Research

The underlying theme of my research is phase transformations. I study phase transformations and stability in a number of materials systems under different processing conditions. Presently, I work as a part of the research groups of Prof. Mufit Akinc and Prof. Matt Kramer. The link to our research group page can be found here. Prior to joining Iowa State University, I worked with Prof. B.S. Murty and Prof. Kamanio Chattopadhyay on metallic glasses.

My studies on high temperature alloys are based on two different materials systems, Mo-Si based alloys and nickel aluminides. Studies on Mo-Si based alloys deal with controlled addition of alloying elements in order to improve ductility of these rather brittle materials. In addition, we also study the oxidation behavior of these materials. Our most recent work focuses on the role of Nb substitution on phase selection in (Mo,Nb)₃Si alloys. Studies on nickel aluminides involve investigating the role of alloying additions in modifying the transformation temperatures of aluminides. Additionally we also study the oxidation, stability and solidification microstructures of phase assemblage with nickel aluminides. While studying these materials, we are also working to extend Miedema's semi-empirical model to n-component systems.

My work on metallic glasses focuses on understanding glass forming ability of metallic systems. The aim is to develop a synergistic model that can capture the relative role of thermodynamics, local geometry, kinetics and electronic structure on glass formation.