GRK 1860:  Micro-, Meso- and Macroporous Nonmetallic Materials: Fundamentals and Applications

• Subject Area: Materials Engineering
• Term: from 2013 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 211137567

The overall research idea of the research training group (RTG) MIMENIMA is the conditioning of novel porous ceramic structures and their surfaces for applications in important fields of energy, environmental, chemical processing and space technology. To this end, MIMENIMA addresses five research areas: Materials Engineering, Structure & Process Analysis, Fundamental Investigations of Fluid Transport through porous Media, Modelling & Simulation and Special Applications. Ceramic materials feature outstanding corrosion and high‐temperature resistance. They are, however, far more demanding to manufacture and condition than metals or polymers. The robustness of ceramics is a promising approach to a highly sustainable technological use, which has the potential of permitting completely new applications other material classes are denied of. To achieve the required complex ceramic structure and tailored surface chemistry for a particular application, MIMENIMA uses innovative manufacturing techniques developed in Bremen over the past years. With the aid of these novel ceramic manufacturing techniques, porous structures with pore sizes in the micro‐ (< 2nm), meso‐ (2 – 50 nm) and macropore (> 50 nm) range are generated for targeted applications. The surface chemistry is tailored accordingly, its mechanical stability assessed and its impact on mass and heat transport including catalytic reaction processes interdisciplinary investigated. The thorough characterisation of transport processes of the opaque three‐dimensional actual structures requires imperatively the establishment of novel analytical methods. Thus, in MIMENIMA. nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR, also known as MRI or MRT) tomography was for the first time employed for spatial analysis of the liquid phase distribution and dynamic flow processes within porous ceramic materials, whereas X‐ray tomography (X‐CT) is applied for quantitative analysis of the ceramic structure. The systematic combination of these two powerful methods is ‐ besides material conditioning ‐ the second focus of the research training group MIMENIMA. During the first funding period both methods, NMR and X‐ray tomography, were successfully combined and fluid flow through porous ceramic structures could be visualized. Based on this successful breakthrough, for the second funding period the projects shall be further developed towards the in‐depth understanding of the fluid flow and porous ceramic structure interplay.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität Bremen
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Kurosch Rezwan
• Participating Researchers: Dr. Michael Baune; Professorin Dr. Dorothea Brüggemann; Professor Dr. Marcus Bäumer; Privatdozent Dr. Wolfgang Dreher; Professor Dr.-Ing. Michael E. Dreyer; Professor Dr.-Ing. Udo Fritsching; Privatdozent Dr. Michael Maas; Professor Dr.-Ing. Lutz Mädler; Professor Dr. Stefan Odenbach; Professor Dr.-Ing. Jorg Thöming; Dr. Michaela Wilhelm; Dr.-Ing. Thomas Wriedt