Curtin Carbon Group

We are a multidisciplinary group of carbon material scientists working on next-generation materials for green technology.

Led by Associate Professor Nigel Marks and Dr. Jacob Martin, we perform experiments and simulations involving a wide range of materials.

Postdoctoral researchers, Honours and PhD students are part of the team every year and contribute to our research with exciting projects.

See our current members here and please get in touch if you want to join the group.

We actively collaborate with industrial partners to enable the green transition through carbon materials for batteries, supercapacitors, hydrogen storage, electrocatalysts and thin film technology.

Read about why Western Australia is the best place to do carbon science.

Our Research

Graphite synthesis for batteries: Fundamental and applied work on how graphite forms and how the nanostructure impacts graphite's use in batteries and fuel cells.
Amorphous carbon thin films: They are some of the toughest coatings available on the market being used in cutting bits, hard drives, razors and to protect car engines.
Carbon black and soot: Critical for hydrogen production, batteries, tyres, pigments. We conduct fundamental studies on how carbonaceous materials form.
Activated/glassy/hard carbon: Disordered carbons are the most industrially significant carbon. We have studied the fundamental nanostructure and how they are so versatile for hydrogen storage and energy storage.
Nuclear materials: Graphite is used as a nuclear moderator and glassy carbon is used to seal pebble bed reactors. We have studied how carbon changes under neutron and ion bombardment.
Computational modelling: Supercomputers enable computational experiences to be done and advanced visualisation using 3D printing, VR headsets and immersive displays enables viewing these complex nanostructures.

Funders and associated organisations

Companies we have collaborated with

News

Jacob's talk on Breaking the Wall of Green Graphite

Jason's recent podcast with Curtin's The Future Of

Jacob and Praveen attended the workshop on the Measurement and Computation of Reacting flows with Carbon Nanoparticles (ISF) and the combustion symposium in Milan.

Science Gallery Bengaluru explainer video

COSMOS magazine article on condensed matter physics and graphite synthesis.

Nigel and Ethan at a workshop on shear and pressure induced transformation in carbon materials.

Jason holding a structure of graphite in the lab taken for an article on our commercial venture RapidGraphite in PV Magazine.

Praveen Selvakumar presenting a poster on methane pyrolysis at the FEnEx conference.

RapidGraphite at the Curtin Venture Studio showing off our technology to Senator the Hon. Anthony Chisholm.

Public lecture from Jacob at the Science Gallery Bengaluru

Carbon Nanoverse a VR exhibition at the Science Gallery Bengaluru

Nigel was interviewed on 9 News about changing coal-fired power stations to nuclear energy.

Jason Fogg and the 2024 Accelerate program

Western Australian Graphite Workshop

Curtin Carbon Group with Dr Cathy Foley

Most up-to-date news is on our LinkedIn page

December 2024: Jason presented at the SQM Ventures
December 2024: Jacob presented at Calgon
November 2024: Jacob presented our work on graphite at the Falling Wall Conference in Berlin this month on Breaking the Wall of Green Graphite.
October 2024: Jason's new podcast is out on The Future Of podcast on our recent commercialisation efforts with the spin-out company RapidGraphite.
August 2024: Nigel was interviewed on Arirang Radio last year about the safety of Japan's water discharge from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant the recording is now online.
July 2024: Gabriel Francas second paper from his PhD is now out showing how screw/edge dislocation loops are removed in materials that form graphite.
July 2024: Jacob and Praveen attended the workshop on "Measurement and Computation of Reacting flows with Carbon Nanoparticles (ISF)" and the combustion sympsosium in Milan presenting a talk and poster on methane pyrolysis.
July 2024: The Science Gallery Bengaluru posted a great explainer video about our visualisation tool Carbon Nanoverse. Learn about where the exhibition is going next - the Raman Research Institute outreach team.
July 2024: Jacob got 1st place in the Falling Walls Labs Perth with the talk "Breaking the Wall of Green Graphite".
June 2024: Evrim Yazgin published a COSMOS magazine article on condensed matter physics with our graphite research highlighted.
May, 8, 2024: RapidGraphite our commercial venture was highlighted by PV Magazine.
May 2024: Nigel and Ethan attended a workshop on shear and pressure induced transformation in carbon materials with collaborators at the Unversity of Sydney.
May 2024: Praveen a PhD student across the carbon group and hydrogen storage research group presented at the FEnEx Conference on methane pyrolysis.
April 2024: Our start-up company RapidGraphite was highlighted in the Australian as part of the launch of the Curtin Venture Studio.
March 2024: Jacob and Andrea visited India for the Carbon Exhibition at the Science Gallery Bengaluru. Watch the live-streamed talk by Jacob on how batteries work at the nanoscale.
March 2024: Nigel has been on 9 News TV talking about changing coal-fired power stations to run on nuclear energy.
February 2024: Nigel Marks was invited to visit Japan and visit the ongoing cleanup efforts from the Fukushima nuclear accident.
February 2024: Jacob Martin attended the 45th Annual Condensed Matter and Materials Meeting (WAGGA 2024) and International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology presenting on graphite formation. Online article in COSMOS 'A graphite revolution at "Wagga 2024"' highlighting our work from Evrim Yazgin.
February 2024: Carbon Nanoverse a VR exhibition at the Science Gallery Bengaluru opened enabling the public to experience carbon at the nanoscale. Andrea Rassell was the creative producer for the work and Callum Wood developed the software in Unity. Carbon Exhibition Website.
January/February 2024: Think Like A Scientist programme was run within Western Australian Prison. Jacob ran a workshop on how green technology works on the nanoscale. LinkedIn Post and video.
January 2024: RapidGraphite the company founded out of the Curtin Carbon Group has been picked to participate in the 2024 Accelerate program. Research from Jason Fogg PhD will be commercialised enabling carbon to be transformed into battery-grade graphite, a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, within seconds. Read more here.
November 2023: VR and 3D printing for research. Quick 15min talk from Jacob Martin for RACI on how we are using advanced visualisation to get inside carbon nanostructures at the atomic scale. Watch the video here.
October 2023: Article published in Materials Australia on a talk Jacob gave to WA branch members Materials Australia in September. Read the article here.
September 2023: Jason Fogg participated in the Curtin Ignition programme for commercialisation. Jason's pitch was awarded the top 5 pitches! Read more here
October 2023: Nigel Marks’ perspective on “The risks of radioactive wastewater release” from the Fukushima nuclear plant has been published in Science! Read it here.
July 2023: Jacob Martin and Jason Fogg headed to the World Congress on Carbon in Cancun Mexico to present our work on graphite, soot and porous carbons. Twitter post
June 2023: The Western Australian Graphite Workshop was run bringing together 50 people from industry, government and academia to discuss how graphite can be mined and synthesied for the growing demands due to their use in lithium ion batteries. Link to a summary from a colleague.
April 2023: Kate Putman’s paper on defining the graphenic crystallite in disordered carbon has been published. Check out the open access paper here.
March 2023: Jacob Martin’s podcast on atomistic simulations has been released. Listen to the recording here.
February 2023: Andrea Rassell has been awarded a Forrest Creative Fellowship within the HIVE and will be working with the Curtin Carbon Group to visualise materials at the atomic scale. Press release
November 2022: Curtin Carbon Group spoke with Dr Cathy Foley the Chief Scientist of Australia about how quantum computers will accelerate the green transition. See what we discussed
October 2022: Jacob Martin highlighted the role of carbon for our new energy future on the Science Show. Listen to the recording
July 2022: Jacob Martin won the Brian Kelly Award at the World Congress on Carbon in London this year. Read more about the conference in this blog psot.
November 2020: Congratulations to Jason Fogg, who won the best oral presentation at the AIP WA student conference that took place on the 26 November at UWA.
September 2020: Jacob Martin has been awarded the Forrest Fellowship to join the Carbon Group & Hydrogen Storage Research Group to explore hydrogen storage in porous carbon. Press release
July 2020: We are pleased to announce our latest paper in Nature’s Communications Materials on Catalysis-free transformation of non-graphitising carbons into highly crystalline graphite. It is open access and you read it here.
November 2018, Congratulations to Prof. Mauricio Terrones, recipient of the prestigious Haydn Williams Fellowship. The Carbon Group will host Mauricio next May 2019. Mauricio is a world leader in nanotechnology and Editor-in-Chief of the carbon journal. During his visit to Curtin we will organise exciting scientific and networking activities.
View the press release
November 2018, Congratulations to Andrew Thomas, 3rd year Physics student. Andrew has been selected as a Curtin HIVE intern to do research at the Carbon Group. The project ‘3D visualisation of carbon nanostructures’ will combine computer simulations and the amazing 3D visualisation facilities at HIVE to study atomistic models of activated carbons. The project will be funded by the Curtin Institute of Computation.
October 2018, Synthesis of graphene from rice husks: our paper in collaboration with Prof. Mauricio Terrones’ group has been published. Read more
July 2018, We will present our latest results at the Carbon Conference 2018 in Madrid.
June 2018, Our article in App.Phys. Lett. is featured as Editor’s Pick this month, have a look here: link
June 2018, PyroMan workshop will take place in Madrid. Nigel is an invited speaker.
23 Feb 2018, farewell to Mark Tucker: Mark is leaving the Carbon Group to follow his career as Scientist, in the Force Standards, National Measurement Institute, Sydney.
30 October 2017, Congratulations to Filip Vukovic for his 1st Prize in the poster competition at MM2017.
27-29 September 2017, MM17 Conference The Molecular Modelling conference is organized by the Association of Molecular Modellers of Australasia and will be host by Curtin University in Margaret River. Carla and Alireza will participate with oral talks and Filip will present a poster.
August 2017 Carbon Journal cover Carla’s image of a nanoporous carbon has been featured as front cover in the Carbon Journal Volume 120.
July 2017 World Carbon Conference Every year carbon scientist from all around the globe meet in the biggest scientific carbon-themed conference: the World Carbon Conference. This year Melbourne will host this great scientific event and Irene is a member of the scientific committee. Nigel will give a talk about carbon potentials; Carla will be talking about carbide-derived carbons and Alireza will present a poster on nanodiamond nucleation.

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