MAnufacture of Safe and Sustainable Volatile Element functional materials - MASSIVE Materials

我们周围的世界充满了现代技术，旨在使我们的生活更安全，更舒适，更高效。这种技术是由材料和设备，能够与他们的周围环境相互作用，无论是通过传感器或作用于它。这样的设备的例子包括运动探测器，燃料喷射器，发动机传感器和医疗诊断工具。这些互动装置含有可能对健康造成危害的功能材料，这些材料来自世界上供应不能得到保证或相对稀缺的地区。 如果这些功能性材料的使用受到限制，许多这些进步将不再可用，导致生活水平下降，英国经济增长放缓。已经有一些替代材料可以提供相同的功能，而不会对安全、供应保障和可持续性产生同样的担忧。然而，与现有材料相比，这些替代材料需要使用不同的工艺制造。该项目探索了新的制造技术，可用于创建包含安全供应的有害和可持续材料的互动设备。该项目将重点关注两种类型的材料-热电和压电-其中替代材料具有一系列共同的挑战：它们需要在高温下加工;它们含有在高温下蒸发的元素（使得高温加工和小元件的加工困难）;它们是机械易碎的，使得难以通过切割、研磨或抛光使材料成形;这些材料化学性质稳定，难以通过蚀刻成型;许多材料对空气和水分敏感。拟议的研究将通过三个平行的研究流来应对这些挑战，这些研究流将积极与工业界合作。第一批项目由六个制造能力项目组成，旨在发展核心制造能力和专门知识，以支持该方案。第二是与工业界合作进行一系列短期可行性研究，以探索新的制造概念并评估其潜在机会。最后，第三批项目将提供专注于工业化的项目，旨在开发工业制造环境中的特定制造技术。六个制造能力项目将解决：1）使用湿法和干法可控气氛技术生产功能材料粉末，作为散装和印刷功能材料制造所需的原料。2)如何生产功能材料，同时保持所需的化学和微观结构，以确保高性能。火花等离子烧结将用于直接加热材料，并使用电流加速单个粉末颗粒的熔合。3)印刷功能性材料油墨，构建有源器件，而无需组装单个组件。将工业相关的印刷工艺（例如丝网印刷）与受控的快速温度处理相结合，将创造出能够处理替代材料的新型印刷制造技术。4)如何连接和涂覆这些新的功能性材料，以便它们可以组装成设备或在使用时免受恶劣环境的影响。5）替代材料的适应性，以便与制造链中随后发现的现有成型和处理阶段兼容。6)需要确保替代材料不会在制造和产品生命周期环境中造成同等或更大的风险。在这里，从可比材料系统中吸取的经验教训将用于帮助预测潜在的风险和暴露。

The world around us is full of modern technology designed to make our lives safer, more comfortable and more efficient. Such technology is made possible by materials and devices that are able to interact with their surrounding environment either by sensing or acting upon it. Examples of such devices include motion detectors, fuel injectors, engine sensors and medical diagnostic tools. These interactive devices contain functional materials that can pose health hazards, are obtained from parts of the world where supply cannot be guaranteed or are relatively scarce. If access to these functional materials is restricted, many of these advances will no longer be available resulting in a reduction in living standards and decreased UK economic growth. There already exist a number of replacement materials that can provide the same functions without the same levels of concerns around safety, security of supply and sustainability. However, these replacement materials need to be manufactured using different processes compared to existing materials. This project explores new manufacturing technologies that could be used to create interactive devices that contains less harmful and sustainable materials with a secure supply. This project will focus on two types of material - thermoelectric and piezoelectric - where the replacement materials share a set of common challenges: they need to be processed at elevated temperatures; they contain elements that evaporate at high temperatures (making high temperature processing and processing of small elements difficult); they are mechanically fragile making it difficult to shape the materials by cutting, grinding or polishing; they are chemically stable making it difficult to shape them by etching; and many are air and moisture sensitive.The proposed research will address these challenges through three parallel research streams that proactively engage with industry. The first stream is composed of six manufacturing capability projects designed to develop the core manufacturing capabilities and know-how to support the programme. The second is a series of short term feasibility studies, conducted in collaboration with industry, to explore novel manufacturing concepts and evaluate their potential opportunities. Finally, the third stream will deliver focussed industrially orientated projects designed to develop specific manufacturing techniques for in an industrial manufacturing environment.The six manufacturing capability projects will address:1) The production of functional material powders, using wet and dry controlled atmosphere techniques, needed as feedstock in the manufacture of bulk and printed functional materials. 2) How to produce functional materials while maintaining the required chemistry and microstructure to ensure high performance. Spark Plasma Sintering will be used to directly heat the materials and accelerate fusion of the individual powder particles using an electric current. 3) Printing of functional material inks to build up active devices without the need to assemble individual components. Combing industrially relevant printing processes, such as screen printing, with controlled rapid temperature treatments will create novel print manufacturing techniques capable of handling the substitute materials. 4) How to join and coat these new functional materials so that they can be assembled into a device or protected from harsh environments when in use.5) The fitness of substituted material to be compatible with existing shaping and treatment stages found later in the manufacturing chain. 6) The need to ensure that the substitute materials do not pose an equal or greater risk within the manufacturing and product life cycle environment. Here lessons learned from comparable material systems will be used to help predict potential risks and exposures.