Collaborative Research: Design and Advanced Manufacturing of Hexaboride High Entropy Ceramics

需要新的材料和工艺来满足极端环境中的需求，例如核反应堆、近空间（地球附近）和深空。这些材料将用于结构支撑、屏蔽和探测器。本研究追求基础研究，为开发和制造一类新的多组分材料（称为高熵陶瓷）提供所需的知识。高熵陶瓷具有通过选择成分可调的特性，需要新的合成和制造方法。同位素富集的多组分六硼化物材料作为这类新陶瓷的一员，将以另一种方法进行研究，以实现国家安全、医疗和核技术所需的高性能、复杂的中子探测器，促进国家繁荣。形成这种复杂的材料为开发新的陶瓷和高通量先进制造方法以及六硼化物的多尺度建模提供了独特的机会。这个综合性项目旨在设计和制造新型高熵、10B富集的六硼化物，用于辐射探测，特别关注热中子、超热中子和慢中子的探测。 这项工作的重点是发现新的高熵六硼化物材料和合成工艺，使这些多组分材料没有相分离。多组分材料将通过组合物进行调整，由计算指导，改变材料的带隙。 该项目的独特之处在于：（1）这将是第一项设计和制造高熵六硼化物陶瓷的研究，为这些独特材料的带隙工程概念及其在极端环境中的应用潜力打开大门，（2）这将是第一个将多尺度建模技术用于高性能汽车的设计和制造的联合收割机研究。该奖项是NSF的一个重要奖项，旨在评估六硼化物材料的电子结构、中子响应和缺陷负荷，以及晶界效应和界面对材料电子性能的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

New materials and processes are needed to address needs found in extreme environments, such as nuclear reactors, near space (in the vicinity of Earth), and deep space. These materials would be used in structural support, shielding, and detectors. This research pursues fundamental research to provide the needed knowledge for the development and manufacturing of a new class of multicomponent materials, called high entropy ceramics, High entropy ceramics have properties which are tunable through the choice of composition and they require a new approach to their synthesis and manufacturing. Isotopically enriched, multicomponent hexaboride materials, as a member of this new class of ceramics, will be studied in an alternative approach to achieve high performance, complex neutron detectors needed for national security and medical and nuclear technologies, fostering national prosperity. Forming such complex materials presents a unique opportunity for the development of new ceramics and methods of high-throughput advanced manufacturing and multi-scale modeling of hexaborides. The educational impact includes involvement with the Native American and Hispanic communities including cross-border collaborations.This comprehensive project looks to design and manufacture new high-entropy, 10B-enriched, hexaborides for applications in radiation detection, with a special focus on the detection of thermal, epithermal and slow neutrons. The work focusses on the discovery of new high-entropy hexaboride materials and the synthetic processes to make these multi-component materials without phase separation. The multicomponent materials will be tuned through composition, guided by computation, altering the band gap of the material. The unique aspects of this project are: (1) this will be the first study that will design and manufacture high-entropy hexaboride ceramics, opening the door to the concept of band gap engineering in these unique materials, and their potential for use in extreme environments, and (2) this will be the first study that will combine the use of multi-scale modeling techniques for the design and manufacturing of high-entropy hexaboride materials, with a special focus on the determination of electronic structure, neutron response and defect burden, as well as grain boundary effects and interphases, on the electronic properties of the materials.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.