Dr. LeBlanc receives NSF CAREER award

Dr. Saniya LeBlanc has received a National Science Foundation CAREER award for the project “CAREER: Interface Formation in Laser Processed Thermoelectric Materials.” This five-year, $500,000 award integrates advanced materials and manufacturing techniques to create next-generation energy devices. Additive manufacturing, particularly laser-based additive manufacturing, could enable effective materials engineering and integration as well as customizable device design for solid-state energy conversion devices that improve energy efficiency. However, very little is known about how laser processing (during which materials rapidly melt and re-solidify) impacts thermoelectric materials’ structure and properties. This project aims to discover the relationship between rapid melting and solidification and the resulting nano-, micro-, and meso-scale structures, as well as establish the impact of these structures on thermal and electrical properties of thermoelectric materials.