Materials and Matter

Because of the important role and tight connection with any technological development and breakthrough, Materials and Matter is one of the five main research focuses of TU Wien. The Master's Programme Materials Science started with Oct. 2012 as an inter-faculty (including five faculties) study-program, acknowledging and highlighting the interdisciplinary nature and importance of materials science. Of course, materials science is part of many more study-programs and institutes as well.

Advances in processing technology and materials are pushing into increasingly specialized areas of application. For this reason, it is no longer sufficient in today's world to develop workpieces from just one material; rather, certain properties are required that can only be realized with new technologies or composite materials.

Modern materials obtain their special properties less from their chemical composition than from a special arrangement of specific components (microstructure and morphology). For example, barrier, wear or protective layers are applied to base materials to take advantage of both components.

The focus of our research within Materials Science (Paul Mayrhofer) is directed towards developing the science underlying the relationships between synthesis, chemistry, structure, properties and performance in structural, nanoscale and functional materials. We also continue the traditional research in the area of crystal growth, physical properties of metastable ceramic and metallic alloys and multilayers, and their thermal stability. The combination of applied and fundamental research in the area of protective coatings for machining tools and components used in automobile and aviation industry is addressed within several industrial projects.

TEAMS

These research efforts are led by our dedicated teams in Thin Film Materials Science (Prof. Paul Mayrhofer), Applied Surface and Coating Technology (Prof. Riedl), Nanodiffraction and in-situ Micromechanics (Dr. Hahn), Data-driven Atomistic Simulations of Materials (Dr. Koutna), and Materials Development and Characterization (Dr. Kirnbauer).

Specific Infrastructure

Reference projects

The Materials Science Division comprises two Research Groups: