CAREER: Understanding Forces in Far-from-Equilibrium Materials Processing Under Electromagnetic Fields

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Electromagnetic (EM) waves such as microwave radiation (used to rapidly heat our food) can enable low temperature, energy-efficient manufacturing processes, even for materials that conventionally require processing at extremely high temperatures, such as ceramics. This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award supports fundamental research that will investigate how EM waves exert forces inside ceramic materials, potentially enabling the three-dimensional (3D) printing of ceramics. These 3D printed ceramic parts will find use in various areas including sustainable infrastructure, transportation, clean energy, water management, aerospace, and healthcare. Such technological advances in manufacturing advanced materials using EM waves will lead to a smaller energy footprint compared to conventional methods and as such can provide significant savings in energy use in the manufacture of high-strength materials. This research requires linking together advances in multiple disciplines such as electrical and computer engineering, electromagnetics, materials science, mechanical, and chemical engineering. Accordingly, an integrated research and education plan using game-based technology enhanced learning will allow students to explore this multidisciplinary area through hands-on training and visualization of materials processing. Popular builder's games are well equipped for teaching students how building (processing) can change the way materials assemble (structure) and lead to differences in properties such as mechanical behavior and strength. Games create a higher level of student engagement and a more stimulating learning environment, reaching a broader spectrum of learners in classrooms, addressing the challenge of cultivating a diverse and highly skilled workforce in manufacturing in the United States.This research will support a multifaceted investigation to discover the mechanisms of electromagnetic (EM) field induced charge transport in refractory ceramic oxides such as zirconia, under ponderomotive driving forces. EM field interactions will be selectively localized to conduct both solid and liquid phase synthesis experiments to grow ceramic films on conducting (metal) layers under microwave radiation. The research team will first use various nanoscale characterization tools to conduct static ex-situ studies on atomic structure; defect structure; and microstructural changes in films grown under (i) no applied field and (ii) different intensity, frequency, and polarizations of the applied field. Next, dynamic in-situ studies will use polarized neutron reflectometry to follow tracer ions in a film, comparing transport properties like diffusion coefficients for varying field parameters at fixed temperature. Computational methods including molecular dynamics simulations will predict and compare diffusion coefficient values for each experimental case. This study is the first to combine experiment and computation to demonstrate the effect of ponderomotive forces on atomic scale transport phenomena under EM fields. Finally, knowledge about the influence of ponderomotive forces on ceramic processing will be applied to create a novel platform for additive manufacture of ceramics at low temperatures, using a layer-by-layer approach. The research tasks will proceed simultaneously with an education and outreach program, which involves an integrated game/classroom approach to learning processing-structure-property relationships in additive manufacturing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.