Articles in the MPG Yearbook
Yearbook 2018: What do turbine blades, artificial knee joints and car bodies have in common – additive manufacturing in research
Summary:
Additive manufacturing offers many advantages compared to conventional production processes but its potential is not yet fully exploited due to a lack of suitable alloys. A research team at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung has now optimized the process parameters and the alloy design, paving the way for new applications.
- 2018 1.42 MB
Yearbook 2017: Steel with bone-like properties prevents materials’ fatigue
Summary
Materials which are subject to cyclic load, are often prone to fatigue and failure. An international team of scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung developed a new steel inspired by the laminated structure of bone and thus preventing crack propagation on the microscale which would lead to fatigue.
- 2017 76.71 kB
Yearbook 2016: Understanding the complex interchange of magnetic and lattice excitations opens new routes in the design of innovative cooling materials
Summary
The systematic search of new materials solely based on computers as well as the development of the required highly accurate simulation tools is a major research topic at the MPI für Eisenforschung. In the present article, the approach is introduced using the example of magnetocaloric materials, which are explored to achieve new and energy efficient cooling strategies. For this purpose the complex interaction of two thermodynamic excitation mechanisms – the vibration of atoms in a crystalline lattice and the disorder of magnetic moments – is analyzed and systematically exploited.
- 2016 174.87 kB
Yearbook 2015: Nanostructured materials as key for regenerative energy sources
Summary
In consequence of the growing energy needs and the increasing environmental pollution alternative energyproducing, cost-efficient and environmental friendly concepts are needed. Diverse nanostructured materials are suitable for application in this field. The correlation between morphology, chemical composition and properties of the nanostructures are investigated with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and its analytical techniques and are one of the main research activities of the independent research group “Nanoanalytics and Interfaces” at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung.
- 2015 332.45 kB
Yearbook 2014 (1st contribution): A new class of active and highly stable fuel cell catalysts
Summary
Why are our cars nowadays still not powered by fuel cells? – One of the main reasons is the degradation of the essential catalysts during fuel cell operation, which leads to a loss of active surface area and thus activity over time. Researchers from two Max Planck Institutes have joined efforts and developed and characterized novel nanostructured materials. A first break-through was achieved with a high-performance electrocatalyst that has demonstrated excellent stability properties.
- 2014-1 175.35 kB
Yearbook 2014 (2nd contribution): Small but strong – Micromechanics of miniaturized materials
Summary
Materials of any kind have to endure severe mechanical conditions, which ultimately determine their lifetime. How long can materials sustain cyclic (thermo-)mechanical loading? Is their response independent of material dimensions? Are new mechanisms occurring when the material volume decreases into the nanoworld? Finding fundamental answers to these questions and to use the knowledge to design robust materials is the basic research mission of the new group Nano- and Micromechanics at the MPI of Iron Research.
- 2014-2 281.36 kB
Yearbook 2013: Nanostructuring of one billion tonnes: On the way to the atomic design of new metallic alloys
Summary
Metallic materials are the backbone of modern industrial societies establishing their competitiveness in the production of complex products and processes. The basic research on metals has undergone a revolution in recent years, based on the fact that the structure and properties of alloys can be predicted and experimentally verified at the atomic level. These methods enable us to design new materials on the basis of their atomic structure.
- 2013 507.56 kB
Yearbook 2012: The power of quantum mechanics in modern steel design
Summary:
Modern steels show a rapid development: 2400 exist already, of which 2000 have been developed during the last decade. Steel grades that are strong and ductile at the same time, are of particular interest for automotive applications. How can a tailored design of such steels be achieved? Which processes occur at the atomic scale? And what is the role of carbon? Scientists at the MPI für Eisenforschung face these challenges with a two-fold strategy by exploiting the principles of quantum mechanics in theoretical as well as experimental methods.
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Yearbook 2011: "The oxygen reduction reaction in the focus pf interface chemistry" - or: "What does corrosion have in common with fuel cells?"
Summary:
Whether the future of automotive mobility lies in hydrogen fuel cell technology is still unclear – corrosion, however, is a serious problem in many areas of technology, because not only if you rest, you rust. While the two processes seem very different they have an important chemical reaction in common: the oxygen reduction reaction. At the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH in Düsseldorf this reaction is investigated in detail within an interdisciplinary project to make fuel cells better and corrosion protection more efficient.
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Yearbook 2010: Metallurgy in the 21st century: quantum mechanically guided materials design
Summary:
The departments of Prof. Neugebauer (Computational Materials Design) und Prof. Raabe (Microstructure Physics and Metal Forming) have introduced a new generation of simulation methods for materials development. The innovation of the approach is based on the connection of quantum mechanics, continuum theory and experiment for metallurgical alloy design.
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Yearbook 2009 (1st contribution): Structure Evolution and Corrosion: Employing Synchrotron Light for In-Situ X-Ray Diffraction
Summary:
Synchrotron radiation developed in the last decades to be an important tool for materials science. Its capability to resolve atomic-scale structures even of low-dimensional objects is very beneficial for corrosion science. Also the possibility of in-situ experiments is an advantage. With recent results on the dealloying of a binary noble metal alloy and Zn electrodeposition from ionic liquids, two examples are given.
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Yearbook 2009 (2nd contribution): Computer-based prediction of materials properties: Recent achievements of quantum-mechanical simulation methods
Summary:
In modern materials design there is an increasing demand for powerful computational tools that allow an accurate prediction of materials properties. The free energy of individual crystal structures serves as a key quantity in this context. The present paper discusses the capabilities of modern quantum-mechanical simulation methods in determining these energies. Since it is further demonstrated that even complicated phase transformation sequences can be predicted, these methods open new perspectives for the development and optimization of innovative, tailored materials.
