High-Tech Metals - Overview, Microstructure, Properties and Recyclability

Dear Colleagues,

High-tech metals, their alloys, such as In, Ge, Ga, Re and Mg, and rare earth elements are increasingly becoming the focus of today´s applications (telecommunications, automotive and aircraft lightweight construction, light-emitting diodes, power electronics, housings, etc.). Due to the necessary consideration within the framework of a circular economy, their metallurgical production for the various areas of application, their chemical and physical properties (e.g., microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion properties) and their recyclability (in detail, refurbish, reuse or recycle) must be known, meaning that the refurbishment, reuse or recycling of these materials must already be taken into account when designing novel high-tech ones. It is also important to record the material properties in different databases, allowing for their easier accessibility for use by other scientists, including, for example, the melting and boiling points, melt protection from oxidation, metallurgical melt purification/filtration for primary and secondary materials, casting and mold filling behavior, chemical resistance, tensile and elongation at break, corrosion rates and standard electrode potentials (for both fused salt electrolysis for rare earth elements or magnesium and aqueous electro winning for gallium or indium). Such fundamental data are necessary for the associated metallurgy process, so that the unit operations can also be successfully optimized and adjusted using simulation programs such as CALPHAD, FactSage or Aspen Plus. On the basis that theory and practice belong together, this Special Issue aims to provide both a current overview and concrete examples, deserving topics including papers regarding the investigation of a technological synthesis of MgAlON to be used as a coating material on ceramic foam filters for the filtration of magnesium and other metal melts in future research. I hope this Special Issue supports the impact to and for high-tech metals for now and the future.

Prof. Dr. Christiane Scharf
Guest Editor

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