Research

Advanced processing techniques

Flash sintering is one of the field-assisted sintering techniques that can considerably reduce sintering temperature and time.
Flash sintering can introduce unique defects in ceramic and composite materials which are rare to observe in conventionally sintered materials.
The high density of introduced defects may affect material properties.

Additive manufacturing technologies (also known as 3D printing) construct parts with very complex shapes in three dimensions in a discrete layer-by-layer manner.
Direct ink writing (DIW) is one of the most successful additive manufacturing technologies for ceramics in which ceramic-bearing semi-liquid paste is extruded from a small nozzle while the nozzle is moving across the platform.
Digital light processing (DLP) is a lithography-based 3D printing technique. An integral image is transferred by exposing the light source through a patterned mask to the photopolymerizable liquid with nanoceramic powders.

The material properties vary as specimen size changes.
Micro and nanomechanics study fundamental mechanical property of physical systems at small scales.

We can understand the underlying deformation mechanisms that can hinder material performance by analyzing microstructure changes.