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144TRENDS OF MATERIALS RESEARCH
R. Fellenberg
VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH, Duesseldorf, 40468 Germany
e-mail: fellenberg@vdi.de
DOI: 10.24411/9999-0014A-2019-10040
Materials play a key role in all industrial branches and are of high economic relevance. New materials help to increase the efficiency of solar cells and power plants, enable green cars and electric mobility or offer improved medical care by means of new diagnostic and therapeutical methods. Successful innovations in material science require cooperation of different disciplines and a high degree of networking between industrial and academic expertise. This is supported by a targeted funding of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research [1].
New materials and materials are enormously important for the innovative power of modern economies. Up to 70% of all new products are estimated to be based on new materials today. The market value of new and advanced materials will increase to $ 230 billion by 2030, according to the European Commission. The resulting value creation potential for a variety of products exceeds the sum many times over. The importance of materials as a cost factor is also increasing in Germany: material costs now account for approx. 43% of the gross production value of all manufactured goods. It is therefore important to improve raw material and material efficiency as well as to develop efficient substitution materials and recycling processes in order to reduce material costs and dependence on critical raw materials. Material research is of immense importance for the expansion of the international competitiveness of our country.
Materials and materials are inconspicuous to many people. They often perform their importance unnoticed in many products. However, new materials are indispensable for solving concrete technological, ecological and social problems.
Some exemplary highlights illustrate the social significance of materials research [2]:
• Clean water through high-tech materials
• Materials for energy storage
• Hygiene through innovative materials
• Future houses - intelligent, comfortable, affordable
• Materials for 3D printing
• New materials from the virtual world
Materials for 3D printing
Today's manufacturing processes have a high resource requirement. For example, in material-removing processes such as turning or milling, up to 90% of the starting materials are produced as production waste. In addition, during the manufacturing processes, these wastes are contaminated with secondary substances such as lubricants, which recycling is associated with high costs, especially in the case of expensive raw materials. With current methods only comparatively simple components can be produced cost-effectively, which are then joined together to form more complex structures. Due to this complex final assembly, these products often only become profitable in large quantities. Generative manufacturing processes or additive manufacturing such as 3D printing or laser sintering, build production parts directly from informal materials such as liquids or powders. In this way, the material efficiency is increased and waste by waste avoided. These resource-saving processes allow the production of components with variable material properties or the production of products made of different
XV International Symposium on Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis
materials. With generative processes, complex products with integrated functions can be produced cost-effectively even in small quantities. Especially with lightweight components and medical devices, the material potential can be used effectively [3]. New materials from the virtual world
The special properties of a material are determined by its atomic and molecular structures. With the help of combined simulation methods on the computer, new materials can already be designed at the atomic level. With so-called multi-scale simulations, components from the atomic to the macroscopic level can be fully developed, optimized and virtually tested. Here complex mathematical equations, the exact knowledge of atomic bonds as well as suitable material models help to network simulation experts and material developers interdisciplinary and to develop components completely on the computer. Particularly interesting are new materials with extreme properties, such as high strength, corrosion resistance or an exceptional temperature resistance, for example, to improve superalloys for energy technology or to develop hybrid materials for lightweight construction. The complete simulation of materials and their properties on the computer can shorten the laborious development work that has taken years in the lab to date, reduce development costs and help to find new materials [3]. Digitalization
Digitalization of the whole society is running or growing up in most industrial countries. This is also a big trend (or more) in materials science. A basis is a comparison of experimental and simulated data as well as to make the data pool for different materials and applications. A so called digital twin can be formed. But there are some uncertainties in using this data basis like
• Are there enough data for the description?
• What is the error of the used data (experimental, simulated) and the error of the achieved model? (backup of data)
• How is the availability and the exchange?
• Who is the owner of the data?
One example is the American Materials Genome Initiative [4] a government-based initiative which is running since 2011. The aim is to push the development of new materials to the production and application. Digitizing material data and make them available and searchable in big databases is the central point. Surface technologies
Mostly material properties were determined by surfaces. Surfaces create mostly the resulting materials properties. That's why surface engineering is a key technology in industry. Today such processes are widespread in many industrial branches. For example, the economic significance is shown by the fact that the worldwide market for protective coatings (mostly corrosion resistant) for 2016 is estimated at around $ 18 billion at an annual growth of 4 percent. In addition to classic surface technologies such as electroplating, physical and chemical vapor deposition as well as dipping, spraying and spraying processes play innovative process developments such as self-organization and self-healing processes, ultra short pulse lasers or atomic layer deposition as well as further developments of the modeling and simulation techniques an increasing role. A further growth is limited by costs and a qualification deficiency.
Biologization of technology [5]
Based on the key technologies, the "biologization of technology" aims to integrate biology and technology in order to make knowledge at the interface between the two areas usable for the sustainable strengthening of the competitiveness of German companies as well as for the benefit of the citizens.
Nature fascinates and inspires with a multitude of specialized individual and system biological solutions that have adapted to the surrounding environment in a biological evolution that has been going on for millions of years. In the course of their development, living organisms have succeeded in reducing their energy and resource requirements, developing
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intelligent information processing and recycling strategies, and optimally coordinating metabolic reactions in a confined space. The basis for this capability of biological systems are highly parallelized and at the same time running precise synthesis and decomposition processes, self-learning and energy-efficient systems, specifically switchable mechanisms for e. g. regulation and information transport and a high degree of crosslinking independent modules in a fault-tolerant overall system. The development and understanding of these biological systems has been largely driven by technological advances in key technologies. Developments in materials research, photonics, production research, process development, and new approaches to nanotechnology, which include e. g. the introduction of high-resolution imaging techniques, miniaturized tools for cell manipulation or new technical solutions for filters and membranes have enabled / accelerated this. Based on innovation in key technologies, e. g. biological and biochemical findings and processes are commercialized in the context of industrial / white biotechnology while bionic approaches have broadened the spectrum of technical solutions.
Despite these important achievements, it remains to be noted that only a small fraction of nature's know-how is currently being used for technological purposes. A next logical step for new innovations, therefore, is the further transfer of fundamental processes and principles of biology to technology.
Possible research goals are:
• the use / adaptation of existing technical solutions to biological questions
• bio-inspired technical solutions
• a technology-bio-interaction through the use of biological materials, processes and principles for technical issues
1. https://www.werkstofftechnologien.de/en/.
2. https://www.bmbf.de/pub/Vom_Material_zur_Innovation.pdf.
3. https://www.werkstofftechnologien.de/.
4. https://www.mgi.gov/
5. https://rn.vdi.de/technik/fachthemen/technologies-of-life-sciences/artikel/innovationspotenziale-an-der-schnittstelle-biologie-und-technik-1/.
