We don't know how microwaves interact with a whole range of materials, and we think there's a lot of things you can do with microwave energy that people haven't yet looked into. Over more than a decade of research, Clark and his students have come up with several new uses for microwaves, including making superconductors and removing precious and hazardous metals from old circuit boards. And that's not all. Mark Moore, a materials science and engineering doctoral student, said his area of research centers around using microwaves to process a ceramic called aluminum oxide for use as a supplement to Kevlar body armor. Manufacturers of the supplement, designed to stop armor-piercing bullets, currently use conventional ovens, but his research indicates microwave ovens could do the job more efficiently, he said.
Microwaves are a form of energy that travels at a high frequency in short wave lengths.
More than a half-century ago, researchers recognized microwaves emitted at a certain frequency could boil water and so prove useful in cooking. The first microwave oven was patented in 1950, with the ovens reaching consumers in the early 1960s, Clark said. Since then, researchers in industry and academia have discovered a handful of other applications, Clark said. For example, many rubber processing plants now use a combination of microwave and conventional ovens to cure rubber, he said. A Canadian company, meanwhile, is making construction beams out of wood chips and plastic using microwaves.