SIUC REU Projects

REU students will participate in the fabrication and characterization of novel nitride/metal and carbide/metal nanocomposite coatings. These coatings have potential application for orthopedic implants and other tribological functions. The research project addresses the friction and wear phenomena occurring on the articulating surfaces of modular hip implants and in the femoral heads, and will contribute to the understanding of the complex physical and chemical interactions between the individual implant surfaces as well as interactions between implants and living tissue.

Students will learn to fabricate nanocomsposite films using reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering. The materials that will be deposited include nc-TaN/a-metal and nc-TaC/a-metal (nanocrystals of TaN or TaC embedded in an amorphous metal matrix), where the metallic element is Ag, Au, or Pd.xvii The ceramic phase provides hardness and strength whereas the metallic matrix provides improved ductility and toughness. During growth, the students will learn to use spectroscopic ellipsometry to monitor the deposition of these novel materials in real time.xviii This technique will allow them to understand the growth process of these materials and eventually control this process to obtain the required film architecture, shown in Figure 5.

Students will also participate in the characterization of the structural, chemical, and mechanical properties of these films which will be carried out using a variety of techniques, including x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and nanoindentation. Finally, the students will test the performance of the films using a tribotester in a simulated body fluid. The results of this investigation will provide unprecedented understanding of structural, chemical, mechanical, and biomedical properties of ceramic/metal nanocrystalline and functional coatings. REU students will develop skills characteristic of scientific research: hands-on laboratory skills, problem solving, experiment planning and design, working on a multi-disciplinary project with input from collaborators in various fields, and writing and presenting technical papers. Trips to Argonne National Labs and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be scheduled to conduct complementary testing (mostly chemical and tribological).