Orton 2009 Lecture: Innovations through Ceramic Processing by Tailoring Solid-Liquid and Solid-Gas Interfaces – Ludwig Gauckler

ETH Zurich professor Ludwig J. Gauckler gave the 2009 Edward Orton Jr. Memorial Lecture at the recently completed ACerS Annual Meeting and MST’09 Conference.

Tailoring the solid–gas and solid–liquid interfaces of particles by
organics offers plenty of possibilities to generate composite
materials, via colloid chemistry, with microstructural dimensions
spanning several orders of magnitude. New composite materials derived
from foams, emulsions and polymer–ceramic combinations are possible and
open up new applications. Some concepts to use functionalized
interfaces in colloid technology for ceramic processing will be
illustrated by a few examples. Manipulating surface potential and Debye
length of colloid particles using enzymatic-catalyzed reactions can be
used to convert a stable colloid sol to a coagulated stiff gel for the
formation of complex-shaped ceramic components. The resulting ceramic
components show extremely good mechanical properties and unusually high
reliability. Colloid chemistry combined with micropatterning enables
hundreds of tiny gas sensors to be integrated in arrays for hitherto
unprecedented density. Such microsensors on silicon and silicon nitride
micro hot plates can operate as electronic noses to analyze gases.

Gauckler received his degree in physics from the University of
Stuttgart, Germany, and his Ph.D. in materials science in 1976. During
that time he worked at the MPI in Stuttgart with G. Petzow and later
with T.Y. Tien at the University of Michigan. He was responsible for
the nonmetallic inorganic materials development at Alusuisse-Lonza Ltd.
Since 1988 he has worked as a professor at ETH Zurich and head of the
department of materials science from 1991 to 1993 and from 2008 to the
present.