Roman Gröger was successful in the INTER-COST-LUC24 public competition. At the Institute of Physics of Materials, he and his investigation team will implement a project entitled Harnessing size effects for optimization of design and physical properties of nanostructured materials (NANOMAQ).
The project primarily focuses on developing new theoretical and computational models and experimental procedures to identify the relationship between the microstructural element’s size and the materials‘ physical properties. Existing theoretical models and atomistic studies are only relevant for understanding the bulk behavior of materials but fail in describing nanostructures. The main reason is that surface-related processes control the behavior of such nanomaterials. Several currently technologically significant groups of nanostructured materials were selected for this project, where the influence of surfaces and interfaces is dominant. Still, they cannot be described by existing volume models. These are nitrides of the 13th group, nanoparticles based on iron and iron oxides, powder nanomaterials for hydrogen storage, and nanoparticles based on borides, nitrides, and oxides in FCC alloys.
Thanks to funding from the NANOMAQ project, scientists from IPM are developing a new approach to the design and characterization of nanostructures, fully utilizing the properties of reconstructed surfaces at the nanoscale, and will be based on atomic simulations and advanced experimental methods.
