Dr Claire Mayer and Dr Marie-Joo Le Guen will be using plant-based resources in new materials that can change with their environment
Dr Claire Mayer is in New Zealand working on a two-year research program to explore the use of plant material in 4D printing. Source: Timberbiz
Dr Mayer works for France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAe) and was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSC) fellowship in 2020. MSC fellowships are regarded as one of the most prestigious and highly competitive grant programs in the world.
The fellowship is supporting Dr Mayer to work at Scion for two years. While at Scion, she will be researching plant biomass to explore the qualities it could bring to a material when used to replace fossil-fuel components.
“In woody plant biomass, the functional elements are buried within plant tissues but milling or grinding plant material to ultrafine powders could bring hidden qualities to the surface and allow plant material to be used in advanced 4D printing technologies,” Dr Mayer said.
“We specifically want to understand if we can use plant powder to bring new qualities that we can use to design smart materials for 4D printing (where printed material changes in relation to environmental stimuli).
Research will test agricultural byproducts that are widely available in France and New Zealand, such as powders from rice husk, hemp core and flax shives (waste from processing flax and hemp) and pine bark.
Scientists aim to create materials that react to the environment using treated plant biomass with new functionalities. This research combines INRAe’s experience milling plant biomass and Scion’s knowledge of additive manufacturing.
When asked why she chose to come to Scion, Dr Mayer said that in Europe, Scion is renowned for its world class capability in biopolymer and biomass extrusion, characterisation and 3D/4D printing using biobased materials.
