TMS 2007: Lectures

Extraction & Processing Division Distinguished Lecture

Topic: "Solution Processing of Advanced Materials – What Can Hydrometallurgy Offer?"
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 27

Although the hydrometallurgy field can be traced back for millennia, its current capabilities were unimaginable fifty years ago. The types and tonnages of materials produced by hydrometallurgy have increased dramatically, driven by factors such as declining ore grades, environmental concerns, increasing energy costs and the need for flexibility.

Hydrometallurgy is a now a major player in the extraction and processing of bulk metals; however, the use of solution processing to produce advanced materials and structures is still in its infancy. Solution processing steps, such as plating and CMP, are widely used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices. Solution processing offers unparalleled benefits for processing biocompatible and biomimetic materials. It also offers some intriguing possibilities in nanoscale engineering.

The potential is vast, and the literature offers new advances daily. Nonetheless, in many instances, synthesis methods being used are so unwieldy, uneconomic or environmentally unacceptable, that revolutionary changes are needed before they can be scaled up for commercial production.

SPEAKER

FIONA M. DOYLE Professor Univ. of California, Berkeley

The challenges now limiting the use of solution processing to produce advanced materials have many parallels with those that have been overcome to bring the hydrometallurgy field to its current status. Consideration of these parallels makes it clear that hydrometallurgists can play a key role in bringing competitively priced advanced materials to market.

Fiona Doyle is executive associate dean and associate dean for academic affairs in the college of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on solution chemistry in the processing and behavior of minerals, materials, wastes and effluents.

The applications range in scale from the templated precipitation of nanoscaled structures, through chemical mechanical planarization in the electronics industry, to the remediation of contamination at abandoned and inactive mine sites.

Professor Doyle has taught undergraduate and graduate courses relating to engineering chemistry, mineral engineering, surface and colloid properties of materials, solution processing of materials, corrosion and electrometallurgy. Her doctorate is in hydrometallurgy.