The main results and achievements of the Laboratory of Electromagnetic Field-Assisted Methods for Processing of Novel Materials over the period of "October 2011 - October 2013"

The main achieved objective of the project is the establishment of the unique research and educational university unit in the field of electromagnetic methods of consolidation of new materials, including structural and functional nano-materials, which came true.

The object of research is the advanced technologies of spark plasma sintering, microwave sintering, high-voltage electric-discharge compaction, and magnetic pulse consolidation of powders. The availability of the laboratory allows MEPhI to actively participate in projects related to the creation of new materials (such as the Russian-Ukrainian joint research project "Development of Methods of Processing and Consolidation of Composites Based on Iron and Titanium Carbides and Borides by Highly Concentrated Energy Fluxes" (grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and of the Ukraine National Academy of Sciences, 2012 - 2013); "Innovation-Oriented Program of Joint Research with Specialized Universities" established by the State Corporation Rosatom; a joint program between MEPhI and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a Center for Science, Innovation and Education as a unit of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech); etc.), followed by the transition of the research products to the industry. The established Laboratory provides also a unique opportunity to develop novel educational programs to train new scientific personnel able to perform world-class research on advanced materials.

The most important obtained results, examples of their usage or application

The technical infrastructure of the laboratory with the total area of 200 sq.m has been established. The planned complete set of the lab equipment includes:

• Materials Processing Equipment: Spark Plasma Sintering System model Labox- 625 and a unique system Labox-125VHD of spark plasma sintering with hybrid heating (Sinterland, Japan); system Impulse-BM for high-voltage consolidation of powder materials (Potok, Rostov, Russia); magnetic pulse powder pressing system Impulse 8-1 (Potok, Rostov, Russia); high-temperature vacuum tube and muffle furnaces (MTI, USA); a unique system of hot-pressing with an additional source of direct current (Oxy-Gon, USA); high-temperature vacuum microwave system Hamilab V6 (Synotherm, USA); isostatic press (AIP, USA); uniaxial presses (Carver, USA); ball mills, automatic mixers and dryers (MTI, USA); plasma sputtering unit (Denton, USA); dip coater (MTI, USA).
• Auxiliary Equipment: molding press and glove box (MTI, USA); grinding and polishing machines (MTI, USA and Presi, France); cutting machines (MTI, USA and Presi, France); vibratory sieve shaker (Fritsch, Germany); and ultrasonicator (Qsonica, USA).
• Materials Characterization Equipment: dilatometer (Netzsch, Germany); metallographic optical microscope (MTI, USA); digital scales (MTI and OHAUS, USA); automatic helium pycnometer (Micromeritics Instrument, USA); a universal mechanical testing machine (Galdabini, Italy); microhardness tester (Future-Tech, Italy); laser particle size analyzer (Fritsch, Germany); DSC-TGA thermoanalyzer (TA Instruments, USA).

The Laboratory team has made significant progress in a number of scientific fields. A number of the obtained theoretical and experimental results have been used in the development of new methods of consolidation of powder materials using electromagnetic fields.

The most important fundamental theoretical results include:

• The first method of direct multi -scale modeling of sintering has been developed;
• a conceptually new experimental approach of Multi-Step Pressure Dilatometry, which can be effectively used to determine the basic mechanisms of spark plasma sintering, has been elaborated;
• new, having no previous analogues, models of inter-particle heat balance in the processes of spark plasma sintering and high-voltage electric discharge compaction have been put forward;
• new and original ideas of the influence of the geometry of the inter-particle contacts on the spark plasma sintering efficiency have been proposed;
• the first fully coupled finite element model of the process of hot pressing, activated by Joule heating, has been developed;
• the world's first models of mass-transfer associated with densification and contact growth during microwave sintering under the influence of ponderomotive forces have been developed;
• an original description of the physics of densification in the process of magnetic pulse compaction has been introduced.

The most important applied results include:

• Preliminary experiments of the first ever carried out flash spark plasma sintering of silicon carbide powder (a material with a variety of application areas, including components of the high-temperature gas turbines, diesel filter systems, wear-resistant tools, fuel cladding, etc.) have rendered positive results;
• experiments on the consolidation by spark plasma sintering and by high-voltage electric discharge compaction of iron -titanium composite powders, vanadium carbide, tantalum, zirconium nitride, oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) ferrite - martensitic steel powders with unique radiation-protective properties have been successfully carried out;
• laboratory affiliates have carried out theoretical and experimental analyses of the processing of various types of structured powder materials, including sintering of layered ceramic composites for fuel cells and heavy alloys produced by liquid phase sintering.

The conducted research resulted in 63 publications, including 43 articles published, accepted for publication or submitted to refereed journals; two patents, two positive solutions for patents, and two filed patent applications; and 82 presentations at 26 conferences.

The commercialization potential and practical implementation of the already obtained results:

Laboratory associates are currently conducting research in the framework of the Program "Breakthrough", sponsored by the All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Inorganic Materials on the two topics to create with the help of electromagnetic methods of consolidation novel types of reactor steels, as well as fundamentally new types of reactor fuel, which can dramatically improve the efficiency and environmental friendliness of the nuclear reactors:

• «Modern methods of fabrication of nano-structural materials and techniques of fine structure research applied to ferritic-martensitic steels utilized in claddings» and
• «Development technology, non-destructive techniques and remote control of pellets and fuel rods during re-fabrication of the mixed nitride fuel».

Qualifications of the research team, educational activities, the degree of involvement of young researchers and their role in the laboratory projects, the scientific achievements of young professionals

During the reported period 17 researchers with D.Sc. degree, 24 PhDs, 9 PhD and Master graduate students, and 8 undergraduate students participated in the scientific activities conducted in the Laboratory. Presently, the laboratory team includes more than 60% of employees under 35 years of age. Young researchers are co-authors of:  

• 41 scientific articles (graduate students - 30 and undergraduate students - 20 scientific articles), published or accepted for publication in refereed journals;
• 41 presentations at international scientific symposia.

Educational activities conducted at the Laboratory include:  

• Two basic courses within the laboratory research area "Advanced methods of use and simulation of sintering" and "Modeling process of consolidation of powder materials using electromagnetic fields" have been taught.
• The laboratory organized two International Schools-Workshops on "Advanced Field-Assisted Materials Consolidation Technologies" in 2012 and 2013.
• Three young employees had internship in Japan at the corporation Sinterland.
• Five young laboratory researchers had internship and attended a School-Seminar at Energy Technology Laboratory of the Technical University of Denmark .
• Six young laboratory researchers participated in the competition of research presentations at the VI International School on “Physical Materials Science”, five of them became finalists, and one became   the winner of the final.

Students, graduate students and young researchers are co-authors of:  

• paper chosen as the Featured Article by the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society;
• invited article “Viewpoint” published by the journal Scripta Materialia;
• paper, which has been featured by Ceramics Tech Today .

Collaborations with external organizations:

Laboratory staff has established scientific interaction with domestic and international organizations: Baykov Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; All-Russia Scientific Research Institute of Inorganic Materials, Moscow, Russia; the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Istok" , Fryazino, Russia; company «Diflex», Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Institute of Electrophysics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Don State Technical University, Rostov, Russia; Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia; National Research University Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; Frantsevich Institute for Problems of Materials Science of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Institute of Pulse Processes and Technologies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Institute of Powder Metallurgy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus; California State University, San Diego, USA; Danish Technical University, Roskilde, Denmark; Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; University of Leicester, city of Leicester, England; corporation Sinterland, Nagaoka, Japan; and other organizations.

Laboratory has been visited by 28 invited scientists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, USA, Japan, and Venezuela. All of the guest scientists presented lectures.

The potential of traditional thermo-mechanical methods of materials treatment is substantially limited due to the mostly insufficient control of the evolution of the created material structures during processing. More accurate control capabilities for the processes of powder (in particular, nano-powder) synthesis and consolidation may be achieved by the application of electro-magnetic fields utilized by most modern field-assisted technologies, which include:

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