You are cordially invited to attend the seminar organized by the Department of Chemistry.
Title: Thermodynamics, Crystal Structure and Melting Behavior of Materials at Extreme Environments
Speaker: Dr. Can Ağca, ASELSAN Inc., Ankara
Date: 02/12/2025, Tuesday
Time: 12:30 (Turkiye Time)
This is an online seminar. To request event details please send a message to department.
Thermodynamics, Crystal Structure and Melting Behavior of Materials at Extreme Environments
Understanding the thermodynamics and structural behavior of complex inorganic materials under high-temperature conditions is critical to advancing technologies in energy conversion, space exploration, new generation nuclear reactors and electronics. These so-called high temperature materials exhibit desirable properties such as thermal stability, mechanical strength and oxidation/corrosion resistance. They usually melt above 1500°C, therefore, they are crucial in applications such as aerospace, power generation, automotive engines, and industrial processes where materials are exposed to temperatures often exceeding 1000°C.
Transition metal and rare-earth metal oxides constitute a class of materials characterized by exceptionally high melting temperatures and desirable properties for demanding applications. Specifically, FeCrAl alloys are being investigated as candidate cladding materials to replace conventional zirconium alloys in nuclear reactor environments. This interest stems, in part, from the formation of spinel-structure oxides as oxidation products during simulated nuclear reactor accident conditions. Barium-samarium (BaSm) oxides have demonstrated efficacy as a superior thermal barrier coating (TBC) material. High-entropy rare-earth oxides (HE-REOs) are known to enhance multiple functional and structural properties, including hardness, tensile strength, electrical resistivity, superconductivity, and magnetism. As these oxide materials caught attention in the recent years, there is a vast knowledge to discover using X-Ray or Neutron diffraction techniques to observe the evolution of crystal structure at different temperatures, calorimetry to find the connection between the structure and the thermochemistry.
Short Biography:
Dr. Can Ağca is a Senior Design Engineer at ASELSAN Inc., specializing in novel infrared (IR) detectors. He holds a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from UC Davis. His research has focused on high-temperature thermodynamics of oxide materials, molten salts for nuclear reactors, and thermodynamic modeling of metals and oxides. He has authored publications in leading journals, including JACS, Chemical Engineering Science, and Chemistry of Materials, and presented his work at conferences like CALPHAD, TMS and MS&T.
Dr. Ağca has also worked at Intel as a Technology Development Engineer and received the Intel Departmental Award in 2023. He most recently had teaching experience with “Semiconductor Processing and Manufacturing” course at Hacettepe University as part of the Milli Teknoloji Hamlesi program. He employs an inquiry-based approach and integrates real-world applications into his teaching. He is a member of ASM International and has served on its Emerging Professionals Committee and Oak Ridge Chapter.
Coupling experimental insights with CALPHAD-type thermodynamic assessments, Dr. Ağca has a long-term goal to establish comprehensive thermodynamic databases that facilitate the design of oxide and sulfide materials and thermophysical models for molten salts that are optimized for extreme environments.