Scientific Report 2011 / 2012 Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH Scientific Report 2011/2012 November 2012 Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH Max-Planck-Str. 1 · 40237 Düsseldorf Germany Front cover Oxygen is one of the critical components that give rise to the excellent mechanical properties of Ti-Nb based gum metal (Ti−23Nb−0.7Ta− 2Zr−1.2O at%) and its complex deformation mechanism. Yet, its role is not fully clear, for which reason an extensive project is being carried out at MPIE (see highlight article on page 113). As a part of this project, deformation structures in gum metal (Ti−22.6Nb−0.47Ta−1.85Zr−1.34O at%) are compared to those in a reference alloy that has the same chemical composition, but no oxygen (Ti−22.8Nb−0.5Ta−1.8Zr at%). The cover page shows a light microscope image of a sample of the reference alloy deformed in uniaxial tension, revealing mechanically-induced crystallographic twin steps on a priorly-polished surface (1 cm corresponds to approx. 125 µm). Imprint Published by Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH Max-Planck-Str. 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany Phone: +49-211-6792-0 Fax: +49-211-6792-440 Homepage: http://www.mpie.de Editorship, Layout and Typesetting Yasmin Ahmed-Salem Gabi Geelen Brigitte Kohlhaas Frank Stein Printed by Bonifatius GmbH Druck-Buch-Verlag Paderborn, Germany © November 2012 by Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Düsseldorf All rights reserved. PREFACE This report is part of a series documenting the scientific activities and achievements of the Max-Planck- Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH (MPIE) in 2011 and 2012. For evaluation purposes some main trends are described over the past 6 years. MPIE conducts basic research on structural materials, specifically steels, for nearly one century, considering their complex chemical-physical synthesis, characterisation and properties, as well as their use in systemic components. Projects are characterized by a highly interdisciplinary approach including close interfacing between experiment and theory. Through its research on structural materials the Institute plays a central role in enabling progress in the fields of mobility (e.g. steels and soft magnets for light weight hybrid vehicles), energy (e.g. efficiency of thermal power conversion through better high temperature alloys), transport (e.g. Ni-base alloys for plane turbines), infrastructure (e.g. steels for large infrastructures, e.g. wind turbines and chemical plants) and safety (e.g. nanostructured bainitic steels for gas pipelines). A close match between knowledge-oriented and pre-competitive basic research on the one hand and commercial relevance on the other hand is an important cornerstone of this concept. With its system-oriented research agenda and its 50% institutional co-sponsoring by industry, the Institute is a unique example of public private partnership both for the Max Planck Society and for the European industry. The departments jointly pursue a number of cross-disciplinary research branches covering Materials Design (simulation, synthesis, combinatorial materials design), Materials Analysis (structure, chemistry, defects), Materials Processing (thermomechanical treatment, forming, joining, coating), and Materials Properties (mechanical, stability, function). In many of these areas the institute holds a position of international scientific leadership, particularly in multiscale materials modeling; surface science; metallurgical alloy design; and characterization from atomic to macroscopic scales of complex engineering materials. Profound strengthening of the institute's scientific profile is also achieved by the close cooperation with R. Kirchheim (materials physics and atom scale characterization; University of Göttingen) who is an external scientific member of the Max-Planck Society and with G. Eggeler (high temperature alloys and energy-related materials; Ruhr-University Bochum) who is a fellow of the Max-Planck Society. With both colleagues a number of joint projects are being pursued (e.g. exploring the limits of strength in Fe−C systems; hydrogen- propelled materials and systems; defectant theory; creep of superalloys; atomic scale analysis of interfaces in superalloys). The institute hosts about 270 people, the majority being scientists. As only 120 employees are funded by the basic budget provided by the shareholders of the institute, nearly 150 additional scientists work at the institute supported by extramural sources. This strong contribution of third-party funds and its balance be- tween fundamental and applied science gives the institute a singular position within the Max-Planck Society. The increasing number of co-operations with key industry partners has provided further extramural mo- mentum to the dynamic growth of the institute during the past two years. Besides the well established links to material companies in the fields of structural alloy design (bulk and surface), advanced characterization methods in steel development, surface functionalization, and computational materials science, new exiting industrial co-operations are currently being developed in a number of novel fields: These new project direc- tions are particularly valuable for the institute's further development from a materials-oriented laboratory towards a system-driven institute that deals with complex materials in a more holistic context of including complicated engineering systems, loading, and environmental conditions into advanced materials science and engineering projects. New areas of growth including strong interactions with industry are in the fields of steels and related materials for automotive hybrid- and electro-mobility, energy conversion and storage, renewable energy, health, hydrogen-based industries, and computational materials science. This report is structured into IV parts: - Part I presents the organization of the institute including a short section on recent scientific developments, new scientific groups, large network activities, and new scientific laboratories at the institute. - Parts II and III cover the research activities of the institute. Part II provides a description of the scientific activities in the departments and Part III contains selected short papers which summarise major recent scientific achievements in the four areas of common interest of the institute ‘New Structural Materials’, ‘Microstructure-Related Materials Properties’, ‘Stability of Surfaces and Interfaces’, and ‘Scale-Bridging Simulation of Materials’. - Part IV summarises some statistically relevant information about the institute. Dierk Raabe, Chairman of the executive board Düsseldorf, November 2012 CONTENTS PART I. THE INSTITUTE 7 Management of the Institute 9 Scientific Organization 10 Recent Developments 12 New Research Groups 13 New Scientific Laboratories and Facilities 17 Large-scaled and Networking Projects 20 PART II. THE DEPARTMENTS 33 Department of Computational Materials Design 35 Department of Interface Chemistry and Surface Engineering 53 Department of Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design 71 Department of Structure and Nano-/Micromechanics of Materials 90 Max Planck Fellow Research Group on High Temperature Materials 94 PART III. INTER-DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES - 99 SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS New Structural Materials 101 Microstructure-Related Materials Properties 113 Stability of Surfaces and Interfaces 127 Scale-Bridging Simulations of Materials 141 PART IV. GENERAL INFORMATION AND STATISTICS 153 Boards, Directors, Max Planck Fellows, External Scientific Members, 155 and Guest Scientists Scientific Honours 159 Participtation in Research Programmes 162 Conferences, Symposia, and Meetings Organized by the Institute 166 Institute Colloquia and Invited Seminar Lectures 168 Lectures and Teaching at University 174 Invited Talks at Conferences and Colloquia 175 Publications 186 Habilitation, Doctoral, Diploma, Master, and Bachelor Theses 201 Budget of the Institute 205 Personnel Structure 206 The Institute in Public 208 PART I. THE INSTITUTE Management of the Institute 9 Scientific Organization 10 Recent Developments 12 New Research Groups 13 B. Grabowski & C. Tasan: Adaptive Structural Materials 13 H. Springer: Combinatorial Metallurgy and Processing 15 M. Valtiner: Interaction Forces and Functional Materials 16 New Scientific Laboratories and Facilities 17 Metallurgy and Processing Laboratory 17 High-Throughput Screening for Efficient CO2 Reduction Catalysts 18 with Coupled Analysis of Reaction Products The GxHive Cluster Administration Package 19 Large-Scaled and Networking Projects 20 International Max Planck Research School SurMat 20 Center for Electrochemical Sciences – CES 22 Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation – ICAMS 23 Hydrogen Sensitivity of Different Advanced High Strength 24 Microstructures – HYDRAMICROS T SMARTMET: Adaptive Nanostructures in Next Generation 25 H Metallic Materials E Steel – ab-initio: Quantum Mechanics Guided Design of New 26 Fe-Based Materials I Cluster of Excellence RESOLV 27 N Active Coatings for Corrosion Protection – ASKORR 28 S Northern Alliance for Competence – German Research Priorities in 29 T Electrochemistry with the Focus on Electromobility I Analysis of Microstructure in Plasticity – DFG-Forschergruppe 797 30 T Aachen Institute for Advanced Study in Computational Engineering 31 U Science – AICES T Ab initio Description of Iron and Steel – ADIS 32 E 7 Management of the Institute The Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (MPIE)