Professor Patrick Fairclough
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Professor of Polymer and Composite Engineering


+44 114 222 7798
Full contact details
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
葫芦影业
S1 3JD
- Profile
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Professor Fairclough completed a BSc in Physics at the University of Birmingham in 1990 and then a PhD in Neutron Scattering graduating in 1995.
A postdoc in polymer science took him to UMIST in Manchester in 1994 (after briefly working as a service engineer) and the postdoc lasted until 1997 when he was recruited to the Department of Chemistry at the University of 葫芦影业.
In 2013 he took up the chair position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
- Research interests
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Patrick's research covers a wide variety of polymers, soft materials and composite systems and his research spans the fundamentals of the network structure of epoxy resins, as used in protective coatings, to novel mould-free manufacturing of carbon fibre composites.
The current research group has projects including mould-free manufacturing, fibre splicing and tailored fibre placement. The mould-free work uses carbon black to create a conductive carbon composite that can be electrically cured and in the future can be developed to allow for the direct creation of composite parts from software without the use of conventional 鈥渢ooling鈥.
The group also work on projects looking at thermoplastic composite materials and, in particular, systems that can be hydrolysed back to monomer species. The hydrolysis process takes place at high pressures and temperatures but with water as a solvent for the material. The group are working to develop this as a way of reusing recycled polymers, PET fibres from old bottles for example, to create recyclable structures.
They have had a long-standing interest in structural colour from using block copolymer mixtures as an easy way to create structural colour, to creating environmentally friendly replacements for TiO2. This work led them to study white beetle scales and to create a full 3D tomographic map of the scale by the use of synchrotron radiation at the ESRF in Grenoble France.
- Publications
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Journal articles
Chapters
Conference proceedings papers
Patents
- Grants
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- Soft Nanotechnology November 2007 to October 2012; 拢796,000 with Prof. Richard A. L. Jones (Pl), Prof. Anthony J. Ryan, Prof. Mark Geoghegan, Prof. David Lidzey
- EPSRC KTA KickStart Funding Biologics October 2011 to June 2012, 拢1116,000 with Prof. Richard Ross, Prof. Nigel Clark, and Prof. Peter Artumuik
- The Effects of Poilydispersity on Self Assembly in Block Copolymers: February 2007 to October 2010 拢254,000 with Prof. Sebastien Perrier (Sydney), Prof Mark Matsen (Reading)
- The Microscale Polymer Procesing Consortium for Macromolecular Engineering (MuPP ii): Toolbox Development and Application March 2005 - March 2009 拢815,000 Prof. Anthony J. Ryan, Dr Ellen Heeley collaboration as part of the larger MuPP ii grant with Prof. Tom C. B. McLeish (Pl), Dr R. Alan Duckett, Dr Oliver G. Harlen, Prof. Peter Hine, Prof. Pete Jimack, Prof. Alexei Likhtman, Dr Helen J Wilson, Prof. Phil D. Coates, Prof. Malcolm Mackley, Dr Lian R. Hutchings, Dr Nigel Clarke, Prof. C Paul Buckley
- Accelerated Discovery for New Organic Semiconductors November 2004 to October 2007, 拢234,000 Prof. Mick Turner and Dr Martin Grell
- Teaching interests
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- MEC132: Matter Flow and Energy (Thermofluids)
- MEC406:: Engineering Composite Materials (Solids)
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