| NSF Org: |
DMR Division Of Materials Research |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 8, 2012 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 8, 2012 |
| Award Number: | 1229131 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Leonard Spinu
lspinu@nsf.gov (703)292-2665 DMR Division Of Materials Research MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 15, 2012 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $202,580.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $202,580.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
110 INNER CAMPUS DR AUSTIN TX US 78712-1139 (512)471-6424 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
204 East Dean Keeton St. Austin TX US 78712-1024 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Major Research Instrumentation |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
This award to the University of Texas at Austin is for the acquisition of a Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) system. Spark plasma sintering is an innovative technique that emerged in recent years for material syntheses and consolidation. In SPS both external pressure and pulsed current are applied simultaneously to enhance the consolidation of a wide range of ceramic, metallic, and composite powders. Local heating occurs primarily at gaps between particles where the applied electric field induces sparks and the formation of a high-energy plasma. As a result the consolidation can be completed within a shorter time, which allows grain growth and ion diffusion to be efficiently controlled and prevented. These unique features makes SPS suitable to fabricate more complex materials such as heterogeneous materials with specifically defined interface structure, nanostructured materials, and composite materials. The SPS system will be used to develop novel materials for energy applications such as thermoelectrics to recover waste heat, high-temperature solid oxide fuel cells to efficiently convert chemical energy directly into electricity, solid-state electrolytes for high-voltage lithium ion batteries, and low temperature polymer-electrolyte fuel cell plates with high corrosion resistance and low electrical contact resistance.
The SPS system will be one of the major facilities for materials fabrication at the University of Texas at Austin. The system will be managed through the Materials Science and Engineering Program and will be accessible to researchers across campus. The SPS technique adds a new capability to explore a much broader range of materials that cannot be made using conventional sintering. Research activities with the SPS technique will be integrated into the graduate curriculum in the Texas Materials Institute. In addition to lectures on the SPS technique, the availability of this new equipment will offer students in the materials science program an excellent hands-on experience with an advanced materials synthesis techniques. The PIs and their students will give lectures and/or demonstrations of clean energy experiments to students at middle and high schools as well as to the general public and K-12 students at Explore UT, a campus-wide open house.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Title of project: MRI: Acquisition of a spark plasma sintering system for engineering advanced energy materials and materials education. NSF award: DMR-1229131
PI: Jianshi Zhou, Co-PIs J.B. Goodenough, A. Manthiram, D. Kovar, D. Bourell, Li Shi
University of Texas at Austin
Outcomes report
Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is an innovative technique for material synthesis that has emerged in recent years. The process starts with an initial activation by applying a pulsed current while the powder is placed under a modest pressure. The on-off DC current in this stage generates the spark discharge and rapid Joule heating between grains. Ionized elements from the particle’s surface can be transformed into a plasma in some cases. The spark and plasma vaporize the contact area between particles, which cleans up the surface and draws together particles to create necks. The intensified Joule heating up to thousands of degree Celsius and pressure make these necks develop and increase. These features make material sintering complete in short periods of time. Specific features of materials synthesized by SPS include high density, high mechanical strength, and the nano structures which can host high electric conduction but very low thermal conductivity.
These specific features are especially useful to fabricate bulk materials for thermoelectric devices, electrolytes for batteries and fuel cells, and new functional materials. A SPS system from Thermo Technology, LLC was installed in the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Texas at Austin in 2013. Over the last three years, the system has been actively used by users from several groups in the Texas Materials Institute, UT Austin, Texas A&M University, and Texas Biochemicals inc to study mainly energy materials. Major achievements include:
(1) High-performance p-type thermoelectric materials. By (Al, Ge) double doping, and Re doping, the figure of merit ZT has been greatly improved to the state-of-the-art level in higher manganese silicides (MnSi1.74).
(2) High-performance n-type thermoelectric materials. Mg2Si0.4Sn0.6 is a promising material to fabricate the n-leg in thermoelectric devices. The challenging issues for applying the material, such as the bipolar contribution (which reduces ZT at high temperatures) and chemical instability where the material is exposed air at high temperatures, have been resolved by Ge substitution and coating a nanometer layer of Al2O3.
(3) The NASICON structure electrolyte has been around for some time. Inability to synthesize high density pellets with high ion mobility has been a major hurdle for applying the materials. A highly dense pellet of NASICON electrolyte LiZr2(PO4)3 was synthesized by SPS recently. Li–ion conductivity reaches as high as σLi = 2×10–4 S cm–1 at 25 oC and a high electrochemical stability up to 5.5 V versus Li+/Li was also obtained. Most importantly, a lithium metal anode wets the LiZr2(PO4)3. This property has been used to fabricate an all-solid-state battery cell showing good cyclability and a long cycle life.
(4) The new ferroelectric double perovskite CaMnTi2O6 and the potentially new catalytic materials LnRuO3 (Ln=rare earth) are all high-pressure phases. It has been recognized recently that SPS can be used to produce the high-pressure phases. This is a very interesting discovery, that paves the way for the mass production of new functional materials.
(5) SPS has been commonly used to fabricate structural and functional materials by engineering grain boundaries. It is also possible that the technique can be used to synthesize new materials by engineering a cell boundary; for example, bonding together a magnetic unit cell and a ferroelectric cell for a multiferroic material, which is a new way to avoid the chemistry constraint in material synthesis. Research along this line is ongoing.
These achievements have been reflected in eight publications in refereed journals.
Graduate students and postdocs from different research groups in the Texas Materials Institute at UT Austin have been trained to operate the SPS system. The new route of material synthesis has been well-integrated into their research projects. SPS now becomes a user facility open to members of the Texas Materials Institute at UT Austin and to the local community of material science research. This new method of material synthesis will have a positive impact on the development of energy materials and will help to create more material research projects.
Last Modified: 10/31/2016
Modified by: Jianshi Zhou
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