August 9, 2016

DOE grant supports work at Purdue on improving aluminum

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a grant to a Purdue University professor in the College of Engineering working on the characteristics of metals.

Xinghang Zhang, a professor in the School of Materials Engineering, received a $450,000 grant from the federal Office of Basic Energy Sciences as the primary investigator for a three-year research project, "Deformation Mechanisms of Nanotwinned Aluminum and Binary Aluminum alloys."

"This allows us to explore fundamental science on mechanical behavior of nanotwinned aluminum and could eventually lead to the design of high strength and ductile aluminum alloys," he said.

Nanotwinned metals can be used in many applications because they simultaneously demonstrate high strength and high ductility, characteristics usually thought to be mutually exclusive. Deformation mechanisms describe how a metallic material can change its geometry under external force.

The research will be done at the microscopic level by using a transmission electron microscope that can reveal the atomic arrangement inside aluminum. The School of Materials Engineering recently acquired an advanced transmission electron microscope for the deformation project and future research.

"One of the major issues with aluminum alloy is its strength is much lower than steels," he said. "Aluminum is ductile, but it's very soft."

With Zhang's research, the ultimate goal is that one day nanotwinned aluminum alloy could be as hard as steel.

Aluminum already has broad industrial applications, including electronic devices, aviation and transportation. Improvement in the metal's strength without increasing the weight could offer big steps in areas such as better fuel efficiency in vehicles.

"You have to really look at why an aluminum alloy is soft and what you have to do to make it much stronger and remain ductile," Zhang said of the research.

Zhang previously has studied the mechanical properties of nanotwinned aluminum, but characterized overall research of deformation mechanisms of the twinned metal and alloys as "a direction with bright future."

This will be Zhang's first semester with Purdue, having come after 12 years of research and teaching at Texas A&M University. 

Writer: Brian L. Huchel, 765-494-2084, bhuchel@purdue.edu 

Source: Xinghang Zhang, 765-494-1641, xzhang98@purdue.edu

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