Desiderio Kovar

Dr. Desiderio Kovar earned his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania in 1995. He joined the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in 1997. He is affiliated with the Texas Materials Institute and the Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology. Dr. Kovar's areas of study invovle microstructure/property relationships in ceramics, metals, and composites. He has studied the influence of grain size, grain shape, and grain size distribution on the fracture resistance and mechanical reliability of toughened ceramics. At the University of Texas at Austin, he developed a lower cost method for fabricating bulk, highly textured alumina ceramics and studied the influence of texture on fracture resistance of this material. He has also studied the fracture resistance and high temperature mechanical behavior of laminates and other low-cost ceramic composites. More recently, he his research has involved processing and characterization of thin films, coatings, and nanostructured materials. He is actively involved in a multidisciplinary research project aimed at producing high volume quantities of nanoparticles by laser ablation from microparticles. The nanoparticles are impacted at high velocity to create thick films at lower temperatures than is possible using conventional powders. Nanoparticles and nanostructured films of WC, PZT, silver, CdSe, and Terfenol have been successfully produced using this technique. He is also involved in a collaborative research projects aimed at fabricating lower cost, higher performance solid oxide fuel cells and high performance honeycomb ceramics.

Selected Publications

1. Albert, A.D., Becker, M.F., Keto, J.W., and Kovar, D., "Low Temperature, Pressure-Assisted Sintering of Nanoparticulate Silver Films", Acta Materialia, Vol. 56, (2008), pp. 1820-1829
2. Huang, C., Nichols, W.T., O’Brien, D.T., Becker, M.F., Kovar, D. and Keto, J.W., "Supersonic Jet Deposition of Silver Nanoparticle Aerosols: Correlations of Impact Conditions and Film Morphologies", Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 101, (2007), 064902, pp. 1-11
3. Huang, C., Becker, M.F., Keto, J.W., and Kovar, D., "Annealing of Nanostructured Silver Films Produced by Supersonic Deposition of Nanoparticles", Journal of Applied Physics, (2007)
4. Malyavanatham, G., O'Brien, D.T., Becker, M.F., Keto, J.W., and Kovar, D., "Gold-Copper Nanoparticles Produced by Laser Ablation from Microparticle Mixtures", Journal of Nanoparticle Research, Vol. 6, (2004), 6, pp. 661-664
5. Wang, J., Taleff, E.M., and Kovar, D., "Superplastic Deformation of Al2O3/Y-TZP Particulate Composites and Laminates", Acta Materialia, Vol. 52, (2004), 19, pp. 5485-5491