Grants to Support Knowledge Exchange – Christian Nwosu

Christian Nwosu, 2023 Grant to Support Knowledge Exchange recipient shares his experience on the process.

My special thanks to the IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining) for the Knowledge Exchange Support Grant awarded to me, which enabled my participation as a speaker at the 2024 International Elastomer Conference (IEC) held at David Lawrence convention centre, between 9 and 12 September 2024, in the city of Pittsburgh of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA.

The 2024 IEC featured wide range events, such as: Women’s Event (WORD) programme, Courses on elastomer (rubber) products manufacturing, Industrial Expo presentations, Trainings on Rheology and Process Engineering, Student Outreach programme, Young Professionals event, and Technical meetings. Some of the courses featured includes Failure Analysis, Vulcanisation and Curing Chemistry, Compound Consistency Mixing and Testing, Essentials of Silicone Rubber, and Tire durability.

IEC technical sessions focused on areas such as New commercial developments, Environmental risk, 6PPD and PFAS, Finite element analysis and Modelling, Sustainable materials and processes, Polymer degradation and stability, 3D and 4D Printing with high performance elastomers, Advance materials, Processes for tires, Characterisation and testing of elastomer materials, Silicone Elastomers/compounds and Elastomer reinforcement.

The event, which was co-located with the 2024 Silicone Expo USA, also featured various Industrial Expo, were several industries showcased their products ranging from industrial machines (for elastomer products manufacturing and analysis) to elastomer products such as O-rings, hose, medical and non-medical tubes and prosthetics.

As a participant and an invited speaker, I made presentation of my work titled “Graphene Nanoplatelets and external Waterbased Crosslinker Effects on the Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Waterbased Elastomer Nanocomposites”. Speaking at this conference afforded me the opportunity to exchange ideas with a host of academics and industrial experts through questions and discussions generated from my talk. Which provided me with stronger perspective on wide ranging innovative ideas on my future research direction, as well as enabled me to develop my professional network. Once again, I am grateful to the IOM3 for the Grant Awarded to me which facilitated my participation at this spectacular global conference in USA.

Christian Nwosu is a Final Year PhD Student Researching on Graphene Materials based Elastomer Nanocomposites, at The University of Manchester, United Kingdom.