Design, synthesis and characterization of responsive solid-state materials

反应性材料在外力或电场作用下表现出独特的物理反应。将这种物理反应与固态相的杰出机械性能相结合，可以产生在工业和消费层面都有应用的功能材料。研究将集中在两个领域的响应固态材料：热电相和无机荧光粉。热电材料在受到温度梯度作用时产生电压，或在电流通过时进行冷却/加热。目前，热电材料被用于深空任务的发电、远程气象和导航系统，以及电子设备和汽车座椅的冷却。由于超过一半的能量以废热的形式损失，研究工作开始集中于通过热电发电机回收其中的一些能量，特别是在汽车和大型工业生产中。我们的目标是开发用于废热回收的高性能热电材料。荧光粉材料广泛用于LED和荧光灯照明，它们将蓝色或紫外线辐射向下转换为绿色，黄色和红色光。荧光粉的另一个日益增长的应用是温度测量；用激光照射荧光粉，测量发出的低能光的寿命。寿命依赖于温度，其值产生温度。荧光粉允许在远距离和其他技术无法使用的环境中进行温度传感，例如在变压器中，在石油或天然气开采期间的地下。人们要求荧光粉具有长寿命，可以在宽温度范围和化学恶劣环境中工作。此外，同样的荧光粉可以用于照明。由于没有加拿大在这一领域的研究存在，我们建议发展一个无机荧光粉的竞争项目。提出的研究的短期目标将是发现和表征新的，高性能的热电材料和荧光粉。从长远来看，我们的目标是更深入地了解这些类型的材料中的成分-结构-性能关系，并将所获得的知识用于快速和有针对性的新材料设计。在热电领域，我们将寻求合成新型高温热电（RE,Ca）mPnnOm pnictide氧化物（RE为稀土，Pn为Sb或Bi），并将该系列扩展到其他pnictides。（RE,Ca）mPnnOm的研究是我们集团首创的，我们希望在这一领域保持领先地位。在无机荧光粉中，我们将重点关注有针对性地合成新的含Mg、Ge和Pb的磷光氧氟化物，这将允许加入寿命长的明亮发射体（如Mn4+）。另一个平行方向是开发可在宽温度范围内工作的化学惰性荧光粉。

Responsive materials exhibit unique physical responses under applied forces or fields. Combination of such physical responses with outstanding mechanical properties of solid-state phases yields functional materials that find applications both at the industrial and consumer levels. The research will focus on two areas of responsive solid-state materials: thermoelectric phases and inorganic phosphors. Thermoelectric materials generate voltage when subject to a temperature gradient or perform cooling/heating when current is passed through them. Currently, thermoelectric materials are used for power generation in deep-space mission, remote weather and navigation systems, and for cooling in electronic devices and car seats. And since more than half of the energy is lost as a waste heat, research efforts start to focus on recovering some of this energy, especially in cars and large industrial operations, through thermoelectric generators. Our goal is to develop high-performance thermoelectric materials for the waste heat recovery. Phosphor materials are extensively used for the LED and fluorescent lighting, where they downconvert the blue or UV radiation into green, yellow and red light. Another growing application of phosphors is temperature measurement; a phosphor is illuminated by a laser and the lifetime of the emitted lower-energy light is measured. The lifetime is temperature dependent and its value yields the temperature. Phosphors allow temperature sensing at large distances and in the environments were other techniques cannot be used, e.g. in electrical transformers, underground during oil or gas extraction. There is demands for phosphors that have long  lifetimes, can operate in a wide temperature range and in chemically harsh environments. Additionally, the same phosphors can be used for lighting. Since there is no Canadian research presence in this area, we propose to develop a competitive program on inorganic phosphors. The short term goals of the proposed research will be discovery and characterization of novel, high-performance thermoelectric materials and phosphors. In the long run, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of the composition-structure-property relationship in these types of materials, and to use the obtained knowledge for the rapid and targeted design of new materials. In the thermoelectric field, we will pursue synthesis of novel high-temperature thermoelectric (RE,Ca)mPnnOm pnictide oxides (RE is a rare earth, Pn is Sb or Bi) and will expand this series to other pnictides. Research on (RE,Ca)mPnnOm was pioneered in our group and we would like to maintain our leading role in this area. Among the inorganic phosphors, we will focus on the targeted synthesis of new phosphorescent oxyfluorides of Mg, Ge and Pb, which would permit incorporation of bright emitters (such as Mn4+) with long lifetimes. Another parallel direction is development of chemically inert phosphors that can operate in a wide temperature range.