High-throughput Fabrication
and Characterization of Bulk Ceramics by Transient Ultra-high Temperature Process
Honghua Li, Shuang Shuang, Xiangmin Meng, Jiangtao Li*
Technical
Institute of Physics and Chemistry,CAS, Beijing, 100083, China
ABSTRACT: As the key technology of Material Genetic Engineering (MGE),
high-throughput experiments include rapid parallel or serial preparation of
large quantities of samples, as well as rapid structural characterization and
performance screening of samples. The obtained high-throughput computing and
data mining could provide a material performance database, which is great
significance to improving the speed of new material development and reducing
the cost of research. According to the development of high-throughput materials
preparation technology, work mainly focuses on liquid and film samples.
However, no matter for equipment or technology, it is difficult to apply solid
ceramic powder materials. Therefore, with the increasing demand for structural
and functional integration of ceramic materials, it is necessary to develop
high-throughput preparation technology for ceramic powder materials timely.
This work focuses on the research of high-throughput rapid preparation on solid
ceramic powder, aiming to realize combination design of multiple component
substrates and doped components. Thus it could accomplish rapid reaction
synthesis of infrared ceramic materials by electric field-assisted ultra-high
temperature combustion synthesis.
High-performance ceramics are
characterized by their diverse composition, complex preparation process,
diverse organization and properties. To improve the research and development
efficiency, we designed a high-throughput which gather
discovery-optimization-preparation-inspection-application in one system.
Firstly we design and develop a high-flux dosing equipment for solid ceramic
powders to realize the multi-channel "dosing-mixing-compacting" integration.
The high-throughput device had 10-100 mold channels, with channel sizes ranging
from ф5×5 to ф10×10 mm. And the powder feeding capacity of rotating hopper
could be controlled from 5 to 100 µl/time, with feeding accuracy up to 0.005g.
On this basis, a high-throughput preparation technique using transient
ultra-high temperature synthesis was developed. It utilizes DC radiofrequency
electric field to form temperature field with the lifting and lowering rate of
103-104 °C/min and a maximum temperature of 2200 °C. This
method enables rapid synthesis and densification for prefabricated blanks in a
transient ultra-high temperature environment and realizes rapid preparation of
bulk ceramics. Finally, in order to complish the screening of infrared
ceramics, we take the method of parallel testing with infrared thermal imaging
cameras to collect the radiation energy of the material in the transparent
window of the atmosphere (8-14 μm). And it could help to obtain a large number
of data on the thermal conductivity and radiation properties for the
application on infrared ceramics radiation cooling.
The rapid preparation and screening of
infrared ceramic materials can be achieved by high-throughput preparation
techniques. Taking use of infrared ceramics’ intrinsic advantage, the enhanced
radiation heat transfer can be explored on engineering applications. The
selected infrared ceramic materials with infrared emissivity >0.9 are used
to serve on coating for enhancing the radiant heat transfer. The coating can be
>8% increase on thermal efficiency in high-temperature kilns which can be
seen in refractory, glass, ceramic, cement, steel and other industries. In
addition, the advantages of radiation cooling application on high-power
electronic devices, one is to reduce the surface temperature of the heat sink,
the other is to increase the temperature field uniformity of the heat sink
surface. This application, if it can be verified by engineering applications,
will show a broad market prospect.
Keywords: High
throughput preparation, electric field-assisted, ultra-high temperature
combustion synthesis, infrared ceramic materials
* Corresponding author:
Email: lijiangtao@mail.ipc.ac.cn;Email:
lihonghua16@mails.ucas.edu.cn
Li jiangtao is the Professor at Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has presided over the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program, the Academy of Sciences Knowledge Innovation Direction Project and many other items. And Prof. Li has published one monograph, more than 160 articles and 20 patents in English about advanced material preparation technology. Until now, he has won the Science and Technology of China Association of Materials Research second prize, Beijing Science and Technology Progress third prize, the 8th Henry Fok Young Teachers' Fund of the Ministry of Education and the Young Teachers' Award. Prof. Li has a deep accumulation over high-pressure combustion synthesis equipment, highgravity field combustion synthesis melting equipment, and also has rich experience on the research of ceramic material preparation technology.