On the search of new lightweight materials for the automotive technology: a computational approach

JIMENA A. OLMOS ASAR; MARCELO M. MARISCAL

Otro; Humboldt Colloquium ?Shaping the Future of German - Argentinian Scientific Cooperation ? The Role of Curiosity - Driven Research?; 2018

Nowadays, one of themost serious problems of mankind is global warming. Despite all theefforts to raise awareness in society and implement politics relatedto atmospheric pollution and emission of greenhouse gases, CO2 valuescontinue to increase.[1] 35% of the amount of CO2 is due toelectricity production while 32% to transports. It is estimated thatthe world energy consumption will double by 2050.[2]With the aim ofreducing the environmental impact of transport, some countries intendto regulate the fabrication of new vehicles. The toxic trashgeneration is trying to be prohibited, as stated by the End of LifeVehicles Directive in the European Union.[3] The reduction in theweight of the vehicles is another alternative to avoid excessive CO2emanations. In the USA, there exists a normative (Corporate AverageFuel Economy, CAFE)[4] to optimize the economy in fuel consumption.Also, the replacement of traditional carbon based fuels byalternative clean energies, such as hydrogen, is pursued. However,the use of H2 is complex because of its low energy density per volumeunit and its flammability. A promising option is to store hydrogen innovel materials through physisorption or chemisorption. Mg seems to be thekey to improve the vehicle technology. With a weight of only 24kg/mol, it is the lightest structural metal. Its abundance makes it asustainable resource, with very low depletion potential.[5] Itwas in Germany where the body of knowledge originated on how easilymagnesium could be alloyed and formed. In fact, magnesium wasreferred to as "the German metal" well into the 20thcentury. In the automotive industry it was first implemented inVolkswagen Beetle. However, due to its low corrosion resistant andlimited ductility, several alloys have been developed to improve itsmechanical andchemical properties.Forhydrogen storage, magnesium hydride has low cost and possesses areasonably high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen storage capacity.However, MgH2 also has a high enthalpy of decomposition resulting indesorption temperatures too high for most practical applications. Forthis reason, nanomaterials and novel alloys are proposed as welltoimprove Mg performance.Inthis work, new lightweight materials for automotive applications arestudied by means of computer simulations. The prediction ofmaterials using computer simulations represents a powerful way tosave time, effort and money for industry. After a hypotheticalmaterial is demonstrated to be suitable for a given application,experimental effort will be put through to try to synthesize it.1.http://www.eia.gov2. C. Frei, et al.,World Energy Scenarios: Composing Energy Futures to 2050 - WorldEnergy Council: Project Partner Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI),Switzerland, 20133.http://ec.europa.eu/4.https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-5. A. Tharumarajahand P. Koltun, Journal of Cleaner Production 15, 1007 (2007)p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }a:link { }