offers a mature, fully stand-alone technology able to predict the mechanical response of an engineering alloy as function of its microstructure [1]. This technology is able to provide the anisotropic elastic properties and stress-strain elastoplastic curves, the creep response

Scientific Highlight: New coatings for extreme conditions

Titanium aluminum nitrides (TiAlN) are currently the most versatile coatings in terms of performance with various applications in industry: as wear-resistant coatings for cutting tools; for increasing productivity in die casting, reducing soldering and retarding fire cracks; for plastic processing,

Scientific Highlight: Bioresorbable scaffolds for tissue engineering

IMDEA Materials has developed technologies to manufacture scaffolds made of biodegradable polymers (PCL, PLA, PLGA, etc), biodegradable metals (Mg and Zn) and their composites for tissue engineering (see Fig. 1 below). The main advantage of this technology is that it allows designing scaffolds with

Scientific Highlight: Physical simulation of joining of dissimilar materials

IMDEA Materials has developed a physical simulation tool to predict joinability of dissimilar metallic materials with different melting points. Very small samples of the actual dissimilar materials are subjected to the same thermal and mechanical profiles in a thermo-mechanical simulator (GLEEBLE

Scientific Highlight: Ultrafast processing of advanced metallic materials

IMDEA Materials has developed technologies for ultrafast processing of advanced metallic materials in a thermo-mechanical simulator (GLEEBLE 3800). They allow to precisely control the thermo-mechanical processing at high heating/cooling rates, as well as at high strain rate plastic deformation.

Scientific Highlight: Modelling and simulation of Hydrogen embrittlement

Europe’s commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 is strongly pushing renewable energy sources and hydrogen has emerged as a versatile and environmentally friendly mean to store and transport clean energy. The large-scale usage of hydrogen has prompted new challenges in the core

Scientific Highlight: Fire retardant battery materials

IMDEA Materials is working on new battery materials that combine electrochemical integrity and enhanced fire safety. Fig. 1 below shows a fully solid-state battery based on a HKUST-1 MOF modified electrolyte with simultaneously improved electrochemical performance and fire safety was

Scientific Highlight: Sustainable, fire safe phase change materials

IMDEA Materials can design and prepare novel Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage applications that: are prepared in an easy and green pathway and, at the same time, have high mechanical performance, fire safety, form stability, phase transition enthalpy, and thermal

Scientific Highlight: AI-guided smart manufacturing of structural composites

Manufacturing in the EU is crucial, given that it is one of the main drivers in innovation, job creation and sustainable growth. It involves almost 2,000,000 companies that provide approximately 28.5 million jobs. Therefore, its impact is significant in terms of economic share, with it being ~18% of

Our alumna Jingya Wang obtains the University award to the best doctoral thesis

The doctoral thesis of Jingya Wang, entitled “High throughput investigation of diffusion and solid solution hardening of HCP Mg alloys”, has obtained the Award of the Technical University of Madrid to the best doctoral thesis. The thesis was advised by Prof. J. LLorca and Prof. Y. Cui and it was

ENTENTE project starts

The project ENTENTE (European Database for Multiscale Modelling of Radiation Damage) has started on the 1st of September 2020 and it will last 48 months. The aim of this project is to design a new European experimental/modelling materials database to collect and store highly-relevant data on

Helping industry to speed up the design of composites for impact applications

The current design of composite materials follows a trial and error approach based on an expensive and time consuming testing pyramid that costs industry millions of euros and years of development each time a new composite material is introduced in an aircraft. In this video, you can watch how we

Scientific Highlight: Hierarchical Strategy for Simultaneous Improvement of Mechanical and Fire-Safety Properties of Polymer Composites with Phosphonate-Loaded MOF Additives

Flame retardant (FR) additives are commonly used to improve fire-safety of synthetic polymers, which are widely employed in manufactured consumer goods. The incorporation of a FR in a polymer typically leads to deterioration of its mechanical properties. It also manifests itself in a non-negligible