Final Report Summary - MACAN (MERGING ATOMISTIC AND CONTINUUM ANALYSIS OF NANOMETER LENGTH-SCALE METAL-OXIDE SYSTEMS FOR ENERGY AND CATALYSIS APPLICATIONS)
Executive Summary:
The properties of most modern material systems depend on interfaces. This is because most engineering materials are polycrystalline, and in many cases the material contains crystals of different phases. The influence of interfaces on materials properties becomes even more critical when the characteristic length-scale of the material microstructure (e.g. crystal size) is sub-micron or nanometer, since a large amount of the material volume is at the interfaces themselves.
This rather important field of research is often approached by experts from diverse fields, addressing issues spanning from interface thermodynamics, kinetics, and interface structure and chemistry. Full integration of the scientific issues requires contributions from a broad spectrum of experts in physics, chemistry and materials science, that often communicate with different backgrounds. Both the thermodynamic (continuum) and atomistic fields can be correlated with interface-dependent engineering properties as long as there is correct forum for communication to “bridge the gap”.
For the reasons mentioned above, an international consortium consisting of 16 partners from 8 different Member States & Associated Countries (Israel, France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, Slovenia & United Kingdom) and 4 different International Countries (United States, Japan, India, and Brazil) with very clearly defined roles in the project was assembled. In addition, the Consortium was augmented with experts from European industrial partners in order to ensure industry-relevance, to facilitate identification of key interface related industrial issues, and to promote transfer of knowledge from the academic environment to European industry. In fact, there was industrial participation in all MACAN activities without exception.
The main thrust of the project was well-organized workshops and symposia to provide the framework for discussion amongst the two groups of scientists (atomistic versus continuum approach to interfaces). The first conference was held in Berlin in November 14-17, 2009. This was followed by a partner scientific meeting in July 25-28, 2010 in Slovenia, which included students. The second MACAN conference was a symposium which was held within the framework of the Spring 2011 Meeting of E-MRS (May 9-13, 2011, Nice, France), which resulted in a special issue of the Journal of Materials Science to disseminate papers presented in this symposium, after full scientific review. An additional conference was held by sponsoring symposia within the framework of High Temperature Capillarity (HTC) 2012 in Eilat, Israel from March 18-21, 2012, and again dissemination was via a special issue of the Journal of Materials Science. An expanded partner meeting and exchange was held in Istanbul on thermodynamics of interfaces from November 12-16, 2012. This was followed by an industrial led discussion at Infineon on the role of interfaces in industrial applications, in Austria during the week of January 13th, 2013. The final MACAN partner meeting was held the week of April 21st, 2013 in Israel, and included invited talks by non-MACAN partners, MACAN presentations, Industrial presentations, and presentations by MACAN students.
In addition to the conferences, MACAN included mapping via an extensive literature search to identify EU and non-EU scientists working on fields which fit to MACAN.
In July of 2011 a ‘summer school’ took place in Leoben, Austria. The framework of the school was defined with the goal to provide an intensive training program for graduate students and young scientists on how to merge continuum and atomistic approaches to the study of interfaces.
In addition MACAN supported an exchange program to send experts to other research groups within MACAN, and to allow students to undergo specific training. Finally, dissemination was accomplished by promoting and completing a published set of papers emanating from two of the conferences, via a special dissemination action at MS&T 2011, and by publishing a review paper designed to merge the continuum and atomistic approaches towards interfaces, in the Journal of Materials Science entitled A Review of Wetting vs. Adsorption, Complexions, and Related Phenomena: The Rosetta Stone of Wetting.
Project Context and Objectives:
The properties of almost all modern material systems depend on interfaces. This is because most engineering materials are polycrystalline, and in many cases the material contains crystals of different phases (structure and chemistry). The influence of interfaces on materials properties becomes even more critical when the characteristic length-scale of the material microstructure (e.g. crystal size) is sub-micron or nanometer, since a large amount of the material volume is at the interfaces themselves.
Interfaces between dissimilar materials are fascinating because they can be used to control the macroscopic properties of materials as well as the intrinsic properties of localized phases. Some examples include catalytic systems, metallization for energy storage systems, the stability of thin film materials for information storage in microelectronics, coatings, joins, and composites, which involve interfaces between metals and ceramics, metals and semiconductors, and between ceramics and semiconductors. However, our present understanding of how the important engineering properties of materials, as they depend on interfaces and surfaces, is rather limited. While engineering achievements at interfaces have been made, this is mostly based on phenomenological trial and error type experiments, and it is clear that advances in engineering applications require a more fundamental understanding of the physics, chemistry, crystallography and thermodynamics of interfaces.
This rather important field of research is often approached by experts from diverse fields, addressing issues spanning from interface thermodynamics (wetting, equilibrium crystal shapes), kinetics of interface and surface morphological changes (grain growth, faceting kinetics, surface and interface diffusion), interface structure (application of atomistic characterization techniques to probe the atomistic structure), interface chemistry (segregation, adsorption, surface and interface films, charge transfer at interfaces), and atomistic simulations designed to understand the interplay between the local atomic arrangement and electronic structure, as well as to predict or explain the properties of the interface and/or surface.
While on one hand this field is based on a rich combination of surface physics and chemistry, thermodynamics and crystallography, augmented by advanced characterization and simulation methods, a full integration of the scientific issues requires contributions from a broad spectrum of experts in physics, chemistry and experimental techniques, that often communicate with different backgrounds. The thermodynamic approach provides general models for interfacial systems, which can be used to predict interface energy, thermal stability and properties, but cannot directly address local atomistic structure. For example, thermodynamic measurements can be used to identify interface segregating atoms which enhance the thermal stability of thin film devices for the microelectronics industry, but this approach cannot identify the mechanism by which segregation changes the local chemical bonds. In a complementary manner, first-principles atomistic theory provides detailed information on the local atomistic and electronic structure, but is limited by computing power to very short time and length scales. Time and length scales can be extended by using models of inter-atomic forces, although there is usually a trade off in accuracy, and the validity of the models becomes an issue. Both the thermodynamic and atomistic fields can be correlated with interface-dependent engineering properties as long as atomistic-level experiments provide data to bridge this gap, and if the correct forum for interdisciplinary communication and collaboration is established. This setting for communication is imperative if the fundamental findings are to be applied to industrial systems, and critical for the next generation of scientists in the field, since obtaining a grasp of the important issues and incorporating the fine details at hand can be extremely difficult for young scientists.
Scientific and technological advances in this field absolutely require collaboration and communication between experts from this broad spectrum of disciplines, which is the purpose of this project. Detailed analysis of the gaps in current research on interface thermodynamics and structure-dependent properties at the atomistic length-scale requires the construction of a consortium based on experts in the various fields that are related to this topic. First of all, it requires experts who conduct thermodynamic measurements (continuum approach) of interfaces, and theoretical analysis based on the results. This provides the energy of the interface, and information about, for example, adhesion and stability of thin films. Furthermore, the consortium includes experts that have access specialized equipment, such as at the atomic resolution electron microscopes (atomistic approach) located at the Technion, Jülich, MPI, and Imperial College, which allow to identify which atoms are where at interfaces. The participation of experts on atomistic theory, who can use the experimental results to calculate the electronic structure and relative values of interface energy are a critical part of such a consortium. Finally, in order to understand why specific configurations of atoms improve the adhesion and stability, experts in thermodynamic models must be included. Such a multidisciplinary consortium enables the interdisciplinary discussion that this project has initiated.
The main action of the project to enhance communication between experts and young scientists was well-organized and structured workshops, and symposia within existing European conferences, designed to provide the framework for discussion amongst the two groups of scientists (atomistic versus continuum approach to interfaces). The first conference was held in Berlin in November 14-17, 2009. This was followed by a partner scientific meeting in July 25-28, 2010 in Slovenia, which included students. The second MACAN conference was a symposium which was held within the framework of the Spring 2011 Meeting of E-MRS (May 9-13, 2011, Nice, France), and was disseminated via a special issue of the Journal of Materials Science. The third MACAN conference was held within the framework of High Temperature Capillarity (HTC) 2012 in Eilat, Israel from March 18-21, 2012, and was again disseminated via a special issue of the Journal of Materials Science. Two additional activities were held. The first was an expanded partner meeting and exchange held in Istanbul, focusing on the thermodynamics (continuum) of interfaces, held November 12-16, 2012. The second was an industrial oriented symposium hosted by Infineon (one of our industrial partners) held the week of January 13th, 2012 in Austria at the Infineon facilities. The final MACAN conference (CapStone Meeting) and partner meeting was held the week of April 21st, 2013 in Israel.
In addition to the conferences, an extensive literature search was conducted to identify EU scientists working on fields which fit to MACAN, while a similar search was conducted for non-EU scientists. The report of the mapping project served as one of the primary tools in selecting speakers for the MACAN conferences and workshops.
In July of 2011 a ‘summer school’ took place in Leoben, Austria, with the goal to provide an intensive training program for graduate students and young scientists on how to merge continuum and atomistic approaches to the study of interfaces.
Further, MACAN supported an exchange program to send experts to other research groups within MACAN, and to allow students to undergo specific training. These are primarily short visits, which require a specific proposal per visit which is reviewed and approved by the work package leader. Each visit includes a summary report and they are submitted to the EC as Deliverables.
Dissemination is an important part of MACAN. This was accomplished by promoting and completing a published set of papers emanating from the Spring 2011 Meeting of E-MRS and HTC 2012. Both of these special issues were published in the Journal of Materials Science (after full scientific peer-review). In addition, a special dissemination action was held within MS&T 2011. Finally, the partners expanded their original goals and published a detailed review paper designed to instruct the next generation of scientists on the meeting point of continuum and atomistic approaches to interfaces by explaining wetting, adsorption, and complexions. This review was published on-line the week of June 23rd, 2013 at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7462-y.
Project Results:
The properties of almost all modern material systems depend on interfaces. This is because most engineering materials are polycrystalline, and in many cases the material contains crystals of different phases (structure and chemistry). The influence of interfaces on materials properties becomes even more critical when the characteristic length-scale of the material microstructure (e.g. crystal size) is sub-micron or nanometer, since a large amount of the material volume is at the interfaces themselves.
Interfaces between dissimilar materials are fascinating because they can be used to control the macroscopic properties of materials as well as the intrinsic properties of localized phases. Some examples include catalytic systems, metallization for energy storage systems, the stability of thin film materials for information storage in microelectronics, coatings, joins, and composites, which involve interfaces between metals and ceramics, metals and semiconductors, and between ceramics and semiconductors. Understanding and controlling the properties of interfaces is a special challenge from both a fundamental scientific and technological point of view.
This rather important field of research is often approached by experts from diverse fields, addressing issues spanning from interface thermodynamics (wetting, equilibrium crystal shapes), kinetics of interface and surface morphological changes (grain growth, faceting kinetics, surface and interface diffusion), interface structure (application of atomistic characterization techniques to probe the atomistic structure), interface chemistry (segregation, adsorption, surface and interface films, charge transfer at interfaces), and atomistic simulations designed to understand the interplay between the local atomic arrangement and electronic structure, as well as to predict or explain the properties of the interface and/or surface.
While on one hand this field is based on a rich combination of surface physics and chemistry, thermodynamics and crystallography, augmented by advanced characterization and simulation methods, a full integration of the scientific issues requires contributions from a broad spectrum of experts in physics, chemistry and experimental techniques, that often communicate with different backgrounds. The thermodynamic approach provides general models for interfacial systems, which can be used to predict interface energy, thermal stability and properties, but cannot directly address local atomistic structure. For example, thermodynamic measurements can be used to identify interface segregating atoms which enhance the thermal stability of thin film devices for the microelectronics industry, but this approach cannot identify the mechanism by which segregation changes the local chemical bonds. In a complementary manner, first-principles atomistic theory provides detailed information on the local atomistic and electronic structure, but is limited by computing power to very short time and length scales. Time and length scales can be extended by using models of inter-atomic forces, although there is usually a trade off in accuracy, and the validity of the models becomes an issue. Both the thermodynamic and atomistic fields can be correlated with interface-dependent engineering properties as long as atomistic-level experiments provide data to bridge this gap, and if the correct forum for interdisciplinary communication and collaboration is established. This setting for communication is imperative if the fundamental findings are to be applied to industrial systems, and critical for the next generation of scientists in the field, since obtaining a grasp of the important issues and incorporating the fine details at hand can be extremely difficult for young scientists. Scientific and technological advances in this field absolutely require collaboration between experts from this broad spectrum of disciplines, which is the purpose of this project.
Detailed analysis of the gaps in current research on interface thermodynamics and structure-dependent properties at the atomistic length-scale requires the construction of a consortium based on experts in the various fields that are related to this topic. First of all, it requires experts who conduct thermodynamic measurements (continuum approach) of interfaces, and theoretical analysis based on the results. This provides the energy of the interface, and information about, for example, adhesion and stability of thin films. Furthermore, the consortium includes experts that have access specialized equipment, such as at the atomic resolution electron microscopes (atomistic approach) located at the Technion, Jülich, MPI, and Imperial College, which allow to identify which atoms are where at interfaces. The participation of experts on atomistic theory, who can use the experimental results to calculate the electronic structure and relative values of interface energy are a critical part of such a consortium. Finally, in order to understand why specific configurations of atoms improve the adhesion and stability, experts in thermodynamic models must be included. Such a multidisciplinary consortium enables the interdisciplinary discussion that this project has initiated.
The main thrust of the project was well-organized and structured workshops and symposia within existing European conferences designed to provide the framework for discussion amongst the two groups of scientists (atomistic versus continuum approach to interfaces). The first conference was held in Berlin in November 14-17, 2009, and included more than 47 participants (both partners and non-partners) who participated in lectures, structured discussions, and poster presentations. This included a panel discussion co-chaired by a member of the industrial board, an academic partner, and a graduate student.
This was followed by a partner scientific meeting in July 25-28, 2010 in Slovenia, which included students. The partner scientific meeting commenced with an ‘experiment’ where an interface dependent system for specific properties was set as the goal, and the partners (including students) separated into two design groups. The partners with expertise in atomistic approaches developed a research and develop plan from a continuum point of view, and vice versa regarding the partners with expertise in continuum. In this way the experts from the two different disciplines (continuum versus atomistic approach) exchanged roles, providing new ideas and developing a platform for subsequent discussion and clarification between the groups. The results were orally presented by the graduate students from the two groups, leading to a vibrant and educational discussion. The next day of the meeting was devoted to talks presented by students and young scientists, with extended time for discussion after each presentation to provide critical feedback. This concluded with a panel discussion on fundamental continuum aspects of interfaces (now often termed “complexions”). The panel discussion was deemed important especially for the young scientists, given the complexity of this issue. The interface dependent system for specific properties was defined by members of the industrial board.
The second MACAN conference was a symposium which was held within the framework of the Spring 2011 Meeting of E-MRS (May 9-13, 2011, Nice, France). The symposium was based on invited talks by non-MACAN members (selected from the Mapping Strategy of MACAN; WP2), together with presentations made by MACAN partners and MACAN young scientists. A special issue of the Journal of Materials Science was used to disseminate papers presented in this symposium, after full scientific review.
As a result of the partner meeting held adjacent to the second MACAN conference, it was decided to add an additional conference by sponsoring symposia within the framework of HTC 2012. High Temperature Capillarity (HTC) conferences are held every three years, and focus on interface issues from both an atomistic and continuum view, and thus are very suited to MACAN activities. HTC 2012 was held in Eilat, Israel from March 18-21, 2012, and included invited talks by non-MACAN members (selected from the Mapping Strategy of MACAN; WP2), together with presentations made by MACAN partners and MACAN young scientists. Once again, the main findings were disseminated via a special issue of the Journal of Materials Science after full peer review.
During the partner meeting held immediately following HTC 2012 it was decided to hold two additional activities. The first was an expanded partner meeting and exchange held in Istanbul, based on oral presentations mostly by MACAN partners on the thermodynamics (continuum) of interfaces. This was held November 12-16, 2012, and was an extremely successful experiment designed to present the thermodynamic aspects of interfaces to the young scientists. In addition, one of the industrial members (Infineon) offered to hold a MACAN exchange activity including all partners. This was held the week of January 13th, 2012 in Austria at the Infineon facilities. This activity was based on lectures and discussions by both academic and industrial partners, and focused on how the main concepts of MACAN can be used to advance interface-dependent technologies. The meeting was extremely successful and should be used as a model for successful academy-industry cooperation.
The final MACAN conference (CapStone Meeting) and partner meeting was held the week of April 21st, 2013 in Israel. CapStone was based on presentations by invited leading experts in the field during the first 3 days of the meeting (Sunday April 21 through Tuesday April 23), which included 3 lectures by MACAN partners and discussion sessions led by MACAN students and young scientists. An emphasis was placed on discussion time, both immediately after lectures and dedicated discussions managed by the young scientists. This included direct input from the MACAN industrial partners (Infineon) and Alison McMillon (Glyndŵr University and formerly from Rolls Royce Engines). The first lecture on Sunday morning was given by Dominique Chatain (Conference Work Package Leader) and Wayne Kaplan (Coordinator) about the goals and principles of MACAN, such that the non-MACAN participants would understand the goals of the program and the conference. On Monday afternoon the entire group visited the Technion to survey the facilities available for interface studies and to meet some of the Technion staff.
On Wednesday April 24th most of the invited speakers departed, and the MACAN partners and young scientists moved to a more inexpensive venue at Kibbutz HaGoshrim in northern Israel. In addition to the MACAN partners and young scientists (including Michael Nelhielbel, Thomas Detzel and Alison McMillan from the Industrial Board), Paul Wynblatt (Carnegie Mellon University), Miri Gandman (University of California Berkeley) John Blendell (Purdue University) and Carol Handwerker (Purdue University) continued with us to serve as session chairs and to participate in discussions. Wednesday afternoon was initiated by 3 lectures from MACAN young scientists, followed by short presentations introducing all the posters by the young scientists. Wednesday evening focused on the poster presentations, which was attended until 23:30 and included vibrant discussions. Thursday was based entirely on oral presentations by the young scientists, and was concluded by a short lecture from Simon van Dam, the MACAN project manager, on the place of MACAN in EU programs and policies. A discussion session on the accomplishments of MACAN and future directions concluded the meeting Thursday evening (at 19:00).
Sunday-Tuesday was based on 24 lectures (30 minutes followed by 10 minutes of discussion) by invited speakers, including 3 scientific lectures by MACAN partners, the introduction lecture by Chatain and Kaplan, and including 2 lectures from industry (IBM, USA and Cameca, France). 12 young scientist lectures were presented Wednesday-Thursday, in addition to the 14 poster presentations and the presentation by Simon van Dam.
Overall the conference was seen as a success by all the participants. The non-MACAN participants were delighted to “discover” MACAN and all of them enquired about future possibilities to interact with the MACAN group. The participation of 4 non-MACAN senior scientists as session chairs and discussion leaders during the final 2 days of the meeting succeeded in ensuring a fair and balanced moderated discussion during the student presentations and posters. During the discussion on the accomplishments of MACAN on Thursday evening, Thomas Detzel from Infineon addressed the audience with an industrial view of the MACAN approach, and explained that Infineon sees this as a direct method to push European industry to achievements that would not be possible to accomplish without academic participation.
The logistics during the week succeeded, and every partner institute participated in the conference (72 total participants, not including some Technion students who came to listen to select lectures during the first 3 days of the meeting). The only logistical problem was weather in the US and Europe which resulted in some of the participants arriving on Sunday instead of Saturday. To be fair and to stay within budget, each partner institute was limited to 2 young scientists, but three institutes sent additional students using non-MACAN funding for registration, hotels and travel. This was seen as an indication of the teaching potential of the conference on the next generation of European scientists working on interfaces.
In addition to the conferences, WP2 of MACAN was devoted to mapping. Within the framework of this WP, an extensive literature search was conducted to identify EU scientists working on fields which fit to MACAN. A similar search was conducted for non-EU scientists. The report of the mapping project was submitted 12 months into the project, and served as one of the primary tools in selecting speakers for the MACAN conferences.
In July of 2011 a ‘summer school’ took place in Leoben, Austria. The framework of the school was defined with the goal to provide an intensive training program for graduate students and young scientists on how to merge continuum and atomistic approaches to the study of interfaces.
In addition to mapping, conferences, and the summer school, MACAN supported an exchange program to send experts to other research groups within MACAN, and to allow students to undergo specific training. These are primarily short visits, which require a specific proposal per visit which is reviewed and approved by the work package leader. Each visit includes a summary report and they are submitted to the EC as Deliverables.
Dissemination is an important part of MACAN. This has been accomplished by promoting and completing a published set of papers emanating from the Spring 2011 Meeting of E-MRS. This collection of fully reviewed papers was published as a Special Issue in the archived and international journal, the Journal of Materials Science. In addition, a special dissemination action was held within MS&T 2011, where MACAN partners and young scientists presented oral presentations on MACAN issues within a symposium dedicated to interfaces. A second Special Issue was published in the Journal of Materials Science, based on fully reviewed papers emanating from presentations made at HTC 2012. Finally, the partners expanded their original goals and have produced a detailed review paper designed to instruct the next generation of scientists on the meeting point of continuum and atomistic approaches to interfaces by explaining wetting, adsorption, and complexions. This review was just accepted, and was published on-line the week of June 23rd, 2013 at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7462-y.
All of the MACAN activities are listed on the MACAN web site (http://macan.technion.ac.il/).
Achievements
WP2 was defined as ‘mapping’, and produced a rather detailed list of EU and non-EU scientists working within the gap between continuum and atomistics of interfaces. This report (which was submitted within the first 12 months of the project) was a main tool used by the WP leaders to select speakers for the workshops and conferences.
WP3 was based on designing and organizing workshops and conferences to provide a format for transfer of concepts and knowledge between groups working on thermodynamics of interfaces and groups working on atomistic analysis (theory and experiments) of interfaces. In addition, by holding some of these activities within the framework of existing European conferences, MACAN issues were disseminated to the general scientific public, and new interactions were formed between MACAN partners and non-MACAN scientists working in this field. In addition to the two meetings (conference and scientific partner meeting) held within the first reporting period, the E-MRS symposia and HTC conference were very successful for both scientific interaction and dissemination. The partner meeting held in Istanbul provided a framework for in-depth instruction of rather complicated interface thermodynamics to both MACAN partners and MACAN young scientists. The workshop hosted by Infineon (an industrial partner of MACAN), provided a unique opportunity for the partners to fully understand present technological problems, whose solutions depend specifically upon interface science. Presentations by the MACAN partners allowed the industrial participants to understand their approach, and the tools they can offer to the EU industry. The final MACAN meeting was held in Israel in April 2013, and provided an extremely successful framework for both partners and young scientists to present and discuss their results, augmented by non-MACAN speakers identified by the mapping.
WP4 focused on organization of a thematic school. The organization contains several types of activities:
1) In-depth education of young scientist and participants from industry;
2) Creating an interdisciplinary dialogue between the individual fields;
3) Analyses of state of the art challenges;
4) Developing new vistas by structured discussions;
5) Managing panels of organizers for selection of topics and speakers;
6) Selection of new people (senior and junior scientists) to include in the MACAN workshops;
7) Selection of relevant technology to be demonstrated by hands-on experience or as lectures;
8) Organization of a framework which provides for actual exchange between scientists of different expertise and between junior and senior scientists;
9) Defining agendas and venues of the summer school.
The summer school was also a point of intense preparation, led by the WP leader. The summer school was defined (venue, date, and general program), and held in Leoben, Austria, July 4-14 2011. The summer school was deemed a success, both by the participants (survey given to the attending young scientists) and by the speakers.
The objectives of WP5 are facilitating scientific exchange, and include:
1) Promote the exchange of experts between European groups, and from non-European countries to European groups;
2) Promote direct involvement of experts from one field of interface science in the activities of groups from a different field;
3) Provide excellent training of young scientists by experts;
4) Open access to new simulation tools and to experimental techniques.
An intense amount of exchange took place after formulation of the approval method, which was based on a written proposal to the WP leader and includes a summary report of each exchange.
WP6 is dissemination, and includes ensuring the proper dissemination and exploitation of project results. This was primarily accomplished by organizing and promoting special issues in the Journal of Materials Science, based on papers presented at the E-MRS MACAN symposium and HTC 2012. Both issues were published and encompass a huge amount of MACAN work. In addition, some of the partners and young scientists organized a symposium within MS&T 2011 focusing on MACAN approaches towards interfaces, and disseminated the MACAN activities during this event. Speakers for future MACAN activities were identified from this symposium. Finally, some of the partners took upon themselves the task of writing a detailed review paper, which clearly describes our present understanding of the connection between atomistics and continuum approaches towards interfaces, and defines open directions for future work. This review also includes “Panels”, which are special figures which include both text and drawings to define concepts for young scientists. One of the Panels includes a glossary of terminology. The paper was published in the Journal of Materials Science as an Open Access paper (no subscription required to download the paper) and can be obtained using the DOI from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7462-y.
Potential Impact:
The Expected Impact of the project is:
• Establish environment conducive to promoting communication and collaboration between groups
o Methods to correlate between thermodynamic analysis of interfaces with atomistic structure (both experimental and theoretical)
o New approaches to understand interface stability, adhesion, and interface dependent functional properties
• Providing platform for industry to be involved
o Industry Board
• Providing future avenues of European research to promote advanced technology based on interface design
o To be communicated to active European Technology Platforms (ETP) and the European Commission
List of Websites:
http://macan.technion.ac.il