CAREER: Structure-property Relationships Arising From Interfacial Coupling in Bi-phasic Ceramic Nanocomposites

非技术描述：该项目专注于一类被称为多铁质的复合材料，它结合了磁性和电绝缘体，可以实现新的电子应用，包括多相计算机存储器，可调谐微电子和电磁干扰滤波器。复合材料由至少两种具有不同组成和物理性质的不同组分组成。所选择的组成材料具有在单一组成材料中不存在的特性，但在最终产品中是理想的。然而，为了使复合材料与其组成相相比具有增强的性能，必须了解两组分之间的界面。这个项目正在开发新的方法来制造具有控制界面的陶瓷复合材料。这些材料将提供一种将宏观复合材料性能与界面性能相关联的全新方法。具体的教育目标是采用以团队为基础的方法，1)向研究生和本科生介绍和展示解决应用需求的新型材料研究，2)利用现有的推广经验来鼓励和提高高危青少年的高中毕业率，3)通过合作在多机构和多学科的环境中教育研究生和本科生。技术细节：许多材料特性是相互排斥的，因此不太可能存在于单相材料中。这种性质的二分法包括强度和韧性，高介电常数和高磁导率，软磁和硬磁。然而，在许多实际应用程序中提高性能依赖于这些属性的组合。目前，大多数复杂的氧化物复合材料或异质结构都是以薄膜形式在衬底上制备的。这些衬底引起局部对称性的变化，从而改变薄膜的性质。该项目的主要目标是合成独立的复合双相纳米颗粒和纤维，以研究界面性能，包括面积和性质（如外延）对复合性能的影响。通过制造复合材料而不使用衬底，这些系统中由耦合产生的结构-性能关系正在建立。

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: This project focuses on a class of composites referred to as multiferroics, which combine magnetic and electrical insulators, and can enable new electronic applications including multi-phase computer memory, tunable microelectronics, and electromagnetic interference filters. Composite materials are made up of at least two distinct components with differing composition and physical properties. The constituent materials are chosen with properties that do not occur in a single component material, but are desirable in a final product. However, in order for composite materials to have enhanced properties compared with their constituent phases, the interface between the two constituents must be understood. This project is developing new methods to fabricate ceramic composite materials with controlled interfaces. These materials will allow for an entirely new way of correlating the macroscopic composite properties with interfacial properties. The specific education objectives are to employ a team-based approach to 1) introduce and expose graduate and undergraduate students to novel materials research that addresses application based needs, 2) leverage existing outreach experience to encourage and improve high school graduation rates in at-risk youth, and 3) to educate graduate and undergraduate students in a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary environment through collaborations.TECHNICAL DETAILS: Many material properties are mutually exclusive, and are therefore unlikely to exist in single-phase materials. This property dichotomy includes strength and toughness, high electric permittivity and high magnetic permeability, and soft and hard magnetic properties. However, increasing performance in many real-world applications relies on combining these properties. Currently, most complex oxide composites, or heterostructures, are prepared in thin-film form on substrates. These substrates induce changes in the local symmetry, which alter the properties of the films. The primary goal of this project is to synthesize free-standing composite bi-phasic nanoparticles and fibers to study the effects of interfacial properties, including area and nature (e.g., epitaxy) on composite properties. By fabricating composite materials without the use of substrates the structure-property relationships that arise from coupling in these systems is being established.