Combinatorial Materials Engineering (CME)
Materials scientists from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) reinforced by scientists from Max Planck Institutes (MPI Eisenforschung, MPI Kohlenforschung) and Helmholtz Centres (FZ Jülich, DLR Cologne, HZB Berlin) apply for a Cluster of Excellence for Combinatorial Materials Engineering (CME). CME presents a novel scientific strategy for the systematic invention of new engineering materials with unprecedented structural and functional properties. CME will achieve this goal by intimately merging and advancing the research areas Combinatorial Materials Research (CMR) and Scale-Bridging Materials Modelling (SBMM).
Materials properties and performance are the principal factors limiting technological viability and environmental sustainability of components and systems in the most important technological fields of energy, health, environment and transport. However, current limitations are not necessarily the result of insurmountable physical principles. Rather, they arise from a lack of scientific knowledge and understanding of composition-structure-property relationships in modern materials systems with often complex processing routes. It has become increasingly difficult to invent new engineering materials using the conventional approaches that led to the serendipitous discoveries of the past (e.g. stainless steel, precipitation-hardened Al alloys, NiTi shape memory alloys, Teflon). CME intends to improve upon such inefficient trial-and-error approaches for materials invention. Merging CMR and SBMM will enable us to generate insight and accumulate knowledge about the properties of complex materials in an accelerated, holistic way that is inherently systematic, thorough and efficient.