Materials design and innovation

Materia Nova's approach to collaborative innovation accelerates industrial developments in materials and processes, from the design phase through to industrialisation. Materia Nova's preferred technical areas are surface treatments (plasma, ion implantation, sol-gel, electrolysis), biotechnology, renewable energies, energy efficiency and composite materials, polymers and bio-polymers.

Upscaling and engineering

Materia Nova also boasts a network of collaborations that enables us to offer R&D support from the scale of laboratory samples through to small-scale production or the design and supply of production tools.

Analysis and characterisation of products and processes: A materials characterisation platform that supports companies in their R&D activities and also provides solutions to problems of mechanical failure, corrosion, adhesion and many others....

Lifecycle assessment and analysis, for scientific measurement of the environmental performance of industrial products and services.

Development and management of national and international projects in partnership with industry and academia.

Social innovation

Materia Nova is also a centre for social innovation. Our code of ethics is at the heart of our relations with both our partners and our staff.

Skills

Materia Nova is associated with five other research centres in Hainaut active in the fields of the environment, materials and processes (CRIBC-CTP-INISMA-INS-Certech). These centres have come together under the umbrella of EMRA (Environment and Materials Research Association). The aim is to develop synergies, share experience and equipment, and jointly submit research programmes.

Standardised and other tests

The centre also offers one-off services: upscaling for companies, feasibility tests, environmental impact analyses, materials characterisation, market studies, state of the art, literature monitoring and targeted consultancy.

Equipment

• Extruders

• Rheometer

• 3D printers

• Reactors

• Fire tests

• Surface chemical analysis: XPS and Tof-SIMS

• Scanning electron microscope (SEM)

• Atomic shape microscopy (AFM)

• X-ray diffraction (XRD)

• FTIR, micro-Raman and UV-Vis-NIR spectrometers

• Tribometer

• Ion implanter

• Plasma deposition drivers

• Enclosures (tubes, degassing, PECVD, PVD)

• µ-wave plasma

• OLED/OPV driver

• Characterisation tools (1) performance and yield, (2) optical, electrical at macro/nano scale

• Local probe microscopy and spectroscopy

• Climatic chambers

• Gas analysers and test devices

• Galvanic pilot

• Sensor development

• Sol-gel deposition techniques

• Equipment for fermentation and its microbial and molecular characterisation (including class II)

• Platform for anti-microbial/anti-fouling tests

• Equipment for studying the impact and fate of materials/molecules in the environment (biodegradation, toxicity, etc.)