Oxidation & Environmental Degradation of non-oxide ceramics

Aluminium nitride (AlN) has potential as the future material system in personal care products. One of the desires of next-generation materials systems is the ability to run at much higher temperatures to decrease product size. Understanding and quantifying the effect of material oxidation on mechanical strength and it high-temperature electrical properties are very important for successful application and life of product. The project will aim to first quantify the oxidation of AlN at a range of high-temperatures in terms of mechanical and electrical properties, before investigating strategies to combat this to enable higher temperature operation without affecting the thermal conductivity.