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SUMMARY:IMX/IPHYS Talks - Designing Resilience at Materials Interfaces 
 for Extreme Tribological Demands
DTSTART:20250501T140000
DTEND:20250501T150000
DTSTAMP:20260511T204755Z
UID:8cd7c56322af8b78bcfbe066e6163c4afaf6aa34452c1d27d20c1ee5
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Wenjun (Rebecca) Cai\, Virginia Tech\, USA\nAs engineeri
 ng systems evolve to operate in extreme environments—from aerospace and 
 marine to nuclear\, microelectronic\, and biomedical applications—materi
 als are required to perform under increasingly severe\, far-from-equilibri
 um conditions. Among the most challenging are aqueous and high-temperature
  oxidative environments\, where traditional materials often fail due to th
 e combined effects of tribological and environmental stresses. In this tal
 k\, I will share how resilience can be engineered directly into material s
 urfaces to overcome these extreme tribological challenges.\nIn aqueous con
 ditions\, the dual challenge of mechanical wear and corrosive attack compl
 icates the development of high-performance alloys. A classic example is al
 uminum (Al)\, whose passive film offers corrosion resistance but is easily
  disrupted under tribological stress\, leading to accelerated material los
 s. I will show how alloying Al with excess manganese (Mn) enhances both co
 rrosion and wear resistance. Remarkably\, Mn improves passivity not by for
 ming oxides itself\, but by promoting the formation of a denser\, more pro
 tective Al-oxide film through selective dissolution and interface modifica
 tion. This design strategy offers a pathway to break the conventional trad
 e-off between strength and corrosion resistance.\nAt high temperatures abo
 ve 600 °C\, tribological demands shift toward preventing softening\, ox
 idation\, and lubricant failure. I will present our recent advances showin
 g that additively-manufactured Inconel superalloys can sustain remarkably 
 low coefficients of friction (COF 0.10–0.32) at temperatures up to 900
  °C. This performance is enabled by the in-situ formation of spinel-bas
 ed oxides\, which act as robust self-lubricating layers. These spinels\, w
 ith their low shear strength and favorable thermodynamic properties\, outp
 erform conventional lubricants such as 2D layered solids and Magnéli phas
 es. Our integrated approach reveals the mechanistic origins of this behavi
 or and points to a new direction in high-temperature tribological material
 s design.\nThese findings demonstrate how reimagining surface structure an
 d property can lead to exceptional tribological performance in extreme env
 ironments. I will conclude by outlining a few future research directions t
 hat explore where this work is headed—and how it could shape the next ge
 neration of resilient\, intelligent materials.\n\nBio: Dr. Wenjun (Rebecca
 ) Cai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and
  Engineering at Virginia Tech. Before joining Virginia Tech in August 2018
 \, she served as a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineer
 ing at the University of South Florida (2012–2018). Her research focuses
  on uncovering the processing–structure–property relationships of meta
 ls and coatings under extreme tribological conditions\, integrating experi
 mental methods\, analytical modeling\, and computational simulations. Dr. 
 Cai earned her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Fudan Univer
 sity in 2005 and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champ
 aign (UIUC) in 2010. She conducted postdoctoral research at the Massachuse
 tts Institute of Technology from 2010 to 2012. Her contributions have been
  recognized with numerous awards\, including the Racheff-Intel Award for O
 utstanding Graduate Research at UIUC (2010)\, the National Science Foundat
 ion CAREER Award (2015)\, the Outstanding Faculty Award from USF (2016)\, 
 and the TMS Young Leaders Professional Development Award (2017). Most rece
 ntly\, she was named to the College of Engineering Dean’s List for Teach
 ing Excellence at Virginia Tech for 2023–2024.\n 
LOCATION:BM 5202 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BM%205202 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/66357531200
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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