Flinders University

Australia

Flinders University is a comprehensive, research-intensive university that embraces both the technological and the social challenges inherent in many problems.

Over recent years, the issue of models of care, such as caring for the elderly, for those with disabilities or those with mental health and wellbeing challenges, have increasingly taken centre stage in our communities.

Flinders has been proactive in combining technological and social research to tackle these issues head-on, with focused research initiatives led by the recently established Caring Futures Institute, the Órama Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing, the Social Work Innovation Research Living Space and the Flinders Digital Health Research Centre.

Other areas of focus for Flinders’ research are the technological and social challenges we are seeing in industrial production as the world transitions to advanced forms of manufacturing, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0.

The depth and breadth of the direct connections between our researchers and industry are a vital component of our research activities. We work in close partnership with businesses, not-for-profit enterprises and government to ensure that our research results in the types of innovation and transformation that benefit society.

There is no question that the challenges facing the world are great, but our capacity to rise to the challenge is what defines research excellence at Flinders University.

In 1966 when Flinders University was established, founding Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Karmel stated his ambitions for the university "we want to experiment, and experiment bravely". In the spirit of this tradition, we recognise the "brave minds" of our researchers in BRAVE Minds (Edition 2).

1 December 2019 - 30 November 2020

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Flinders University published between 1 December 2019 - 30 November 2020 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
38	6.45

Outputs by subject (Share)

Subject	Count	Share
Life Sciences	25	4.18
Physical Sciences	4	0.38
Chemistry	5	1.42
Earth & Environmental Sciences	7	1.08

Highlight of the month

A cooler route to strong polymer bonds

© Bloomberg Creative/Bloomberg Creative Photos/Getty Images

A room-temperature method for strongly bonding two polymer surfaces could lead to applications in polymer use, repair and recycling.

The molecules of conventional polymers are based on strings of carbon atoms, but some recently developed polymers are at least half sulfur by mass. As sulfur compounds typically make and break bonds more readily than their carbon counterparts, these polymers gain some unusual properties. When cut, for example, applying heat can heal the rift by forming new sulfur–sulfur bonds across the break.

Now, a team led by Flinders University researchers has developed a way to trigger sulfur–sulfur bond formation at room temperature using an amine catalyst.

As well as healing damage, the process can be used to bond two objects together, or as a way to form new objects after grinding the polymer to a powder during recycling. The team is pursuing potential applications in industrial contexts.

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