Ricardo Castro's MRS Spring 2019 presentation listed as a scientific highlight
Professor Ricardo Castro’s presentation “Nano-scale Effects on Grain Growth—Grain Boundary Energy and Velocity in Magnesium Aluminate” was listed as a scientific highlight of the MRS Spring 2019 conference.
The MRS Spring 2019 conference is one of two conferences each year held by the Materials Research Society (MRS). The conference, which the society touts as "the key forum to present research to an interdisciplinary and international audience” of materials researchers, combines numerous technical symposia with general interest and broad impact presentations on issues such as sustainability and diversity. The spring 2019 conference was held in Phoenix, AZ from April 22-26, 2019.
The MRS’s scientific highlights blog recaps particularly engaging or groundbreaking presentations across the hundreds throughout the five days and five symposia.
Castro presented his group’s research on nanoscale effects on grain growth. Though nanosized grains in nanocrystalline materials offer the promise increased grain boundary density, greater resistance to dislocation movement and higher mechanical strengths, very little is known about the interfacial effects on this length scale.
The group recorded heat release during grain growth, as well as surface energies for different grain sizes, by running differential scanning calorimetry measurements over different temperatures to obtain average grain sizes at each temperature. They hope to use their findings to identify the origins of excess surface energy and ultimately provide a refined control over manufacturing of nanosized ceramics.
Castro’s presentation, one of 17 highlighted, was part of the week-long symposium Interfacial Science and Engineering—Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Chemistry. His half-hour presentation was one of five in the session on Property Control Through Grain Boundary Segregation on Friday, April 26.
The Materials Research Society is an international professional organization of materials researchers that aims to advance interdisciplinary materials research and technology and improve quality of life.
Castro is a professor of materials science and engineering at UC Davis, as well as the associate dean of research and graduate studies for the College of Engineering.