The Materials Processing Group designs and develops next generation materials, advanced processing pathways and thermodynamic/kinetic understanding, typically for extreme environment applications - such as nuclear, aerospace, defense, gas turbines, automotive, and tribological.
Materials include ceramics (oxide and non-oxide), refractory metals, alloys, composites, coatings, lubricants and additives.
Advanced processing pathways include powder metallurgy, laser additive manufacturing of ceramics and refractory metals, ceramic powder processes (sol gel, slip casting, tape casting, sintering, glass melting, hot pressing, SPS) slurry/colloids processing, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of metals and ceramics, fluidized bed CVD, chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) of ceramics, and hybrid processes.
Advanced characterization includes powder particle size/shape analysis, Knudsen effusion, tribological testing, tribo-corrosion, fretting, mass spectrometry, transpiration, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), differential temperature analysis (DTA), rheology, and colloid characterization (zeta potential).
Recent research involves thermodynamic modeling (including both CALPHAD and density functional theory methods), data analytics, machine learning, tribology, ionic liquid lubricants, nuclear particle fuels, accident tolerant fuels, laser additive manufacturing of molybdenum for medical isotopes, advanced CVI matrix ceramics and CVD coatings for ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), thermochemistry of advanced materials, thermal energy storage via phase change materials, slurry processing of lithium ion and silicon batteries, sensors and catalysts.
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