Project Details
Projekt
Accelerated discovery of artificial minerals from machine-supported slag admixture and liquid-state processing
Subject Area
Mechanical Process Engineering
Thermodynamics and Kinetics as well as Properties of Phases and Microstructure of Materials
Thermodynamics and Kinetics as well as Properties of Phases and Microstructure of Materials
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 470469906
The research project is a continuation of the first funding phase of the DFG PP 2315 and targets the accelerated discovery of “Engineered Artificial Minerals” (EnAMs) from mixtures of pyrometallurgical slags and residues. We employ a high-throughput methodology towards machine-supported conception of complex slags, which enable fractionation and concentration of key components through down-stream processing. This involves combinatorial synthesis and multivariate thermal treatment of multi-material slag mixtures, which achieves a capacity of >50 slag samples per experiment with sample volumes on a 100 mm³ scale. By this, we aim to generate semantic data, whose volume is sufficiently large to decipher analytical descriptors for EnAM formulation. Curation and iterative representation concepts are foreseen to allow for database expansion across the full breath of PP 2315, including extrapolation to down-stream engineering. EnAMs comprise crystalline phases in which critical elements accumulate. They are precipitated from a (residual) amorphous phase, produced from mixtures of primary slags and other additives, i.e. other residues such as ashes. This poses a series of fundamental problems, that are addressed by this project. Slags are chemically complex materials. The addition of other components further increases the complexity. Mixing ratios and thermal treatment processes must be highly optimized to achieve useful EnAM states for a given element to be recovered, but also in terms of down-stream efficiency of component fractionation, sustainability, material availability and various other factors. In addition, it must be researched which parameters control EnAM resilience. All these aspects require a deep understanding of EnAM formation on the basis of consistent and sufficiently large datasets. Suitable descriptors that combine physical properties and down-stream processability are needed. Following on and based on the results of the first funding phase, sufficiently large sample volumes can be generated using high-throughput synthesis, as well as samples with complex structures using thermal gradient treatment. It provides a unique way to fabricate mm-scale slag samples at a processing rate, which cannot be achieved through conventional laboratory experiments. At the same time, the constraints of sample geometry and accessible chemistry are overcome, so that the microstructural complexity and length scales relevant to real-world slags can be extrapolated from high-throughput experimentation. Implementing this approach, we will study EnAMs from mixtures of real-world slags, residues and waste materials. Together with partners from SPP 2315, physical correlations and holistic descriptors for the conception, training and validation of a machine-supported tool for EnAM discovery are explored and the entire EnAM process chain will be experimentally demonstrated.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
