Design, synthesis and characterization of responsive solid-state materials

响应性材料在外力或电场作用下表现出独特的物理响应。这种物理响应与固态相突出的机械性能相结合，产生了在工业和消费者层面都有应用的功能材料。这项研究将集中在两个响应性固态材料领域：热电相和无机荧光粉。热电材料在温度梯度作用下产生电压，或在电流通过时进行冷却/加热。目前，热电材料被用于深空任务、远程天气和导航系统的发电，以及电子设备和汽车座椅的冷却。由于一半以上的能源作为废热损失，研究工作开始专注于通过热电发电机回收部分能源，特别是在汽车和大型工业运营中。我们的目标是开发用于余热回收的高性能热电材料。荧光粉材料被广泛用于LED和荧光灯，它们将蓝色或UV辐射下转换为绿色、黄色和红色光。荧光粉的另一个日益增长的应用是温度测量；荧光粉由激光照射，并测量发射的低能量光的寿命。寿命取决于温度，它的值产生温度。荧光粉允许在远距离和在其他技术无法使用的环境中进行温度传感，例如在石油或天然气开采期间的地下电力变压器中。对寿命长、能在宽温度范围和化学苛刻环境中工作的荧光粉的需求很大。此外，同样的荧光粉也可以用于照明。由于在这一领域没有加拿大的研究存在，我们建议开发一个关于无机荧光粉的竞争性计划。拟议研究的短期目标将是发现和表征新型高性能热电材料和荧光粉。从长远来看，我们的目标是加深对这些类型材料的组成-结构-性能关系的理解，并将所获得的知识用于快速和有针对性的新材料设计。在热电领域，我们将致力于合成新型高温热电材料(RE，Ca)mPnnOm PnnOm(RE为稀土，Pn为Sb或Bi)，并将该系列扩展到其他化合物。对(RE，Ca)mPnnOm的研究是我们集团的先驱，我们希望保持我们在这一领域的领先地位。在无机荧光粉中，我们将专注于定向合成新的镁、锗和铅的氧氟磷光化合物，这将允许掺入具有长寿命的明亮发射体(如Mn4+)。另一个平行的方向是开发可以在宽温度范围内工作的化学惰性荧光粉。

Responsive materials exhibit unique physical responses under applied forces or fields. Combination of such physical responses with outstanding mechanical properties of solid-state phases yields functional materials that find applications both at the industrial and consumer levels. The research will focus on two areas of responsive solid-state materials: thermoelectric phases and inorganic phosphors. Thermoelectric materials generate voltage when subject to a temperature gradient or perform cooling/heating when current is passed through them. Currently, thermoelectric materials are used for power generation in deep-space mission, remote weather and navigation systems, and for cooling in electronic devices and car seats. And since more than half of the energy is lost as a waste heat, research efforts start to focus on recovering some of this energy, especially in cars and large industrial operations, through thermoelectric generators. Our goal is to develop high-performance thermoelectric materials for the waste heat recovery. Phosphor materials are extensively used for the LED and fluorescent lighting, where they downconvert the blue or UV radiation into green, yellow and red light. Another growing application of phosphors is temperature measurement; a phosphor is illuminated by a laser and the lifetime of the emitted lower-energy light is measured. The lifetime is temperature dependent and its value yields the temperature. Phosphors allow temperature sensing at large distances and in the environments were other techniques cannot be used, e.g. in electrical transformers, underground during oil or gas extraction. There is demands for phosphors that have long  lifetimes, can operate in a wide temperature range and in chemically harsh environments. Additionally, the same phosphors can be used for lighting. Since there is no Canadian research presence in this area, we propose to develop a competitive program on inorganic phosphors. The short term goals of the proposed research will be discovery and characterization of novel, high-performance thermoelectric materials and phosphors. In the long run, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of the composition-structure-property relationship in these types of materials, and to use the obtained knowledge for the rapid and targeted design of new materials. In the thermoelectric field, we will pursue synthesis of novel high-temperature thermoelectric (RE,Ca)mPnnOm pnictide oxides (RE is a rare earth, Pn is Sb or Bi) and will expand this series to other pnictides. Research on (RE,Ca)mPnnOm was pioneered in our group and we would like to maintain our leading role in this area. Among the inorganic phosphors, we will focus on the targeted synthesis of new phosphorescent oxyfluorides of Mg, Ge and Pb, which would permit incorporation of bright emitters (such as Mn4+) with long lifetimes. Another parallel direction is development of chemically inert phosphors that can operate in a wide temperature range.