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Check out new intro lecture on metallurgical sustainability and green metals

Metals & Metallurgical Research

Metallic materials carry human civilization more than 5000 years, lending even entire ages their name. With a global market of 3500 billion € per year and a daily turnover of 3.5 Billion € in the EU alone materials are key drivers in economy (World Trade Organisation, Optimat Materials Landscaping Study).

The accelerated demand for both, load-bearing and functional materials in key sectors such as energy, sustainability, construction, health, communication, infrastructure, safety and transportation is resulting in predicted production growth rates of up to 200 per cent until 2050 for many material classes.

‘Materials’ are a specific type of matter that is finally used for something, be it a product or process. Therefore materials science has generally both a basic and an applied facet. Nowadays, after virtually thousands of years of development, we still use only about 1000 different types of metallic alloys out of a sheer infinite combinatorial space of about 10⁶⁰ possible combinations when considering only the 50-60 frequently used elements. This means that we only stand at the beginning of basic research of metals.

These boundary conditions require not only to better understand the fundamental relationships between synthesis, manufacturing, basic mechanisms, microstructure and properties but also to discover novel materials that meet both, advanced application challenges under harsh environments.

Currently several developments are revolutionizing materials research. The first one is the availability of models and artificial intelligence methods with predictive capability such as provided by density functional theory, advanced quasi-particle and continuum simulation methods, computational alloy thermodynamics as well as big data driven tools fueled by machine learning approaches. The second one is the availability and correlative use of high resolution characterization tools such as corrected electron microscopes, atom probe tomography, synchrotron and neutron imaging. The third one is materials synthesis, which stretches nowadays from efficient chemical processing of nanoparticles, thin film synthesis, artchitectured materials, combinatorial casting to additive manufacturing providing fast and flexible routes for materials fabrication. 

These enabling techniques meet latest developments in industry and society such as the need for improved sustainability of materials and their manufacturing value chains (e.g. synthesis of alloys and polymers with greenhouse gas emissions); revolutionized drive trains in the transportation sector, i.e the transition from fossile to electrical propelling systems and the way how we provide and store energy.

All these techniques and recent developments enable us to solve some of the most essential challenges in the fields of mobility, energy, infrastructure, medicine and safety. 

Along these topics my group works on key fields of highest relevance for society and manufacturing. Examples relate to the following fields:

- Energy (e.g., materials for a hydrogen-propelled industry, hydrogen-tolerant structural alloys, catalysis materials, high temperature alloys, semiconducting materials for photovoltaics and photo-electrochemistry, fuel cell components, materials for direct solar-thermic components)
- Mobility (e.g., ductile magnesium, steels and magnets for light weight electrical and hybrid vehicles)
- Infrastructure (e.g., high strength and corrosion-resistant alloys for infrastructures, such as wind turbines and chemical infrastructures)
- Medicine & health (e.g., biomedical tribology, compliant implant alloys)
- Safety (e.g., high toughness alloys, cryogenic alloys, coatings and thin film materials, hydrogen tolerant materials).

Open access version

Open access version

This is a viewpoint paper on recent progress in the understanding, callenges and opportunities in microstructure-related properties of Advanced High-Strength Steels (AHSS).

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DAMASK — the Düsseldorf Advanced Material Simulation Kit



Introduction to DAMASK – The Düsseldorf Advanced Material Simulation Kit for modeling multi-physics crystal plasticity, thermal, and damage phenomena from the single crystal up to the component scale