Metal-Ceramic Interface Group

The group’s research focuses on interface thermodynamics, kinetics, and microstructural evolution in ceramics and metal–ceramic systems. Core activities include experimental and analytical studies of wetting at metal–ceramic and solid–solid interfaces using Winterbottom analysis, and applying these insights to the design and processing of ceramic matrix composites, metal–ceramic and ceramic–ceramic joints, and advanced nanocomposites. A major theme is solute adsorption at interfaces and grain boundaries, and its effect on excess interface energy, atomistic structure, grain boundary mobility, diffusion, and equilibrium crystal shape, often under controlled gas atmospheres and external fields. This work is underpinned by in-depth, correlative electron microscopy and by the development of rapid-heating routes to sintering, enabling the exploration of metastable grain boundary states, ultra-fast diffusion, and high-temperature solubility limits of dopants and impurities in ceramic materials.