Nanoindenter (indenting at a scale about thousand times finer than the human hair) is a highly versatile experimental tool for materials characterization that utilizes diamond indenter of 10-20 nanometers in diameter into the surface of materials to determine mechanical properties, including hardness, stiffness, adhesion strength, and wear. It also has the unique ability to rapidly and precisely make several hundred measurements for probing the surface properties of materials. These characteristics make nanoindentation an indispensable tool for research in disciplines ranging from Engineering to Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Medicine. The significance of the project relates to exploring at a fundamental level the mechanical behavior of materials that include the response at high impact, local hardness of thin films for electronic applications, and wear of biomedical implants. Furthermore, the project addresses the challenge of tailoring the surface properties of materials for a host of applications from susceptibility to scratching of electronic devices to adhesion of cells on biomedical implants, providing new directions in the development of next generation of advanced materials with superior mechanical performance and longer life. The project supports nanotechnology education in the Colleges of Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso and provides practical training to undergraduate and graduate students throughout the campus in a manner that will enable new understanding to emerge at the atomic or molecular level. The compact all-in-one configuration is envisioned to advance the research capabilities of more than 10 research groups, over 45 graduate students, 40 undergraduate students, and 5 post-doctoral researchers, in terms of new understanding at the nano or molecular level, thereby opening entirely new avenues of research in materials science and engineering, and biomaterials and biomedical engineering including the design of nanostructured materials, organic-inorganic hybrid materials, materials for nanoelectronics, and biomedical applications. The research team is committed to disseminate the educational resources on nanoindentation to facilitate broader participation of K-12 audience to scientific and engineering concepts on nanoindentation.
Strength is a fundamental property of the majority of materials systems. Automated, advanced nanoindentation and scratch experiments are appropriately suitable for this challenging task because of high spatial resolution and throughput. The acquisition and subsequent utilization of an automated nanoscale deformation system for materials research at the University of Texas at El Paso constitutes the scope of the project. The goals are to use nanoindention in areas of research that concern deformation mechanisms in nanostructured materials, mechanics of mechanically-induced surface deformation in thin films and polymer nanocomposites, nanomechanical characterization of 3D-printable materials, biomechanical properties of tissue engineered biomaterials including bone, cartilage and skin, adhesion strength of cells, and mechanical properties of ceramic proppants used for hydraulic fracturing. The approach and method involves use of different modules (ultra-low mechanical force, dynamic mechanical analysis, extended z-range, high temperature stage, high load transducer, high resolution imaging, and fluorescence microscope), enabling the researchers to acquire new understanding of the materials at the nanoscale.
