There has been a strong commercial push recently toward innovative solutions for critical components in energy generation that could improve reliability and maximize availability simultaneously, and thus enhance overall efficiency, ranging from turbines to nuclear to oil/gas transport piping systems. In this seminar, we will present fundamental and demonstrative research to push boundaries in key technology areas related to novel nanomaterials design leading to high performance coatings that integrates (i) mechanical passivation, and (ii) strain/radiation sensing capabilities that may enable online health monitoring. The latter is deemed critical for key components in power generation such as high pressure gas/steam pipelines, turbine blades, etc. as well as in forth generation nuclear energy systems. Specifically, we aim to design Nano-layered Multifunctional Materials (NMM) through interfacial strain engineering at the atomic scale. The proposed NMM architectures comprise multi-material nanolayers (each < 10 nm). The interplay between their interfaces and defect structures (e.g. dislocations, grain boundaries) provide extended elastic regimes and high hardnes which promise discovery of novel materials phenomena thereby developing new knowledge and design rules to integrate them into real-world devices. For instance, a relatively novel top-down method of producing these NMM systems, the Accumulative Roll Bonding (ARB) method, has provided us essentially with new ways to tune this interplay between interfaces and their defect structures within the same metallic multilayer systems (for example, Cu/Nb system) through interface engineering. The extended elastic regime leads to high mechanical straining capabilities resulting in passivation against mechanical damage. Further, recent research in our group has provided preliminary strain sensing evidence of the NMMs.  It emanates from the coupling between enhanced elasticity and interface-defect interaction creating atomic disorder that influences the effective electrical resistivity of NMMs. This opens up new possibilities for both tuning the physical and chemical properties of materials as well as novel functionalities, such as strain sensing. 

 

Arief Suriadi Budiman, Assistant Professor, Engineering Product Design, Singapore University of Technology & Design, and visiting Professor, DMSE, MIT. Prof. Budiman is leading a dynamic, young group researching nanomaterials and nanomechanics and their implications for extending the extreme limits of materials as well as their applications in the next generation energy technologies (solar PV, extreme environments, energy storage, etc.). He has authored/co-authored several high-impact journal publications (Acta Materialia, Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Electronic Materials, Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, Materials Science Engineering A), and contributed a book chapter on “Electromigration in Thin Films and Electronic Devices: Materials and Reliability,” Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, 2011. He has also recently published a book “Probing Crystal Plasticity at the Nanoscales – Synchrotron X-ray Microdiffraction” (Springer 2015). He has two U. S. Patents and one pending.