Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH

In the futuere the metal could store energy from renewable sources, for example for transportation

International research team publishes universal framework

Researchers use multicomponent alloys to make strong and ductile soft magnetic materials

12 Max Planck researchers win coveted ERC Advanced Grants

Intermetallic particles could trap hydrogen inside the bulk material and prevent cracks

It's impossible to imagine modern life without metals, but today's metal industry is responsible for a third of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Dierk Raabe and Martin Palm, scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Duesseldorf, are working on a more sustainable way of producing - and using – metals. Their ideas could completely revolutionize the metal industry.

In ancient times, it was the material of choice for sword blades. Now, a kind of Damascus steel can be produced in a 3D printer using a technique developed by a team from the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Duesseldorf and the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology in Aachen. Composite materials of this kind could be of interest for aerospace components or toolmaking.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Iron Research was founded in 1917, in the midst of the First World War. It was intended to become an innovation laboratory for the German steel industry but morphed into a knowledge center for military technology. Its history illustrates the risk associated with application-oriented basic research in times of economic and political crisis.

Car bodies, aircraft wings or turbine blades – alloys today are customized for any purpose. Roughly 2,500 different types of steel already exist, and that number continues to grow. Jörg Neugebauer and Dierk Raabe, Directors at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf, are also developing new varieties, and in their search for innovative materials, they even apply the laws of the quantum world.

In industrialized countries, corrosion guzzles up to 4 percent of economic performance annually. Substances that protect metals effectively from its ravages are often damaging to the environment or have other disadvantages. Consequently, scientists working with Martin Stratmann and Michael Rohwerder at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (Iron Research) in Düsseldorf are developing synthetic coatings that can protect steels and other metals from rust and heal themselves if they become damaged.

Metals, means of human progress for over five millennia, are with one third of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions the single largest cause of global warming. Growth in energy, construction, industry, sustainable technologies and transport will even double demand over the next 25 years. At the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung we are conducting basic research to solve this problem of the century. We present two approaches, one is 'green' steel production, using hydrogen, plasma and electrolysis, and the other one is aluminium alloys, which carry the 'gene' of unlimited recyclability.

The industrial use of hydrogen is considered to be forward-looking. But what are the material science challenges in production, storage and use? An interdisciplinary team at the MPIE is using various methods to investigate how hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis, how hydrogen atoms in the material can be detected and how materials can be protected against hydrogen embrittlement. In addition, we work on reducing iron ores by hydrogen instead of carbon, thus avoiding CO₂ emissions.

Because of their unique combination of properties, intermetallic alloys based on iron aluminides are considered as being specifically sustainable. Following basic research of the underlying thermodynamics, different alloying concepts have been developed at MPIE. Resulting high-strength alloys are currently tested by industries for various applications, eg. as brake discs in wind power stations or tubes for biomass power plants. Currently, ideal combinations of alloy concepts, processing routes and properties of manufactured parts are investigated in close cooperation with industries.

Additive manufacturing offers many advantages compared to conventional production processes but its potential is not yet fully exploited due to a lack of suitable alloys. A research team at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung has now optimized the process parameters and the alloy design, paving the way for new applications.

Materials which are subject to cyclic load, are often prone to fatigue and failure. An international team of scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung developed a new steel inspired by the laminated structure of bone and thus preventing crack propagation on the microscale which would lead to fatigue.