MRI: Acquisition of a spark plasma sintering system for engineering advanced materials and composites for use in extreme environments

有了这一重大研究仪器奖，阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校(UAB)将收购一家放电等离子烧结(SPS)设备，用于各种陶瓷、金属陶瓷和复合粉末的先进材料合成和固结。这一设施使尖端研究服务于艺术与科学学院和工程学院，整个阿拉巴马州的研究人员都可以使用它。通过SPS开发的材料为航空航天、国防、发电和工业加工行业的关键技术做出了贡献，对国家、经济和环境产生了重大影响。一个主要目标是开发新材料，主要用于极端的温度、压力、电场/磁场或恶劣的化学环境。除了支持几个既定的研究项目外，该奖项还旨在为初级教师鼓励新的研究团队项目，并促进州内和其他地区的合作。SPS设施可供全校的学生和教职员工研究人员使用，也可供阿拉巴马州的其他学术和工业研究人员使用，因为阿拉巴马州没有具备SPS功能的仪器。它是UAB材料工程和物理系本科生/研究生教学/培训的焦点，促进了先进材料制造方面的课程发展。此外，SPS设施计划持续整合到NSF资助的本科生研究体验(REU)项目中。社区推广工作包括与位于伯明翰市中心中心的当地科学中心建立合作伙伴关系，并专注于为包括普通公众和K-12学生在内的更广泛的观众开发材料展品。火花等离子烧结设备具有快速高效的材料固结(加热或冷却速度高达1000°C/min)，以帮助控制或防止颗粒生长和离子扩散。该过程的速度确保了它具有致密纳米级或纳米结构粉末的潜力，同时避免了标准致密化途径中的粗化。该设施满足先进陶瓷制造的要求，即高温(高达3000°C)、压力(高达259kN)和受控环境(惰性气体或真空)能力。它还在一个液压缸中具有两个压制范围：对于小样品的烧结，从3-28kN的低范围；对于大的几何形状，从22-259kN的高范围。该设施使UAB能够在超高温陶瓷、超硬材料、高压物理、等离子体物理、激光物理、杂质/缺陷、非线性光学、腐蚀性环境中的材料退化以及新型复合材料的开发方面进行变革性研究。这些研究由一个跨学科的教师团队领导，将导致对以下主题的基本理解：高熵陶瓷和金属陶瓷复合材料的致密化过程、高温环境中的氧化行为、中红外激光的发电、超快纳米光子学、新型三元超导薄膜以及低温等离子体在材料合成中的作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With this Major Research Instrumentation award, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is acquiring a Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) facility for advanced material synthesis and consolidation of a wide range of ceramic, metallo-ceramic, and composite powders. This facility enables cutting-edge research serving the College of Arts and Sciences as well as the School of Engineering, and it is available to researchers throughout the state of Alabama. The materials developed via SPS contribute to key technologies in the aerospace, defense, power generation, and industrial processing industries having significant national, economic, and environmental impact. A major objective is to develop novel materials primarily intended for use in extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, electric/magnetic fields, or harsh chemical environments. In addition to supporting several established research programs, the award aims to stimulate new research team projects for junior faculty and to foster collaboration across the state and beyond. The SPS facility is available to student and faculty researchers across the university and to other academic and industrial researchers across Alabama, where there is no instrument with its capabilities. It serves as a focal point of undergraduate/graduate teaching/training within the UAB materials engineering and physics departments leading to enhanced course development in advanced materials fabrication. In addition, the SPS facility is planned for ongoing integration into NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) projects. Community outreach efforts involve partnership with the local science center located in the heart of downtown Birmingham and focus on developing materials exhibits for a broader viewing audience including the general public and K-12 students.The spark plasma sintering facility features fast and efficient material consolidation (heating or cooling rates up to 1000 °C/min) to aid in the control or prevention of grain growth and ion diffusion. The speed of the process ensures it has the potential of densifying powders with nanosize or nanostructure while avoiding coarsening which accompanies standard densification routes. The facility satisfies the requirements for fabrication of advanced ceramics, namely combined elevated temperature (up to 3000 °C), pressure (up to 259 kN), and controlled environment (inert gas or vacuum) capability. It also features two pressing ranges in one hydraulic cylinder: a low range from 3 – 28 kN for sintering small samples and a high range from 22 – 259 kN for large geometries. The facility enables transformative research at UAB in ultrahigh temperature ceramics, superhard materials, high-pressure physics, plasma physics, laser physics, impurities/defects, nonlinear optics, material degradation in corrosive environments, and development of novel composites. These studies are led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty and will result in fundamental understanding in topics related to densification processes in high entropy ceramics and in metal-ceramic composites, oxidation behavior in high-temperature environments, power generation in middle infrared lasers, ultrafast nanophotonics, novel ternary superconducting thin films, and the role of low-temperature plasmas in materials synthesis.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.