BCMaterials

History

On April 2012, the BCMaterials Foundation has been put forward by the contributions of Ikerbasque and the University of the Basque Country. This foundation supports the BCMaterials activities and provides a way for fluid interplay with other academic departments and institutes, technological centers, industry and public institutions.

Aim

The BCMaterials will cover all aspects of research in Functional Materials with advanced Electric, Magnetic and Optical properties; from basic aspects to applications. Special activity will be devoted to thin films materials and characterization techniques involving Large International facilities, like neutron and synchrotron radiation sources.

Location

The final location of the BCMaterials will be the future Science Park of Leioa, within the Campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), where the present activity in Materials, in particular at the Faculty of Science and Technology, constitutes the main resource of Biscay in this field. In a first step, however, the center will be located at the Technology Park of Bizkaia, were activity is already starting.

Active (smart) materials

Active (smart) materials are those that present crossed properties so that they re-act to a stimulus by changing a different property. They are good candidates for integrating devices and structures that can self-accommodate to changing external conditions and behave as smart devices or systems.

Those Materials include: Thermal (thermo-chromic, thermo-electric), Mechanical (Shape Memory Alloys and Polymers, thermo-elastic), Magnetic (magneto-elastic, magneto-resistive, magneto-optic, ferrofluids, Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloys, etc.), Electric (photoelectric, advanced piezoelectric materials), Multiferroics, etc.

Ferromagnetic shape memory alloys (FSMAs)

FSMAs are magnetic metallic compounds undergoing a martensitic transformation and reaching a self-accommodated variant structure. They are of high technological interest as able to develop up to 10% strains as a function of applied magnetic field. Typical compositions include NiMn(Ga,Sb,In,Sn), FeNiGa(Al), CoNiGa(Al), etc.

Work at the BCMaterials is carried out in the following subjects:

Smart Polymers and composites

A responsive macromolecule changes its conformation and/or properties in a controllable, reproducible, and reversible manner in response to an external stimulus (solvent, pH, temperature, etc.). These changes can be used to create a large variety of smart devices. The good processability of most smart polymers facilitates their incorporation into devices and adds additional advantages (e.g. all plastic electronic/optical sensors).

Work at the BCMaterials is carried out in the following subjects:

Hybrid multiferroics (magnetoelectric) materials

Laminar or granular composites formed by a magnetostrictive and a piezoelectric material, either: Metal/ceramic (Metglas – PZT), Metal/polymer (Metglas/Terfenol – PVDF/Poliimide), or Oxide/polymer (Ferrrite – PVDF/Poliimide).The aim is to get a very large electric output from a low magnetic excitation to develop extremely sensitive sensors for ELF communications, energy harvesting, etc.

Advanced functional materials

New materials with outstanding properties are continuously appearing (see for instance graphene) in all fields of activity. There is impossible to take care of all of them, but some representative fields of research are already running and will be developed in the first stages of the BCMaterials activity. Those are:

Materials for energy

New materials for energy generation and storage constitute a topic of the greatest significance due to its great economic potential and social impact. Fuel cells, and specially the so-called SOFC´s (solid oxide fuel cells), are one of the most promising alternatives for the production of environmentally friendly energy. Chemical energy storage devices (batteries) and electrochemical capacitors (ECs) are among the leading technologies today, critically needed to enable the effective use of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind, and to allow the expansion of electrical or hybrid electrical vehicles. A fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical processes that take place in the electrodes, the electrolytes and specially their interfaces is need to design the next generation of high performance ECs. New separators and electrolytes with increased capacity and conductivity are needed to improve efficiency and the possibility of operating at high currents, but also new materials have to be design to increase service life and to reduce the size and the associated unitary cost.

Activity are devoted to the following subjects:

Materials for sensors and bio-sensors

Sensors, and specifically magnetic sensors, are nowadays earning an exceptional prominence in many technological areas such as personal electronics, automotive and transportation and bio-medicine. They are also of great importance in their traditional niche of applications: the industrial processes.

New, competitive sensors must be produced by microfabrication (MEMS) to benefit from the high sensing density and smooth interfacing with electronic circuitry, as well as low fabrication price and energy consumption. The research in this area must therefore seek for promising functional materials with outstanding sensing properties but also pay attention to the effects of scaling and the necessity to integration with microelectronic conditioning interfaces.

Research activity are focused on:

Materials for particle accelerators

Permanent and superconducting magnets are essential for the development of the 21st century accelerators. The LHC for instance counts about 1200 superconducting bending magnets, as well as about 400 focusing quadrupoles. Other parts of the accelerators, like ion sources, RF cavities and diagnostic and sensing systems, also require new and highly performing materials. The full instrument is under a large radiation dose that makes such materials to be specially designed to stand the exposure. This need for radiation resistant materials is shared with other modern technologies and in particular with fusion technology (ITER project) where the “first wall” technical requirements are specially demanding.

Research activity is carried out in collaboration with ESS Bilbao on:

Nanomagnetism

Nanoscale magnetic materials are the basis of a large number of devices and applications in many human activity fields, like Medicine, Electronics, Computer parts, Information storage, etc. Only a few of them can be explored at the starting of the BCMATERIALS.

Magnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical and Industrial Applications

Magnetic Nano-Particles (MNP) have a diverse range of uses from magneto-rheological fluids, MRI contrast or hyperthermia in cancer therapy, to drug delivery. Such applications require the production of monodisperse nanoparticles with well-controlled size and composition, biocompatibility, proper functionalization, etc., in order to obtain the desired properties. Regarding hyperthermia essays, there is also a need for design and construction of equipment producing RF magnetic fields of high frequency and large amplitude, compatible with the legislation for the human body, proper targeting of the magnetic MNPs into the neoplastic tissue, “in situ” visualizing of the MNPs, etc.

Activity is devoted to the following subjects:

Magnetic Nanostructures

New properties appear in magnetic materials as dimensions are reduced to a typical magnetic length scale, like domain wall width or exchange correlation length, that lie in the nanometer range. For this reason, artificially patterned nanostructures (top-down) and self assembled nanoparticle arrays (bottom-up) based magnetic materials have an increasing interest, from both fundamental and applied viewpoints.

Current activity is concentrated in the following areas: