Rustum Roy

MRI Revolutionizing Chemistry and Materials Synthesis using Microwave E/H Fields Rustum Roy and D.K. Agrawal Microwave Processing & Engineering Center M.R.I. Penn State

Penn State MRL (since 1962) 1)Applications Driven – Basic Research 2) Exploratory Experimentation Approach: -following Goethe; Faraday; Land. 3) Direct comparison with current best practice to check viability in marketplace This approach resulted in PSU-MRL being ranked #1 in the World in 2003 by Thomson-ISI studies on the basis of highly cited faculty. MRI

What Justifies our Claim of Revolutionizing Materials Science 1)Synthesis of most important ceramic phases (e.g. BaTi0 3, YIG, phosphors in 3-5% of the typical time. 2) Reaction of oxide ceramic powders normally requiring 10 hrs (= 36,000 seconds) in 5-15 seconds. 3) Discovery of an anisothermal process which reacts two phases at different temperatures, never before in human history. 4) Synthesis of high temperature pure nitride, carbide powders, and fibers in 30 seconds. MRI

Ditto: Revolutionizing Materials Processing 1) Sintering any ceramic material to theoretical density and/or transparency in 3-30 minutes. 2) Sintering commercial WC/CO tools continuously, reducing the cycle time by 90%. 3) Reacting and sintering metallic powders in microwaves. 4) Melting bulk metals in microwave fields. 5) Creating a new state of matter with a wide range of compositions in a few seconds by decrystallizing solids. MRI

Revolutionary: Reacting Materials with Physically Separate E and H fields at 2.45 GHz Comparing identical samples 4 cm. apart one in (nearly pure) E field, one in (nearly pure) H field. Showing RADICAL differences in resulting structures and properties, totally non crystalline to very well crystallized. Tracking down by systematic “Exploratory Experimentation” approach the only common factor necessary for this phenomenon: the presence of unpaired spins. MRI

Not so Revolutionary is the: Total neglect of these really new results (in the U.S.) By academic colleagues By U.S. Industry By U.S. agencies using peer review Exactly the same treatment was accorded to the discovery of the (SOLUTION-) SOL-GEL-PROCESS Review paper published in J.Am. Cer. Soc. In Became the first citation classic in entire Ceramics field. Before say 1976, outside of Penn State circle, perhaps a dozen persons had used it. Since 1980, it has probably been actually used in 30,000 (-50,000) papers MRI

Applications Driven Basic Research - A The World (With U.S. Lagging) Will Absolutely - Certainly Move To Energy Saving Technology Microwave/Laser Processes Offer That: Only Microwaves Offer it for Bulk Materials Processing. Microwave Processing is Here For Sure. MRI

Summary of Already Demonstrated Use of MW in High-temperature Materials Industry Sintering, Synthesis of All Ceramics Sintering of Powder-metals, Melting of Scrap Metals Now moving to: METAL EXTRACTION INDUSTRIES: Starting with steel, then Ti, Cu etc. Entire Chemical Industry