Nanovoids for Developing New Hydrogen-resistant Materials (NanoHMAT)

氢气无处不在，它的应用将推动净零碳社会的技术。氢同位素为核聚变反应提供燃料，这是最有效的潜在可用能源过程。氢也被广泛视为未来的能源载体和最通用的能源储存手段。它可以通过电解从可再生能源(如风能或太阳能)中生产出来，并储存起来用作燃料或化学工业的原材料。阻碍这些机会的是，众所周知，氢会导致金属结构的灾难性故障。在氢的存在下，金属的强度、断裂韧性和延展性会降低几个数量级。从Leadenall摩天大楼的螺栓断裂到海上结构的失效，这种所谓的氢脆现象的影响遍及能源、交通、建筑和国防行业。氢脆领域的研究工作主要是为了了解这种化学机械现象，并开发能够预测氢助失效何时发生的模型。NanoHMAT旨在通过从分析到设计的方式带来范式转变，探索高风险、高收益的方法来开发新一代氢脆材料。这将通过结合多尺度/物理模拟、先进的表征技术和最先进的纳米/微制造技术的研究努力，利用氢被困在晶界、空洞或碳化物等微结构特征上的事实来实现。

Hydrogen is ubiquitous and its applications will drive the technology of a net-zero carbon society. Hydrogen isotopes fuel the nuclear fusion reaction, the most efficient potentially useable energy process. Hydrogen is also widely seen as an energy carrier of the future and the most versatile means of energy storage. It can be produced via electrolysis from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, and stored to be used as fuel or as a raw material in the chemical industry. Hampering these opportunities, hydrogen is known to cause catastrophic failures in metallic structures. The strength, fracture toughness and ductility of metals can be reduced by orders of magnitude in the presence of hydrogen. From bolt cracking at the Leadenhall ("Cheesegrater") skyscraper to the failure of offshore structures, the impact of this so-called hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon is pervasive across the energy, transport, construction and defence sectors. Research efforts in the hydrogen embrittlement community have been mainly directed towards the understanding of this chemo-mechanical phenomenon and the development of models capable of predicting when hydrogen assisted failures would occur. NanoHMAT aims at bringing a paradigm-shift by going from analysis to design, exploring high-risk high-gain approaches for developing a new generation of hydrogen embrittlement-resistant materials. This will be achieved by exploiting the fact that hydrogen is "trapped" at microstructural features such as grain boundaries, voids or carbides, in a research endeavour that combines multi-scale/physics simulations, advanced characterisation techniques and state-of-the-art nano/micro-manufacturing.