| Scope |
The proposed symposium aims to highlight the use of ionizing radiation as a processing tool for organic and inorganic materials at various scales. It is frequently thought that ionizing radiation, such as alpha, beta, gamma, X-rays cause deleterious effects to materials. Although true under some circumstances, ionizing radiation may be also a powerful tool for materials processing in areas such as controlled synthesis of nanostructures, materials’ surface and nanostructure proprieties modification, among others.
This symposium targets a broad audience with interest on materials synthesis and manufacturing techniques whose implementation of the manufacturing process are considerably easier than current ones. On this regard, it has been evidenced that radiation chemistry can be performed at ambient conditions (no thermal input required), it eliminates the need of reducing agents, and it does not generate toxic byproducts. Metal nanoparticles, nanocomposites, quantum dots, nanogels, etc. have successfully been synthesized in the recent years using ionizing radiation evidencing reproducibility and great potential for scalability.
This symposium also welcomes scientists seeking for alternative strategies to modify materials properties in a controlled fashion. Using ionizing radiation techniques, processing parameters such as energy, dose and dose rate can be monitored. As such, optical, magnetic and mechanic properties can be fine-tuned for specific applications.
The applicant strongly believes that this symposium can attract audience from the Materials processing & Manufacturing Division as well as the Structural Materials Division and will expand from and link to current symposiums such as that on Nuclear materials. |