The goal of this career development grant is to establish a comprehensive research and education program focusing on the processing and mechanical properties of nanostructured refractory ceramics in order to extend the basic and practical knowledge of sintering as well as mechanical behavior in these types of materials, while at the same time producing materials that have a direct application in ultra-high temperature environments. Graduate students, undergraduate students, high school teachers, and high school students will be incorporated into research and educational experiences possible with a project such as this one. Building on the principal investigator's strengths in the synthesis and characterization of ceramic materials, the specific objectives of the project are: (1) to synthesize nanostructured carbide powders using a solvothermal synthesis approach; (2) to characterize the process of solvothermal synthesis over a range of experimental conditions (i.e., reaction time, reaction temperature, and cleaning solvents) in order to optimize and scale-up the process; (3) to densify the nanostructured powders into compacts via spark-plasma sintering; (4) to characterize the process of densification over a range of experimental conditions (i.e., starting crystallite size of the powders, starting agglomerate size of the powders, pressure, temperature, heating rate, and time of densification); (5) to examine the microstructural development during the densification process; (6) to characterize the mechanical behavior of the densified compacts at room and high temperatures and to determine the changes in mechanical behavior with changes in SPS processing conditions; (7) to characterize the thermal shock resistance of the compacts, since in their ultimate expected application the materials will be undergoing cycles of very rapid heating and cooling; and (8) to enlist graduate students, undergraduate students, high school teachers, and high school students in the process of meeting the above research objectives.
Complementary to the research goals described above, a multi-objective education plan is proposed. The plan contains the following four objectives: (1) to involve graduate and undergraduate students from the USA and Mexico's National Polytechnic Instittue in research experiences and collaborative activities; (2) to involve undergraduate students of Hispanic descent from Southwester College in research experiences and collaborative activities; (3) to continue outreach activities to northern Nevada high school students, and (4) to involve Hispanic high school students and teachers from Hug High School (Reno) in summer research experiences.
