Antal Kerpely Doctoral School of Materials Science and Technology
Doctoral topics
Materials Science The World Around Us
The Antal Kerpely Doctoral School of Materials Sciences and Technologies covers 11 research fields.
Descriptions of our research fields are accessible with a click.
Materials Informatics
The research field focuses on modeling the microscopic structure of complex materials and the computer processing of microstructural images. It is present everywhere where the structure of materials is examined under a microscope. This is a relatively new, interdisciplinary scientific area whose significance has been steadily increasing since the 1970s, and today it has become one of the key domains of research related to material structures.
The reason for this lies in the fact that one of the most important goals of materials science is to explore the relationship between the spatial structure of materials and their physical properties. By applying such correlations, it becomes possible to select and produce the most suitable material for a given purpose—that is, one possessing the desired combination of properties. This method is indispensable not only for modeling material properties, but also in computer-aided design, controlled microstructural manufacturing, and material qualification.
One of the main tools for studying the relationship between microstructure and properties is stereometric microscopy, which enables the geometric description and spatial interpretation of material structures observed under a microscope. Essentially, it provides an exact framework that formulates the relationships between the measurable parameters on a microscopic image and the calculated spatial quantities. Theoretical foundations of image processing are dealt with by mathematical morphology, whereas stereology is more oriented toward practical applications. Practitioners successfully apply elements of differential geometry and probability theory in the characterization of materials science structures.
The goal is to provide scientific training based on a master’s degree, through which students, building upon up-to-date fundamental knowledge in materials science, acquire essential expertise in modeling the microscopic structure of materials and in the computer processing of microstructural images. They also become capable of applying these methods innovatively and contributing to their further development.
Metal Forming
During metallurgical processes, products generated by chemical metallurgical operations—typically in liquid or sometimes in powder form—must be further processed into shapes suitable for handling and use. This is usually achieved through plastic forming methods such as rolling, open-die forging, or extrusion. Metallurgical finished products manufactured in this way—rods, tubes, sheets, and wires—are subsequently processed further by downstream industries, often again through plastic forming (such as die forging, cold extrusion, sheet forming, etc.).
Plastic forming is a scientific field that deals with the shaping of products and the control of their properties. From a professional perspective, it integrates knowledge of plasticity theory, materials science, tribology, process modeling, and the design and operation of forming machines, equipment, and manufacturing tools into a coherent framework.
Participants in the doctoral program acquire theoretical and technological design knowledge related to the plastic forming of metals, taking into account the interactions within the system of workpiece, tool, and forming machine, as well as the unity of the system’s elements. The training places special emphasis on the formability of materials, on the modeling of forming processes, and on improving the dimensional and shape accuracy of products, thereby enhancing overall quality. The knowledge gained provides a solid foundation for the development of new technologies, new materials, and new products
Metallurgy and Heat Treatment
Metallic materials remain indispensable in many areas of life to this day. Automobiles, the electrical industry, skyscrapers, and space exploration would be inconceivable without the application of metallic materials (special alloys). In the research group on metallurgy and heat treatment, we focus on examining the structure, as well as the physical and mechanical properties, of these alloys.
The structure, and therefore the properties, can be widely altered through heat treatment. We study the processes that occur during the heat treatment of steels, cast irons, light metals, and non-ferrous metals, along with the resulting structures and the changes in properties. This research field also includes the study of metal matrix composites.
Interfacial and Nanotechnologies
The research field of interfacial phenomena and technologies could classically be regarded as a subfield of other disciplines (such as materials science or chemical metallurgy). Today, however, interfacial phenomena and the technologies based on them receive distinguished attention worldwide. This is also reflected in the gradually changing structures of education and research, which is why, within the framework of the Doctoral School of Materials Sciences and Technologies, we also appear as an independent research group, with reference to the following considerations.
The research area of interfacial phenomena and technologies can be strategically and methodologically divided into three interrelated levels from both educational and research perspectives.
The first level is the characterization and modeling of interfaces in two- and three-phase systems of various material qualities. Characterization includes, on the one hand, modern surface analytical procedures that provide information about the chemical composition and structure of surfaces, and on the other hand, techniques for determining interfacial energies. From a materials science perspective, the aim is to experimentally determine the interfacial composition, structure, and energies as accurately as possible, and to describe their interrelations as adequately as possible with the help of models. As an example, we may mention the investigation of the composition, structure, and energy, as well as the interrelationships between them, at the interface of a solid ceramic and a liquid metal in a two-phase system.
The second level is establishing connections between the interfacial characteristics detailed above (composition, structure, and energies) and the phenomena that play a decisive role in various interfacial technologies, with the ultimate goal of optimizing material technology parameters from an interfacial perspective, including the deliberate engineering modification of interfacial composition/structure. The aim is to experimentally and theoretically determine how interfacial energies (and the composition, structure, and temperature defining them) precisely determine the direction and rate of the processes taking place. As an example, one may mention the phenomenon when a micrometer-sized ceramic particle dispersed in a metallic melt encounters the crystallization front of the solidifying metal: the growing solid crystal either engulfs the ceramic particle or pushes it aside. This physico-chemical phenomenon fundamentally determines the success of producing metal-matrix composites reinforced with ceramic particles, and it is a complex function of the interfacial energies mentioned above.
The third level is the study and development of technologies capable of modifying the composition and/or structure of interfaces, which ultimately make the “effective” properties of the bulk phase with altered surface quality more valuable from practical perspectives (e.g. corrosion resistance, mechanical, catalytic, magnetic, electronic properties), thus creating added value relative to the negligible quantity of material added or simply modified compared to the bulk phase. Therefore, this subprogram includes the description and development of interface-modifying procedures, ranging from PVD, CVD, plasma spraying techniques to the classical electrochemical methods (from aqueous solutions and molten salts). However, the research group also intends to deal not only with technologies aimed at altering the external interfaces of bulk phases, but also with those targeting the modification of internal interfaces—for instance, the interfacial aspects of sintering, composite manufacturing, or even simple heat treatments are also part of the educational and research plan.
It is worth mentioning that the group also includes the study of segregation, both at external (liquid/gas, solid/gas) and internal (solid/solid grain boundary, liquid/solid, and liquid/liquid) interfaces. In addition, the research group undertakes the teaching and research of environmental technologies based on interfacial phenomena and applies the above-described educational and research strategy to a wide spectrum of structural materials and the auxiliary materials used in their production.
The phases whose interfaces are investigated and for which the research group provides educational and research opportunities can be listed (without ranking in order of importance) as follows:
Solid phases: solid metals, solid ceramics, solid polymers.
Liquid phases: metallic melts, molten salts, slag melts, polymer melts, aqueous solutions, organic solutions.
Vapor/gaseous phases of various compositions: from air to various reactive vapors/gases to inert gases.
Chemical Processes and Technologies
The research field covers both molecular and colloidal systems chemistry. In doing so, it relies on the established chemical disciplines: inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, colloid chemistry, macromolecular chemistry, and analytical chemistry. The development of basic sciences and technologies in interaction enables the chemical industry to meet the growing demands for higher volume, improved quality, and reduced environmental risks. To achieve this, it is indispensable to further develop fundamental knowledge of chemistry and chemical engineering, and to increase the capability that, through computer modeling, design, and process control, allows for the design of equipment necessary for carrying out chemical processes, the optimization of technologies, and their operation with maximum efficiency.
Research within this field may be carried out within a single discipline, but it can also target inorganic and organic chemical technologies applied in the production and modification of materials, chemical engineering operations, the optimization of chemical industry systems, as well as the evaluation and processing of data.
Chemical Metallurgy
The methods of chemical metallurgy make it possible to extract valuable metals from primary raw materials as well as from various types and compositions of industrial and user-derived secondary raw materials, and to produce them in the most suitable form and quality for their intended application. The research field includes the study of processes from raw material preparation through pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical, and electrometallurgical extraction, powder metallurgy processing, and refining of raw metals, as well as the exploration of development opportunities and new procedures. In addition, attention is given to coating techniques that result in the surface modification of metals and to the production of special metallic, compound, or composite coatings.
Understanding the conditions of processes taking place at high temperatures and in various aqueous solutions under diverse circumstances, along with the modeling of these phenomena, enables the development of new metallurgical procedures and the economic and environmentally friendly production of a wide range of metals, alloys, and special metal-containing materials (such as semiconductors, magnetic, and heat-resistant materials) serving modern applications. It may also create opportunities for the utilization of critical wastes that previously posed disposal challenges.
The aim of training in this research field is to provide advanced scientific education built upon a university degree, through which participants, based on modern mathematical, chemical, physical, and materials science fundamentals, acquire high-level knowledge in the study of metallurgical processes and in the development and design of metal extraction and refining systems.
Ceramics and Technologies
This research field deals with the study and development of the material structure and the physical, mechanical, chemical, biological, thermal, and thermo-mechanical properties of ceramics, ceramic matrix and ceramic-reinforced composites, as well as “ceramizable” metallic and non-metallic materials. It also addresses their production in forms most suitable for user requirements.
It includes the research and development of traditional or classical ceramics based on clay minerals and rocks—such as stoneware, semi-porcelain, porcelain, glasses, cements, concretes, and other building materials—as well as modern technical ceramics such as borides, nitrides, carbides, titanates, and halogenides. This encompasses the selection of raw, auxiliary, and additive materials, the technological operations and processes, and the qualification of final products.
In addition to technical ceramics for industrial applications, special attention is devoted to the research and development of bioceramics, as well as the ceramization of renewable plant- and animal-derived biomaterials. Detailed studies are conducted on the physical, mechanical, mechanochemical, and chemical processes occurring during technological operations such as crushing and grinding, homogenization, forming, drying, firing, and sintering, as well as on the material characteristics and factors that most influence these processes.
The research field also focuses on the study and development of hetero-modulus, hetero-viscous, and hetero-plastic complex materials and material systems, as well as hybrid materials, investigating and optimizing their physical, mechanical, chemical, and thermal properties.
The aim of this research field is to provide advanced scientific training for engineers, physicists, chemists, and biologists with an MSc degree. Building on modern mathematical, physical, chemical, mechanical, and materials science knowledge, participants acquire the essential expertise in the production processes of ceramics, ceramic matrix and ceramic-reinforced composites, as well as hetero-modulus, hetero-viscous, and hetero-plastic complex materials, material systems, and hybrid materials. They also gain the ability to conduct research, development, and design in this area, as well as to master and further develop new theoretical and practical methods.
High-Temperature Equipment and Thermal Energy Management
The aim of this research field is to deepen and further develop the knowledge acquired in university studies in the areas of mass and heat transport, physical chemistry, and thermodynamics, which form the scientific foundation of heat energy management. It also seeks to introduce, at a scientific level, the latest results of applied sciences such as technical thermodynamics, combustion science, materials science, and atmospheric environmental protection. This subprogram includes the production of refractory building materials, the reduction of environmental pollution caused by the combustion of energy carriers, and the optimization of energy use in various manufacturing technologies.
The research field makes use of the Faculty’s research and infrastructural capacities by offering a scientific training program that is new in Hungary but of great significance. This is because the majority of the energy that already exists or has been extracted is utilized as heat energy (in industrial furnaces, the chemical industry, heat treatment, and households). Therefore, it is of key importance to optimize the distribution and utilization of heat energy and to minimize the environmental pollution (primarily air pollution) that accompanies it.
Within this research field, the doctoral program offers research topics that serve to familiarize participants with primary and secondary energy carriers as well as with the technologies and equipment of energy-consuming industries (metallurgy, power generation, chemical industry, building materials industry, ceramics industry, glass industry, agriculture, municipal services). The objectives of training in heat energy management include the education of scientifically minded professionals who are capable of:
the optimal utilization and operation of applied equipment and technologies,
the innovative modernization of given structures and technologies, the research and development of new structures,
the introduction, design, and operation of cost-effective heat energy utilization methods,
the measurement and control of processes and the improvement of regulation systems,
the active implementation of environmental protection tasks related to heat energy utilization,
the establishment of fire safety, accident prevention, and technical safety conditions related to heat energy utilization,
the quick and professional elimination of heat energy-related operational failures and accidents.
Foundry Technology
Foundry technology is one of the oldest forming methods for producing metal objects. It involves pouring liquid metal into a mold cavity corresponding to the negative shape of the desired object, allowing it to solidify, and making it suitable for use.
Casting is currently the most flexible forming method available for producing complex parts.
In the past, foundry production relied heavily on trial and error, with numerous influencing factors affecting the processes and often leading to unsuccessful experiments. Today, however, modern computer-based methods are used to simulate processes. With computer data processing, foundry technology has become equivalent to the CAD-level technologies of customers, while available rapid prototyping methods allow for the production of trial castings within a very short time.
To meet the quality requirements associated with high-tech customer products, foundries rely on extensive automation of manufacturing technologies, process and machine control, as well as on scientific knowledge of materials and their properties.
Above all, the development of new materials and the technical advancement of foundry technology have opened up partly new and partly broader opportunities for improving casting materials and manufacturing processes.
Foundry technology, as a production process pointing toward the future, is characterized by favorable application possibilities, as well as by safe and environmentally friendly procedures. Casting plays an indispensable role in the production of high-tech products, particularly in major industrialized countries.
It is already evident today that CAD-based foundry processes, extending to pattern and mold making as well, successfully overcome challenges, since only in this way can the properties required at the design stage be safely and rapidly realized in castings.
The aim of this research field is clear from the above: to provide advanced scientific training built upon university-level education. Within this framework, researchers in this field, building on fundamental scientific knowledge, analyze the interrelations among mold design, casting materials, casting technology, and the functional properties of castings, using up-to-date engineering methods and tools. The ultimate goal is to advance the numerous known and yet-to-be-explored technological variants of foundry practice in line with new requirements.
Polymer Technology
This research field focuses on the production, processing, and application of polymers and polymer-based composite systems. It includes the study of the properties of polymers, plastics, and polymer composites, as well as research into structure–property relationships. It also addresses the determination of technological parameters for processing, the rheology of polymer melts, and the effects of processing history on structure.
The aim of this research field is to provide advanced scientific training built upon a university degree, within which participants acquire knowledge of methods for studying polymer-based systems, essential elements of polymer chemistry and physics, and specialized expertise related to their research topics. Another important element of the training is the development of an application-oriented perspective based on complex material properties.
The research topics within this field cover a wide range of polymer and plastic applications. In addition to the institute’s own instrumentation, there are opportunities to use the infrastructure of partner institutions and industrial enterprises.
Main research areas include: mechanical and electrical properties of plastics; polymer blends, alloys, and interpenetrating network structures; associated systems; polyurethane foams and elastomers; PVC systems; modification of polyolefins; biodegradable plastics; and polymer processing.
Space Materials Science and Technology
This research field, distinguished from the broader area of materials science, focuses on the scientific investigation of so-called gravity-sensitive inanimate phenomena. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, technological opportunities enabling the study of such phenomena multiplied. These include drop towers and drop shafts, ballistic rockets, parabolic flights, space shuttles, satellites and space stations, as well as centrifuges. Numerous findings have shown that everyday phenomena (e.g. combustion, boiling, solidification, heat and mass transport) behave differently under gravitational conditions other than the usual 1 g on Earth compared to a terrestrial laboratory. According to the level of gravity, we distinguish between microgravity (10⁻³–10⁻⁶ g) and macrogravity (g > 1 g). Research in this area is regarded as a branch of space research—space materials science and technology—and, as in most countries, in Hungary this activity is also supervised and directed by a special body, the Scientific Council for Space Research.
Research topics within this field can be grouped into three major categories according to their objectives. The first group consists of topics that pose challenges in terms of space research equipment: satellites, space stations, drop towers, giant centrifuges and their experimental apparatuses, including the development and improvement of the materials required for these devices. The second group includes research aimed at determining material properties that cannot be measured on Earth, primarily transport properties of liquids (thermal conductivity, diffusion coefficients). The third type of research deals with the production of materials, expecting that the microgravity environment will allow for better separation or more perfect execution of certain terrestrial processes. Such processes may include crystallization, polymerization, and liquid-phase sintering. An important objective here is that space experiments should contribute to a better understanding of processes and thereby to the improvement of terrestrial technologies and the development of new ones.
At the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of Miskolc, scientific research in the field of space materials technology has been ongoing for more than thirty years. Its beginnings are linked to the first Hungarian spaceflight (BEALUCA program), followed by the modeling of a space furnace called “Kristallizátor.” Extensive research was also carried out on the mold-filling capacity of metal melts and the development of techniques exploiting this property. Series of experiments were conducted on directed crystallization under enhanced gravity conditions. Since 1991, short-duration microgravity experiments have been performed at the Bremen Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity, partly on the crystallization of fibrous eutectics and partly on the determination of thermal conductivity. Several space research instruments have also been developed at the Institute of Materials Science of the Faculty, including the Universal Multizone Crystallizer (USK). Originally built for a Soviet automatic satellite (NIKA-T) within the Interkosmos program, this device was later further developed based on NASA’s instructions.
Within the framework of the Doctoral School of Materials Science and Technologies, the emphasis placed on space materials science and technology is further justified by the fact that, in recent years, beyond diploma projects and student research papers (TDK), this field has produced academic doctoral, candidate, university doctoral, PhD degrees, and habilitations. The only Microgravity Laboratory in the country also operates here, which ensures both the objective and subjective conditions for the successful pursuit of research in this area.