Economic Manufacturing of Nano-sized High Temperature and Ultrahigh Temperature Ceramic Solid Solution Powders

高温陶瓷和超高温陶瓷是通常具有高于2500-3000 ° C的熔点的材料。 这些材料具有重要的应用，从机械和采矿工业中的磨削和切割工具到航空航天工业中的隔热瓦，导弹喷嘴和高超音速飞行器前缘。 另一方面，将这些陶瓷材料制成所需的固溶体形式将使其在优化其组成以及机械、热和化学性质方面具有更大的灵活性，并应导致进一步改善的性能。 本研究旨在开发一种可扩展的和经济的方法来制造纳米尺寸的高温陶瓷固溶体粉末，并提供有关此类材料形成的基本新知识，特别是在纳米尺度上。 该项目将促进这些重要材料的未来工业生产，并推动不同领域的相关应用。 它还将通过各种教育、研究和工程外展活动，促进该机构和更广泛的南佛罗里达地区在先进陶瓷领域的教育和认识。该研究奖的中心目标是开发一种低成本的方法来制造纳米尺寸的高温和超高温陶瓷固溶体粉末。该方法基于高温喷雾热解技术，该技术将从可溶性氧化物和碳前体开始结合快速原位碳热还原反应。 将获得在制造过程中的基本组成，加工，结构的相互关系的理解。 可溶性前体的使用将导致氧化物和富碳区域之间的紧密混合，这将有助于降低碳热还原反应温度并改善产物均匀性。 在高于通常使用的温度下采用喷雾热解将常规分离的碳热还原反应整合为喷雾热解工艺的一部分，使得能够在一个单一步骤中快速、低成本、可规模化地生产具有受控相分布和微结构的纳米尺寸陶瓷固溶体粉末。 该项目的成功不仅为制造这种重要材料提供了一个经济和可扩展的平台，而且还提供了关于从前体化学和化学计量到加工条件对最终相组成，微观结构和纳米陶瓷粉末性能的各种关键参数的基本影响的新见解。

High temperature ceramics and ultrahigh temperature ceramics are materials that typically have melting points above 2500-3000*C. These materials find important applications from grinding and cutting tools in machinery and mining industries to thermal insulation tiles, missile nozzles, and hypersonic vehicle leading edges in the aerospace industry. On the other hand, making these ceramic materials in the desired solid solution form will enable greater flexibility in optimizing their composition and mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties and should lead to further improved performance. This research aims to develop a scalable and economic method for the manufacturing of nano-sized ultrahigh temperature ceramic solid solution powders and provide fundamental new knowledge about the formation of such materials, especially at the nano-scale. The project will facilitate future industrial production of such important materials and advance related applications in different fields. It will also promote education and awareness in the advanced ceramics field at the institution and the broader South Florida region through various education, research, and engineering outreach activities.The central objective of the research award is to develop a low cost method for manufacturing nano-sized high temperature and ultrahigh temperature ceramic solid solution powders. The method is based on a high temperature spray pyrolysis technique that will incorporate rapid in situ carbothermal reduction reaction starting from soluble oxide and carbon precursors. An understanding of the fundamental composition-processing-structure interrelationships in the fabrication process will be obtained. The use of soluble precursors will lead to intimate mixing between oxide- and carbon-rich regions, which will help lower the carbothermal reduction reaction temperature and improve product uniformity. The adoption of spray pyrolysis at temperature higher than typically used will integrate the conventionally separate carbothermal reduction reaction as part of the spray pyrolysis process, enabling rapid, low cost, scalable production of nano-sized ceramic solid solution powders with controlled phase distributions and microstructures, all in one single step. The success of this project will not only provide an economic and scalable platform for the manufacturing of such important materials but also offer new insights about the fundamental impacts of various critical parameters from precursor chemistry and stoichiometry to processing conditions on the final phase composition, microstructure, and properties of nano-sized ceramic powders.