The School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering Seminar Series, “Microstructure, composition, and property changes on demand through electrochemistry” Presented by Dr. Dan Hooks

About the event

Microstructure, composition, and property changes on demand through electrochemistry

Presented by Dr. Dan Hooks, Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract:

Recent discoveries in electrolytes, diagnostics, and pulse/pulse-reverse electrochemistry offer many new tools for electrodeposition and electropolishing. Using these tools, we have demonstrated several advances:

1.      Defect free coatings of rhenium and other refractory metals from aqueous electrolytes near room temperature. These coatings can withstand very severe environmental conditions.

2.      Composition gradation in several materials, with utility in coatings requiring different properties through or along the coating.

3.      Twin and grain size control in bismuth, with applications in CO2 reduction catalysis and radiation shielding.

4.      Grain size and texture control in nickel and copper, with an associated change in material properties and possible applications where changes in mechanical response are desired.

5.      Targeted electropolishing of very rough additively manufactured surfaces using electrolytes free of hot, concentrated viscous acids.

In this presentation, we will discuss some of the basics of electrochemistry and important new developments that enabled us to achieve these examples, drawing on a century of literature. Beyond bench scale discovery, we will also describe issues that arose during scale-up for practical use in industry. Going forward, to streamline this process, generalize to other materials, and understand how controls influence outcomes we are exploring machine learning approaches to isolate the effects of process variables and in situ diagnostics.

Biography:

Dan Hooks has been a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in various roles for 25 years. After a post-doc in bioscience, he spent ~15 years in explosives research and development. He has been focused on electrochemistry, surfaces, and coatings for the past 8 years, applying previous industrial experience in electroplating to rebuild the team and capability for manufacturing research and development in this area. He is also a member of the Technical Advisory Committee and Research Board at the National Association for Surface Finishing, and an affiliate scientist with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, performing research on highly diverse projects. Actively involved in collaborative and student programs throughout his career, he was formerly an Adjunct Professor at Washington State University (MME, 2008-2012, and would consider doing this again 😉), is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Geoscience) and Committee Faculty at Purdue University (Materials Science and Engineering), and has served on PhD committees at Georgetown University. He has BS and PhD degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota, respectively, and has >100 publications on a variety of topics with >3400 citations.