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Interdepartmental & Partner Research Groups

Interdepartmental Groups

Sustainable Magnets and Recycling
The group focuses on advancing the sustainability of magnetic materials and their processing as well as improving the sustainability perspectives of materials recycling and elemental extraction. Ultimately the group strives to provide new understanding and fundamentals for developing the two research perspectives with respect to low-CO2 technologies and cost-effective processes for future materials designing. The group scientifically focuses on providing new experimental and theoretical understanding to bridge sustainability, magnetism and recycling into a common research field in relation to both production of new materials as well as re-use of decommissioned, scrap and waste material. more
AI robot with brain illustration next to data and material design graphics.
The group is dedicated to harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of material science. Our main objective is to tackle critical challenges such as advanced materials design, experimental data analysis, text and data mining for information retrieval. more
Atomic Scale Dynamics of Sustainable Materials
The research group aims to achieve sustainability by understanding and engineering the dynamic evolution of materials throughout each stage of their lifecycle, from synthesis to utilization, with a focus on energy efficiency, low carbon emissions, safety, and longevity. more
Diagram showing lithium-ion battery structure with crack indication.
This research group develops multi-physics and microstructure-resolved continuum models that can accurately represent electrochemical energy devices and processes under operando conditions. These models are designed to enable rationalization and improvement of the electro-chemo-mechanical performance of all-solid-state and liquid high energy density Li-ion batteries. more
High-Entropy Materials (HEMs)
The goal of our group is to develop advanced high-entropy materials (HEMs) with exceptional mechanical and multi-functional properties based on the understanding of their structure-properties relations. This is being achieved by combining advanced design strategies and experimental techniques. more
Diagram illustrating hydrogen-induced cracking mechanisms in materials.
Our research group focuses on one of the most dangerous yet most elusive embrittlement problems frequently observed in high-strength metallic materials: hydrogen embrittlement (HE). The mission is to understand the fundamental mechanisms of HE, as well as to use the acquired knowledge to design novel microstructure concepts with enhanced hydrogen-resistance. Ultimately, we aim to promote the development of high-performance and hydrogen-tolerant alloys that are urgently needed for the dawn of the hydrogen age.
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copper lattice structures
Additive manufacturing via selected laser melting (SLM) is a promising fabrication technique that can enable unique alloy design pathways due to rapid heating and solidification. This group aims to exploit such process characteristics of SLM to achieve refined micro and nanostructures that will in turn enhance the mechanical and physical performance of complex 3D architectures in both static and dynamic loading conditions. more
Sustainable Synthesis of Materials
Our group aims to develop sustainable metal extraction routes from both primary ores and secondary wastes. We are working to replace current carbon-based extraction methods with hydrogen-based, fully electrified pathways. more

Partner Groups

Atom probe tomography of Fe-doped SmCo magnet showing elemental distribution.
Our group is trying to push functional bulk magnets to their physical limits given by their intrinsic properties. Key is the understanding of the critical magnetization reversal processes on the atomic scale. We tackle this with the most advanced correlated electron microscopies and tomographies combined with sophisticated simulation across the length scales applied to modelsystems made by additive manufacturing. more
Microscopic image of Fe-rich
This project combinatorially explores multi-component systems based on the concept of high entropy alloys (HEAs).This concept enables experimentally probing compositions that are multi-component in nature and are also located in the middle of phase diagrams. Eqilibrium and non-equilibrium phases can be found and identified for their crystal structures and their magnetic properties as a function of composition by employing multiple methods of combinatorial screening. more
Microscopic images of material samples with various nanometer scale measurements and color-coded data.
The focus of this group lies on exploring and understanding the atomic-scale degradation behavior of γ/γʹ Ni-based superalloys and new CoNi based superalloys exposed to severe/harsh environmental conditions at high temperatures. Furthermore the role of deformation induced defects on the degradation will also be examined and material design routes to slow down or suppress aspects of the degradation will be defined. more
Elemental maps: Al, N, O, and SEM image of a material at 10 μm scale.
The focus of the research group is to investigate phase transformation phenomena that occur as a result of metal-gas reactions, which, in turn, generate stresses and lattice defects in the material. more
Cross-section of a material, plasma flow, phase fraction graph.
Our group investigates and develops novel strategies for the sustainable production of metallic materials, integrating the development of synthesis science and technology into material design. Currently the focus lies on the reduction of iron ores with hydrogen in both solid state direct reduction as well as plasma melting processes, for which we investigate the fundamental relationships between processing parameters, phase and microstructure evolutions and reduction kinetics. more
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