Structural evolution across multiple time and length scales

Taken together the imaging Facilities on the Rutherford Campus will be without equal anywhere in the world. The suite of synchrotron X-ray, neutron, laser, electron, lab. X-ray, and NMR imaging available promises an unprecedented opportunity to obtain information about material structure and behaviour. This infrastructure provides an opportunity to undertake science changing experiments. We need to be able to bring together the insights from different instruments to follow structural evolution under realistic environments and timescales to go beyond static 3D images by radically increasing the dimensionality of information available. This project will use many beamlines at Diamond and ISIS, combining them with laser and electron imaging capability on site, but especially exploiting the 3.3M investment by Manchester into a new imaging beamline at Diamond that will complete in Spring 2012.Traditionally a 3D images are reconstructed from hundreds or thousands of 2D images (projections) taken as the object is rotated. This project will:1) Deliver 3D movies of materials behaviour. 2) Move from essentially black and white images to colour images that reveal the elements inside the material and their chemical state which will be really useful for studying fuel cells and batteries.3) Create multidimensional images by combining more than one method (e.g. lasers and x-rays) to create an image. Each method is sensitive to different aspects.4) Establish an In situ Environments Lab and a Tissue Regeneration lab at the Research Complex. The former so that we can study sample behaviour in real time on the beam line; the latter so that we can study the cell growth and regeneration on new biomaterials. A key capability if we are to develop more effective hard (e.g. artificial hip) and soft tissue (artificial cartilage) replacements.These new methods will provide more detail about a very wide range of behaviours, but we will focus our experiments on materials for Energy and Biomaterials. In the area of energy it will enable us to:Recreate the conditions operating inside a hydrogen fuel cell (1000C) to find out how they degrade in operation leading to better fuel cells for cars and other applicationsStudy the charging and discharging of Li batteries to understand better why their performance degrades over their lifetime.Study thermal barriers that protect turbine blades from the aggressive environments inside an aeroengine to develop more efficient engines.Study the sub-surface corrosion of aircraft alloys and nuclear pressure vessels under realistic conditions improving safetyStudy in 3D how oil is removed from the pores in rocks and how we might more efficiently store harmful CO2in rocks.In the area of biomaterials it will enable us to recreate the conditions under which cells attach to new biomaterials and to follow their attachment and regeneration using a combination of imaging methods (laser, electron and x-ray) leading to:Porous hard tissue replacements (bone analogues) made from bio-active glasses with a microstructure to encourage cell attachmentSoft fibrous tissue replacements for skin, cartilage, tendon. These will involve sub-micron fibres arranged in ropes and mats.Of course the benefits of the multi-dimensional imaging we will establish at Harwell will extend much further. It will provide other academics and industry from across the UK with information across time and lengthscales not currently available. This will have a dramatic effect on our capability to follow behaviour during processing and in service.

The two experimental themes will deliver immediate benefits to our partner companies (see support letters) but also more widely. For example, Rolls-Royce will better understand the relationship between thermal barrier coatings and oxidation at submerged interfaces. For fuel cells, it will provide the first information on anode/cathode/electrolyte triple point development under operating conditions. Similarly, energy companies will receive be able to quantify the behaviour of oil-brine- CO2 mixtures in rock, determining if they are trapped or mobile. To date most 3D imaging of rock is only of the void space alone, or if for fluids at ambient conditions. This proposal will develop an unrivalled capability that can show the arrangement of multiple fluids at typical reservoir conditions - high temperatures and pressures - during displacement with application to improved oil recovery and carbon storage. These play a key role in industrial research programmes at Imperial with over 50 million of funding; innovative new equipment to support this work will be provided by the Imperial PIs. This will enable them to test and develop new strategies to recover oil whilst sequestering CO2. Similarly, working with FE software providers, we will be able to make it easier to input microstructurally faithful porous material models into fluid dynamics models. Our direct measurements will also help to validate and test the CFD models. With regard to nuclear materials it is generally difficult to follow the development of intergranular corrosion. New in situ rigs and the faster frame rates will enable intergranular corrosion to be studied in real time under more realistic conditions. Surgeons, patients and the NHS will benefit as end users when tissue engineering becomes a reality due to the imaging techniques developed in the new facilities. We aim to significantly reduce healthcare costs for hard tissue replacement by allowing: (i) single step operations; (ii) reduced rehabilitation time, (iii) no immunosuppressant drug treatment (and no associated secondary disease treatment). Operations will be faster and fewer revisions required. Patients will benefit from improved quality of life. This is particularly pertinent in the context of the UK's ageing population and will reduce the burden on an overloaded social care system. For translation of the materials to the clinic to become reality, companies must invest in the materials and take them through regulatory approval. The intellectual property generated will be filed as appropriate and licensed to project partners. Medical device companies will benefit as the imaging techniques will allow more rapid technology transfer and regulatory approval of innovative devices. Both the Energy (power generation and fuel efficient transport) and Biomaterials sectors are of critical importance to the UK - both from a societal viewpoint and because of their wealth generation. While this is the focus, many other industrial sectors will benefit from the technical deliverables. Most directly would be the security market. We are working with Rapiscan to exploit colour imaging, for example this would deliver scanners able to distinguish Christmas pudding from security hazards giving both economic and societal benefits. Others would include chemical industry where the colour imaging will offer real benefits and the corrosion protection industry through to archaeological objects, where both constitution and manufacturing methods can be determined. Finally the visualisation lab would establish a gallery helping members of the public, government and industry visitors to better appreciate the science being undertaken. Images can often communicate the benefits of research to a much wider audience than equations and graphs. In addition we will roll out the 3D movies to our EPSRC Public Engagement funded work with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in the Nuclear, medical and aerospace areas.