S5E5

Abstract

Liquid metals are near omnipresent in modern and next-generation technology, from the purification of natural gas to next generation nuclear reactors to flexible and stretchable electronic devices. However, liquid metals can in certain instances cause catastrophic degradation of the mechanical properties of nearby solid metals.

Liquid metal embrittlement (LME) has been studied for over 100 years, but there is still relatively little generalizable LME theory. Recently the authors proposed that explicit consideration of multiple mechanisms of LME can accelerate the development of broad multi-system understanding and enable the a priori prediction of LME behavior. Specifically, three mechanisms are proposed: interfacial decohesion, grain boundary wetting, and liquid metal corrosion.

This presentation will first review the status of LME research in the context of multiple separable mechanisms, illustrating how this lens can resolve seemingly contradictory results. Then archetypal systems for each of the proposed embrittlement mechanisms will be examined, illustrating the characteristics of each mechanism. Finally, the cooperation and competition between the various mechanisms will be demonstrated in a single system. To conclude, future directions for the field of liquid metal embrittlement research will be explored.

Introduction of speaker

Assistant Professor Victoria (Tori) Miller has been in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida since September 2019. Prior to her appointment at UF, she was an assistant professor at NC State University from 2017 to 2019. She received her B.S.E. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2011 and completed her Ph.D. in the Materials Department at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2016. After graduate school, she worked for a year at UES, Inc. as a Research Scientist onsite in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH. She had also previously worked at Ford Motor Company Research and Development, Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing North America, and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Outside the lab, she trains for and competes in powerlifting.