PCHEM Seminar – Henry Anderson

About the event

Speaker: Henry Anderson, WSU Chemistry Ph.D. Student

Group: Dr. Xiaofeng Guo

Title: Select Methods of Synthesis and Characterization for Aerospace Materials

Abstract: The advancement of novel aerospace equipment relies on the design of durable and lightweight materials. The aerospace industry remains focused on enhancing the durability of jet turbine engine materials to improve both longevity and fuel efficiency. The development of SiC-SiC ceramic matrix composite as a new structural material for jet turbine engines has necessitated the development of compatible environmental barrier coatings (EBCs). Both Y2Si2O7 and Yb2Si2O7 meet the requirements of corrosion resistance and exhibit a similar coefficient of thermal expansion to that of SiC. In this work, we synthesized (Y,Yb)Si2O7 samples and validated their elemental and phase purity. High temperature drop solution oxide melt calorimetry was performed to determine the heats of dissolution, heats of mixing, and heats of formation. Additionally, boron carbides are of interest in aerospace and ballistic applications for their high hardness combined with low density (2.49 g/cm3.)  A separate work of my research was on the mechanical characterization of boron carbide (B4C) via resonance ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS). Previous experimental work on B4C have only focused on the isotropic mechanical properties of polycrystalline B4C. Until now, no experimental data have captured the full mechanical anisotropy of single-crystal trigonal B4C. In this work, we analyzed B4C via RUS and determined its complete elastic tensor for the first time.