This grant supports research that contributes new knowledge related to a new alloy manufacturing process, promoting both the progress of science and advancing national prosperity. Additive manufacturing is the process of making a three-dimensional object of virtually any shape from a digital computer model. The technique, often called three-dimensional printing, has the potential to revolutionize the way things are made. Alloy manufacturing processes currently available often require high temperatures and produce alloys of uniform composition. This award supports fundamental research for the development of a method for the additive manufacturing of a new class of alloys, high entropy alloys, with desired compositions at room temperature. High entropy alloys are made up of large proportions of five or more alloying elements and exhibit unusual mechanical and other properties. The new process, electrochemical deposition, eliminates residual stresses and cracks associated with thermal fields in directed energy deposition processes. High entropy alloy parts have applications in energy, healthcare, biomedical, aerospace, chemical, and automotive industries. Therefore, results from this research benefit the U.S. economy and society. This research involves several disciplines including manufacturing, electrochemistry, control theory, and materials science. The multi-disciplinary approach helps broaden the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in research and positively impacts engineering education.
The electrochemical additive manufacturing process can be used to structure functionally graded high entropy alloys made of multiple materials and allows for greater versatility in localized control of texture, composition, and properties. However, some scientific barriers are yet to be overcome to realize the full application potential of electrochemical additive manufacturing of functionally graded high entropy alloys. This research is to fill the knowledge gap on the reaction mechanisms for varying ion-substrate configurations during multi-material electrochemical deposition. The research team plans to perform molecular dynamics simulations of multi-material electrochemical deposition to acquire critical insight into the dynamic charge transfer with varying reactive potentials for each of the constituent elements. Guided by the simulations, the team conducts experiments to understand the deposited alloy composition, microstructure and morphology towards achieving functionally graded high entropy alloy deposits.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
