Materials Science Engineering Research Areas & Labs

The research on metallurgical science and engineering at University of Cincinnati deals with a wide range of fundamental materials issues on structures, properties, processing methods, and additive manufacturing based on classical and modern theories of solids and the state-of-the-art characterization techniques, such as high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Research areas include gas-phase alloying and sintering kinetics of 3D printed metallic materials; magnetic-field assisted laser metal deposition of highly oriented crystalline nickel alloys; in-situ monitoring of sensitization of aluminum alloys, and the surface treatment effects on mechanical properties and stress-induced corrosion of nuclear alloys.

Current energy research has focused on a variety of novel energy devices, energy grid systems, and nanomaterials with new designs, struc¬tures, and unique properties. The frontier energy research has produced such materials as nano composites for super capacitors and advanced electrochemical energy storage devices; novel pulsed power capacitors for reducing the rate and rapid cycling demand on the batteries of hybrid/electric vehicles, and flexible, highly conductive, but low loss thin films for solar energy cells.

Nanotechnology will be one of the key engines that drive our technological society in the twenty-first century. This rapidly growing area focuses on developing biomedical tools for effective diagnosis and therapeutics and new nanomaterials for energy devices. By structure design at nano-scale, unique material properties are created for new development of industrial applications. A new field of Nano Biomedicine has recently emerged that involves close collaborations between the researchers from both physical and medical sciences. Using newly developed nanomaterials and nanotechnologies, the challenging issues are being addressed in many biomedical areas such as early cancer diagnosis and therapeutics, precision medicine, cell targeting, drug/gene delivery, and medical devices.

Polymer science is a subfield of materials science concerned with synthesis, processing, and property characterization of plastic materials. Our faculty uses techniques such light scattering, small-angle x-ray scattering and neutron scattering to measure the structure of polymeric materials with the goal of relating structure to properties. Novel processing of nanomaterials is also used to create new composite materials with improved properties. Soft matter is a more generic category that includes, colloids, surfactants, gels, viscous liquids and biological materials. Our faculty, for example, use powerful new interface-modification methods to create the new bio-materials needed for emerging stem-cell therapies.