Chemistry PhD & Bachelors Degree in Nanomaterials.
Science Foundation Ireland Industry Research Fellow.
Award Winning Scientific Communication & Education.
Research - 3D Printing - Science Outreach & Education
research
I do research additive manufacturing, and I use additive manufacturing in my spare time, it's one of my favourite and most fulfilling hobbies. My FDM 3D printer was my best purchase, and I would really enourage anyone with a curiosity in 3D printing to pick one up. I bought a Creality Ender 3 for a little over €175 and it's been a gateway to a wealth of information, opportunities and self development. I've designed and printed, replacement parts, gifts, models, prototypes, jigs, fixtures, art pieces, functional pieces, research pieces.
My favourite 3D printed part has to be a customized replacement suitcase handle I designed and printed a few hours before catching a flight. In terms of material cost,the plastic filament used in printing the handle was around € 0.20 but it meant a new lease of life for an otherwise perfectly good suitcase which would have ended up being thrown out!
I'm very fortunate that my love of additive manufacturing extends out from my personal life and into my current area of research. I work with metal additive manufacturing
and try to understand how to make parts more resiliant, reduce the amount of post-processing required, add additional functionality,
and make them easier to adopt for industry! Metal additive manufacturing is a completely different beast to consumer level
plastic filament based 3D printers. These machines use ultra fine metal powders (which are toxic, explosive and cling to everything) and
high power lasers to melt the powder layer by layer here's a good youtube video that shows the process.
Additively manufactured parts, especially metal ones, generally need a few extra post-processing steps after they come out of the printer. Excess metal powder has to be carefully removed from the part, and the part has to be heated to a high temperature up to remove the stresses that build up in the part due to the laser selectively melting and the ensuing rapid cooling of those areas. The whole processes of building up a solid metal object from small powder particles like this using a laser is very unnatural, and we don't yet fully understand all the nuances involved in how the metal crystal structure is formed, and how we can control the propeties of the final part. If we can understand this, it opens up a huge amount of opportunities and applications!
The image below is taken with a Scanning Electron Microscope, a powerful instrument which takes pictures with electrons rather than photons (light). This means it can zoom in to thousands of times magnification and really let us see the finer detail of the structure of the part.
As you can see, the surface of the metal cube is quite rough, and a lot of the metal powder hasn't fully melted together, this surface roughness is a problem and something we're looking to solve without having to using traditional subtractive machining.
It's hard to imagine places we've never been to before. If I described a country to you, you may be able to imagine
something based on places which are familiar to you. If I tried to describe the nanoscale to you, I may as well
begin to describe an alien planet.Imagine shrinking down to the width of a human hair, (a hair's width varies, but for this example we'll use 100 micrometres (μm) or 0.1 mm) congratulations, you're halfway to the nanoscale. Shrink yourself again, by a factor of a thousand, you're now 0.1 μm or 100 nanometres (nm).
Now, the type of nanomaterial you are, depends on what shape you are, if you're a little sphere, block, or blob around 100 nm in all your
dimensions you're a zero-dimensional nanoparticle. If you're flat and stretch out in your other two dimensions, like a sheet of
paper, you're a two-dimensional material, like graphene. However, if you happen to be one-dimensional, resembling a piece of
uncooked spaghetti, you're a nanowire, and I think you're quite interesting.
Silver and Copper nanowires form networks which are great and conducting electricity, and so small that they let lots of light past, these
are called Transparent Conductors and they're a key component in displays, touch screens, solar cells, lighting
and transparent heaters,
we can spray our networks on plastic, whereas the materials we currently use behave like glass,
this means we can make flexible versions the things I've just listed, making them cheaper and less likely to break when dropped!
Science Outreach
I don’t think I was quite prepared for the huge variety of questions, or the intense fast-paced nature of the online chats. Questions of all types came flooding in; from my favourite animal to my own hobbies to my interest in dinosaurs. What got me interested in science, what was my background, who supported me, what obstacles I’ve faced along the way and how long I’ve been a scientist. Why my specific area of research, nanomaterials, is important. What they are used for, how do we store them, see them and if I’ve ever lost any! This event is so important as it lets students experience first-hand that scientists are people too and a career in STEM is readily achievable if you have a love of science and a passion for knowledge.
I have to thank Science Foundation Ireland for sponsoring the zone and recognising the importance of science outreach and communication. I would also like to thank my colleagues in AMBER Trinity College Dublin, my family and my girlfriend for all their encouragement and support. My deepest commiserations go out to the other scientists in my zone who were brilliant to work with, I learned so much from their responses. I really enjoyed the diversity of not only the New Materials Zone, but the other zones, and the UK portion of the event. The whole experience was really fun. If anyone is interested in participating in I’m a Scientist, I would highly encourage them, you learn so much about yourself, and how others view you and your research area. It's a really rewarding experience!
Scientists! If you’d like the chance to win funding for your own public engagement work, apply for the next I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here: imascientist.ie/scientist-apply
I also worked with Dr John O'Donoghue (RSC Education Coordinator) as an ambassador for Spectroscopy in a Suitcase, which gives secondary school students the chance to learn about spectroscopy through a hands-on experience. As well as covering the principles of spectroscopic techniques, the activities use real-life contexts to demonstrate the applications of the techniques. I traveled to secondary schools helped set up the spectroscopy and lab equipment and engaged with the students during the activity.
Click Here to View Some of my Award Winning Science Images
Contact Me
manninh (at) tcd (dot) ie