Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs) are playing a crucial role in supporting the transition to zero pollution activities by promoting more sustainable transport and energy generation sectors. In the case of transport, CMCs are currently allowing to run aeroengines at higher temperatures reducing the amount of fuel burnt during a flight. However, the current CMCs are not ready to support the usage of new sustainable fuels such as hydrogen. The limiting factor is the BN interphase (deposited between fibres and matrix) which is crucial for the mechanical properties, but which degrades fast in the presence of water vapour.

This will be a challenge in hydrogen-fuelled planes as water vapour will be the main exhaust product. In the case of energy generation, fusion is envisaging the usage of CMCs as breeder blankets. However, the available interphases (i.e., BN or C interphases) have shown to not be suitable to the irradiation damage expected in a fusion reactor and they are also acting as bottleneck and slowing down the implementation of CMCs in fusion. So far, there is not a clear picture on how future interphases will look like and we are limited to the sporadic outcomes trying to find individual suitable candidates.

To address this problem, the project will develop a new high-throughput approach capable of defining a range of suitable interphase candidates. This means finding interphases that produce similar micro-mechanical properties to existing ones, that can resist new extreme environments. This requires two steps:

1. development of a high-through put approach capable of efficiently depositing a wide range of promising interphases
2. automation of the characterisation and testing protocols required to evaluate a large dataset of sub-micron size interphases.