Collaborative Research: RUI: IRES - Track I: US-Australia collaboration on a new class of lead-free copper alloys to meet international health demands

来自哈维马德学院（HMC）和加州大学（UC）默塞德的美国本科生将与澳大利亚悉尼新南威尔士大学的研究人员合作，开发一类新的无毒、商业上可行的黄铜型合金。由于环境铅对健康的严重影响，正在迅速实施从基础设施和产品中消除铅的立法，特别关注市政和住宅管道中使用的含铅黄铜合金。通过该项目开发的合金将为应对未来十年内消除含铅黄铜的全球挑战做出重要贡献。该项目将为多元化的本科生群体（三年内总共15名）提供国际研究指导，包括HMC和UC默塞德的工程、化学和物理专业。科学和工程专业的学生，特别是第一代大学生，将被鼓励利用这个机会。在材料科学与工程学院和电子显微镜单位在新南威尔士大学，学生将有广泛的访问实验室，显微镜设施，培训和物理冶金专业知识。该项目将有助于学生成熟为自信，热情的研究人员，他们为国际研究环境中的科学和工程职业做好准备。目前含铅黄铜的替代品在制造、材料性能和成本方面存在局限性。该项目将利用先前通过IRES支持的与新南威尔士大学研究人员的合作开发的成分复杂的黄铜合金系统的性能/成本效益和灵活性，作为新合金系列的基础，该合金系列将填补含铅黄铜退出留下的材料空白。在新南威尔士大学导师的指导下，学生将通过结合新的具有成本效益的无毒候选材料来开发拟议的合金，以在加工过程中执行铅的润滑和断屑功能。他们将进行实验和计算项目，以研究负责理想的机械性能和可加工性的关键机制，并优化这些性能和可加工性的合金系列。这些项目将使学生参与热力学建模，第一原理原子尺度计算建模，实验合金制造以及机械和微观结构表征。该奖项的目标是为拟议的合金家族提供一个商业上可行的替代铅黄铜，以满足新兴的立法，旨在主要的健康和环境效益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

U.S. undergraduate students from Harvey Mudd College (HMC) and University of California (UC) Merced will collaborate with researchers at University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia to develop a new class of non-toxic, commercially viable, brass-type alloys. Due to the severe health impacts of environmental lead, legislation to eliminate it from infrastructure and products is rapidly being implemented, with particular focus on the lead-containing brass alloys used in municipal and residential plumbing. The alloys developed through this project will be a critical contribution toward meeting the global challenge of eliminating lead-containing brasses within the next decade. The project will provide international research mentoring for a diverse group of undergraduates (15 total over three years), including engineering, chemistry, and physics majors at HMC and UC Merced. Students underrepresented in science and engineering, and especially first-generation college students, will be encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity. In the School of Materials Science and Engineering and the Electron Microscope Unit at UNSW, the students will have extensive access to laboratories, microscope facilities, training, and physical metallurgy expertise. This project will contribute to the maturation of students into confident, enthusiastic researchers who are prepared for science and engineering careers in international research environments. Current alternatives for leaded brass have manufacturing, material property and cost limitations. This project will utilize the performance/cost benefits and flexibility of a compositionally-complex brass alloy system developed previously through IRES-supported collaboration with UNSW researchers as the base for a new family of alloys that will fill the materials gap left by the exit of leaded brasses. With the guidance of their UNSW mentors, students will develop the proposed alloys by incorporating new cost-effective, non-toxic candidates to perform the lubricating and chip breaking functions of lead during machining. They will conduct experimental and computational projects to investigate key mechanisms responsible for desirable mechanical properties and workability, and to optimize the alloy family for these properties and machinability. These projects will engage students in thermodynamic modeling, first principles atomic-scale computational modeling, experimental alloy fabrication, and mechanical and microstructural characterization. The goal is for the proposed alloy family to provide a commercially viable replacement for leaded brasses to meet emerging legislation aimed at major health and environmental benefits.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.