Collaborative Research: Guided Discovery of Sustainable Superhard Materials via Bond Optimization

合作研究：通过键优化引导可持续超硬材料的发现

• 批准号: 1562226
• 负责人: Taylor Sparks
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: University of Utah
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-06-01 至 2020-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1562226&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Guided; Discovery; Sustainable

Superhard, wear resistant materials are widely used by the automotive, aerospace, oil and gas, and any manufacturing industry that relies on drilling, cutting, and grinding. Yet, the synthesis of most materials employed for these applications, such as polycrystalline diamond, require high temperatures and extreme pressures, which escalates their cost. A class of materials known as transition metal borides are more easily processed making them viable alternatives; however, they contain expensive and exceedingly scarce metals. This award supports the fundamental research necessary to discover new, low-cost synthetic processes for novel superhard, wear resistant materials that incorporate earth-abundant elements. Achieving these research goals will require the integration of materials engineering, chemistry, computational physics, and data mining. This coordinated approach will not only lead to higher performance materials but it also has the potential to transform many manufacturing processes by replacing current systems with sustainable, cost-effective alternatives. Further, this award will be used to teach undergraduate and graduate students how to address materials design problems through a multi-disciplinary, holistic picture that includes both performance and resource considerations. Teaching the next generation of STEM students how fundamental chemical research can lead to applied materials engineering is essential for global competitiveness. The development of earth-abundant, superhard materials will employ informatics and computation to screen ternary intermetallic boride and carbide phase space. In combination, this approach will guide the experimental identification of novel crystal structures with outstanding mechanical properties. The research team will develop energy efficient microwave heating, induction heating, and solution-based synthesis to overcome the conventional high temperatures and pressures required to prepare these materials. Additionally, novel mechanochemical experiments using in-situ nanoindentation coupled with IR spectroscopy, in conjunction with first principles electronic structure theory, will establish the fundamental mechanisms of mechanical deformation. These experiments will serve to validate the computationally screened compounds as well as reveal opportunities to optimize chemical bonding interactions further enhancing the mechanical response. The result will inform the future advancement of engineering materials by producing a methodological framework to understand the mechanics of disparate classes of complex inorganic solids.

超级耐穿的耐磨材料被汽车，航空航天，石油和天然气以及任何依赖于钻孔，切割和研磨的制造业广泛使用。然而，用于这些应用的大多数材料（例如多晶钻石）的合成需要高温和极端压力，这会升级其成本。一类称为过渡金属硼化物的材料更容易处理，使其可行。但是，它们含有昂贵且极稀缺的金属。该奖项支持了发现新型超级成本合成过程所需的基本研究，用于新型超级智能，耐磨材料，这些材料结合了土壤丰富的元素。实现这些研究目标将需要整合材料工程，化学，计算物理和数据挖掘。这种协调的方法不仅会导致更高的性能材料，而且还可以通过用可持续，具有成本效益的替代方案替换当前系统来改变许多制造过程。此外，该奖项将用于教授本科和研究生如何通过包括绩效和资源考虑因素的多学科，整体图片来解决材料设计问题。教授下一代STEM学生的基础化学研究如何导致应用材料工程对于全球竞争力至关重要。含有地球的超级材料的开发将采用信息和计算来筛选三元金属间硼化物和碳化物相空间。结合使用，这种方法将指导具有出色机械性能的新型晶体结构的实验鉴定。研究团队将开发节能的微波加热，诱导加热和基于溶液的合成，以克服准备这些材料所需的常规高温和压力。此外，使用原位纳米凹识别的新型机械化学实验，与红外光谱结合的第一原理电子结构理论结合使用，将建立机械变形的基本机制。这些实验将有助于验证计算筛选的化合物，并揭示了优化化学键相互作用的机会，进一步增强了机械响应。结果将通过产生方法学框架来了解复杂无机固体的不同类别的机制，从而为工程材料的未来发展提供信息。