MRI: Acquisition of an Advanced Nanoscale Deformation with Imaging System for Multiscale Study of the Mechanical Behavior of Advanced Materials

纳米压痕仪（比人类头发细一千倍的压痕）是一种高度通用的材料表征实验工具，它利用直径为10-20纳米的金刚石压头进入材料表面，以确定机械性能，包括硬度，刚度，粘附强度和磨损。它还具有快速精确地进行数百次测量以探测材料表面特性的独特能力。这些特性使纳米压痕成为从工程到生物学、化学、地质学和医学等学科研究中不可或缺的工具。该项目的意义涉及在基础水平上探索材料的机械行为，包括在高冲击下的响应，电子应用薄膜的局部硬度，以及生物医学植入物的磨损。此外，该项目还解决了为许多应用定制材料表面特性的挑战，从电子设备的易刮擦性到生物医学植入物上细胞的粘附性，为开发具有上级机械性能和更长寿命的下一代先进材料提供了新的方向。该项目支持在科学和工程学院在得克萨斯大学埃尔帕索的纳米技术教育，并提供实际培训，本科生和研究生在整个校园的方式，使新的理解出现在原子或分子水平。紧凑的一体化配置旨在提高10多个研究小组，45多名研究生，40名本科生和5名博士后研究人员的研究能力，在纳米或分子水平上的新认识，从而开辟材料科学和工程研究的全新途径，以及生物材料和生物医学工程，包括纳米结构材料、有机-无机杂化材料、纳米电子材料和生物医学应用的设计。研究小组致力推广纳米压痕的教育资源，以促进K-12学生更广泛地参与纳米压痕的科学和工程概念。强度是大多数材料系统的基本属性。自动化，先进的纳米压痕和划痕实验是适当的，因为高空间分辨率和吞吐量适合这个具有挑战性的任务。该项目的范围包括在埃尔帕索得克萨斯大学获得并随后利用自动纳米级变形系统进行材料研究。目标是在涉及纳米结构材料的变形机制，薄膜和聚合物纳米复合材料中机械诱导表面变形的力学，3D可打印材料的纳米力学表征，组织工程生物材料的生物力学特性，包括骨，软骨和皮肤，细胞的粘附强度以及用于水力压裂的陶瓷支撑剂的机械特性的研究领域中使用纳米压痕。该方法涉及使用不同的模块（超低机械力，动态力学分析，扩展z范围，高温台，高负载传感器，高分辨率成像和荧光显微镜），使研究人员能够在纳米级获得对材料的新理解。

Nanoindenter (indenting at a scale about thousand times finer than the human hair) is a highly versatile experimental tool for materials characterization that utilizes diamond indenter of 10-20 nanometers in diameter into the surface of materials to determine mechanical properties, including hardness, stiffness, adhesion strength, and wear. It also has the unique ability to rapidly and precisely make several hundred measurements for probing the surface properties of materials. These characteristics make nanoindentation an indispensable tool for research in disciplines ranging from Engineering to Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Medicine. The significance of the project relates to exploring at a fundamental level the mechanical behavior of materials that include the response at high impact, local hardness of thin films for electronic applications, and wear of biomedical implants. Furthermore, the project addresses the challenge of tailoring the surface properties of materials for a host of applications from susceptibility to scratching of electronic devices to adhesion of cells on biomedical implants, providing new directions in the development of next generation of advanced materials with superior mechanical performance and longer life. The project supports nanotechnology education in the Colleges of Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso and provides practical training to undergraduate and graduate students throughout the campus in a manner that will enable new understanding to emerge at the atomic or molecular level. The compact all-in-one configuration is envisioned to advance the research capabilities of more than 10 research groups, over 45 graduate students, 40 undergraduate students, and 5 post-doctoral researchers, in terms of new understanding at the nano or molecular level, thereby opening entirely new avenues of research in materials science and engineering, and biomaterials and biomedical engineering including the design of nanostructured materials, organic-inorganic hybrid materials, materials for nanoelectronics, and biomedical applications. The research team is committed to disseminate the educational resources on nanoindentation to facilitate broader participation of K-12 audience to scientific and engineering concepts on nanoindentation.Strength is a fundamental property of the majority of materials systems. Automated, advanced nanoindentation and scratch experiments are appropriately suitable for this challenging task because of high spatial resolution and throughput. The acquisition and subsequent utilization of an automated nanoscale deformation system for materials research at the University of Texas at El Paso constitutes the scope of the project. The goals are to use nanoindention in areas of research that concern deformation mechanisms in nanostructured materials, mechanics of mechanically-induced surface deformation in thin films and polymer nanocomposites, nanomechanical characterization of 3D-printable materials, biomechanical properties of tissue engineered biomaterials including bone, cartilage and skin, adhesion strength of cells, and mechanical properties of ceramic proppants used for hydraulic fracturing. The approach and method involves use of different modules (ultra-low mechanical force, dynamic mechanical analysis, extended z-range, high temperature stage, high load transducer, high resolution imaging, and fluorescence microscope), enabling the researchers to acquire new understanding of the materials at the nanoscale.