Browsing by Author "Martin, D."

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Characterisation of spinifex (Triodia pungens) resin and fibres
(Australasian Polymer Symposium, Cairns, QLD, Australia, 2009) de Silva, D.S.M.; Memmott, P.; Flutter, N.; Martin, D.
Spinifex grasses have been largely ignored as a sustainable resource despite their widespread distribution throughout Australia. This project involves an in-depth study of the structure and properties of both the leaf and resinous components of various spinifex species and an investigation into the preparation and properties of Spinifex-based composite materials. The present work is comprised of two components, analysis of the resin and mechanical testing of various fibrous components. Resin of the soft Spinifex species (Triodia pungens) was extracted from the resinous stems of Spinifex grasses into methanol by soxhlet extraction. The dried extracts were chromatographed on silica gel, eluted with the solvent mixture of hexane and methanol with increasing polarity to give ten fractions. Resin was also extracted directly by soaking the resinous stems for 8 hours in hexane and methanol in order to study the polar and non-polar volatile compounds. The chemical composition of the fractions of the resin has been studied by means of GC-MS and LC-MS. ATR-FTIR spectroscopy was used to identify the functional groups present in the resin. Thermal analysis was also performed using DSC. GC-MS chromatograms revealed
Green building materials from spinifex
(Commonwealth Forestry Association, 2010) Gamage, H.; de Silva, D.S.M.; Flutter, N.; O'Rourke, T.; Memmott, P.; Martin, D.; Schmidt, S.
Towards Novel Biomimetic Building Materials: Evaluating Aboriginal And Western Scientific Knowledge Of Spinifex Grass
(Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Brisbane, Australia, 2009) Memmott, P.; Martin, D.; de Silva, D.S.M.; Flutter, N.; Gamage, H.; Schmidt, S.; Fensham, R.
Deriving new materials from renewable, non-petrochemical feedstocks is currently an area of great interest to materials engineers. Spinifex grasses have been largely ignored as a sustainable resource despite their widespread availability throughout Australia and their unique biology that has evolved in harsh environments. This project involves an in-depth study of the structure and properties of both the leaf and resinous components of various Spinifex species. The properties will be benchmarked against other natural fibers and natural resins. The objective of this project is to apply traditional Aboriginal knowledge to produce novel biomimetic building materials based on Spinifex.