SNM: Scalable Manufacturing of Unique Hexaboride Nanomaterials for Advanced Energy Generation and Gas Storage Applications

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NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The goal of this project is to explore the scalable manufacturing and fundamental behavior of unique nanoscale boride materials for applications in several industrially-relevant and critical technologies, with a special emphasis on energy generation and gas storage applications. This project focuses on two novel and complementary processing techniques for the continuous and scaled manufacturing of boride materials (solution combustion synthesis for production of the boride powders and spark plasma sintering for consolidation of the powders), as well as on fundamental studies that can eliminate critical roadblocks during scale-up for the eventual manufacturability of these advanced materials. The project involves the participation of community college students, as well as collaborations with industrial partners.TECHNICAL DETAILS: The purpose of this project is the creation, rational design, optimization, and scaled manufacturing of boride nanomaterials at a variety of length scales, from atomic level grain boundary engineering to macroscopic physical behavior of these materials. It is an integrated effort that will fuse theoretical and modeling approaches to recent experimental developments in materials processing, including solution combustion synthesis and spark plasma sintering. This project is the first study to (i) scale the combustion synthesis process for the production of boride nanomaterials, (ii) design and implement a process for the continuous manufacturing of bulk specimens by spark plasma sintering, (iii) optimize the diffusion behavior and gas storage capacity of a variety of hexaboride compounds in electric fields, and (iv) combine experimental work with molecular modeling techniques to study the diffusion of ions and gases in hexaborides.This project on Scalable Nanomanufacturing (SNM) is co-funded by the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and Engineering (ENG) Directorates.