Final Activity Report Summary - ADVATEC (Advanced training in hybrid technologies for nanostructured composites)
The science and technology of new materials is in the focus of ongoing research and development (R&D) efforts worldwide. One main focus is directed towards the synthesis, characterisation and applications of nanostructured and composite materials. The physical, chemical and mechanical properties of nanomaterials change not only due to the pure size reduction, but also due to the dominant influence of boundary effects and the appearance of quantum mechanical phenomena. There is considerable research and training necessary to exploit all the size and surface / interface effects specific to nanostructured alloys. ADVATEC was worked along this line. An important issue was the integrated processing of nanomaterials and composite nanostructures. New special field- and pressure-assisted synthesis and processing technologies were applied and the synthesis of metastable phases with valuable modified properties was studied. Such hybrid technologies that integrate soft-chemical synthesis (colloidal chemistry, sol-gel) with mechanical activation, pulsed current, ultrasonic, laser or microwave radiation processing are at the forefront of technological development. The question of ultrafast energy transfer to the precursor materials during their non-equilibrium processing into nanostructured composites was also addressed in ADVATEC.