Igor Shabalin

Igor Logan Shabalin (Russian: Шабали́н И́горь Лóганович; born August 26, 1950) is a Soviet and British materials scientist, whose main contributions are in the field of ceramic and composite materials for nuclear and aerospace applications. He is an Honorary Professor of the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute".

Igor Shabalin
Игорь Шабалин
Born	26 August 1950 (age 75) Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia SFSR, Soviet Union
Citizenship	Soviet Union (1950-1991), Russian Federation (since 1992), United Kingdom (since 2013)
Alma mater	Ural Polytechnic Institute (USTU-UPI), Physical Engineering Faculty, now – Ural Federal University (UrFU), Institute of Physics and Technology
Known for	Hetero-Modulus Ceramics, Materials Science & Engineering and Manufacturing Technology of Ceramics and Composites
Spouse	Natalia Shabalina (1972 - present)
Children	1
Awards	Gold medal, Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, USSR (1982), medal "The inventor of the USSR" (1991), Honorary professorship of National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" (2014)
Scientific career
Fields	Technology, engineering, materials science
Institutions	Ural Polytechnic Institute (USTU-UPI), USSR Ministry of General Machine-Building (MOM) Scientific & Research Aerospace Industry Laboratory (ONIL-123), Perm Military Institute of Missile Forces, Eastern Institute of Refractories, Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University (RSVPU), The University of Salford
Website	https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Igor-Shabalin https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?hl=en&pli=1&user=TULk9yEAAAAJ

Early life and education

Igor Shabalin was born in the town of Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, USSR. After graduating from high school with a gold medal in 1967, Shabalin began studying Technology of Less-common, Dissipative and Radioactive Elements (Chemical Engineering for Nuclear Industry) in the Ural Polytechnic Institute (USTU-UPI), Sverdlovsk (now – Yekaterinburg). As a talented student, Shabalin attracted the attention of one of the leaders of the Soviet military industrial complex D. F. Ustinov, who recommended him to the Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for the city of Sverdlovsk, then - the Minister of General Machine Building of the USSR S. A. Afanasyev. As a result, Shabalin accomplished his student diploma work within the themes of this Ministry, with which his research activities were directly related until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Within the framework of the technological project of TsNIIMash (Kaliningrad, now - Korolyov, Moscow Oblast) with the participation of the Pivdenne Design Office (Dnipro, Ukraine), the topic of Shabalin's diploma work included the development of manufacturing technology and studies of characteristics of uranium carbide – beryllium oxide composite materials for nuclear fuel in aerospace transportation reactors.

After graduating from the university with an honorary diploma in 1973, Shabalin continued his studies with a postgraduate scholarship under the supervision of Professor Vasilii G. Vlasov (1915-1976), DSc, a well-known expert in the field of uranium oxides and carbides, and supported his PhD degree in 1977 for the materials science and engineering of high-temperature carbide–carbon composites.

Scientific and research contribution

A significant influence on Shabalin during his initial steps in the research and development activities was exerted by Corresponding Member of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, Professor Grigorii V. Samsonov (1918-1975), who was on friendly terms with his supervisor Vlasov, as at that period of time, both of them were leading experts in Soviet Union on the problem of carbothermic reduction of transition metal oxides. The communications with Samsonov and his colleagues at the Institute for Problems of Materials Science (IPM) of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences helped Shabalin in the successful research and development of a new type of materials, which had already begun somewhat earlier in the US under the leadership of Professor D.P.H. Hasselman (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). They were the hetero-modulus ceramic composites, which were called "high-E – low-E materials" in the US, that Shabalin began to study during his PhD. Some of his experimental works, dating back to this period, about 20 years later led him to the discovery of the "ridge effect" phenomenon in the oxidation of carbon-containing compounds and composite materials.

The idea of using physico-chemical phases, which differ significantly in their nature/properties, in one high-temperature material is limited by the possible choice of such high-temperature phases. Both the melting point and the elastic modulus of a solid phase reflect the same characteristic, such as the strength of a chemical bond in the crystals of the phase, thus causing the "strict uniformity" of refractory materials. However, the existence of highly anisotropic phases with a graphene type of structure allows an effective solution to this contradiction. Addition to materials the phase, elastic modulus of which at least in one direction differs from the typical value for refractory materials by 10–30 times, leads to the production of materials with those properties and characteristics, which are superior to both conventional ceramic and carbon-graphite materials. The degree of dissipation of elastic energy per unit of volume at thermal and/or thermomechanical impacts in such materials increases many times. Works on the optimization of microstructure and investigations of the properties of carbide–carbon composite materials, based on carbides of transition metals of groups 4-6, carried out by Shabalin with co-workers in the 1970–1980s, clearly showed this. In 1982 for the creation of technological equipment for the production of similar materials, the team of designers and researchers was awarded a gold medal of the USSR Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy.

Generalization and further development of these works led Shabalin to the creation of general concept and theory of design of hetero-modulus ceramic materials intended for the application in extreme conditions. This allowed in engineering practice, the development of a series of promising composites with various matrices based on refractory carbides, nitrides and oxides with additives of both graphite and graphite-like boron nitride, including sialon – boron nitride materials, widely known now under the term SBN. For the implementation of promising developments of novel materials in products in the aerospace industry, by an order of the Minister of General Machine Building of the USSR, Scientific & Research Aerospace Industry Laboratory (ONIL-123) was established in 1984 under the leadership of Shabalin with the pilot production on the basis of one of the refractory plants of Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy. Erosion-resistant materials of the SBN type, the production of which was mastered by the ONIL-123, according to repeated tests significantly increased the service lifetime of Hall-effect ion thrusters (stationary plasma rocket engines with a stream of electrically charged xenon ions) and expanded the range of possibilities for their direct usage. In the post-Soviet period, through the venture enterprise with Space Systems/Loral, LLC (California, US) and Snecma Moteurs (now – Safran Aircraft Engines) (France), "Roscosmos" (Russian Federation) transferred the documentation on many Russian developments to the West that has allowed a large number of experts to become familiar with the composite materials of the SBN type, designed, produced and standardized by the laboratory ONIL-123 in the 1980-90s. Some experts consider such materials to be promising in the creation of cruising ion propulsion units for interplanetary missions.

Activity in post-Soviet period and political view

Due to understandable reasons related to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the work of the ONIL-123 laboratory was terminated, and Shabalin found himself involved in the activities that did not allow him to use fully the entire stock of accumulated knowledge and skills. Dealing with issues of enterprise conversion in the Russian military industrial complex, he worked as an assistant/advisor to his university colleague, Member and Deputy Chairman of the State Duma (Parliament) of the Russian Federation V. A. Yazev, whilst also was collaborating with a number of universities in Yekaterinburg as Professor of Economics, including the foundation of Department of Anti-Crisis Management (Insolvency Law) at the Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University (RSVPU) initiated by him. However, serious differences in political views with the ruling elite of the region and the country forced Shabalin to leave the Russian Federation in 2003 and immigrate to the United Kingdom. Since 2005, he has been a research fellow and Professor at the University of Salford Materials and Physics Research Centre in Manchester, where he continues to work up to date. Shabalin also participate in several research and development projects with some aerospace manufacturers and universities in the Ukraine, US, France, Japan and other countries.

Over the course of his scientific career, Shabalin has published around 350 scientific and technical papers and held over 40 Russian patents and author's certificates. The culmination of this activity has become his multi-volume book series "Ultra-High Temperature Materials", continuing the best traditions of the Ukrainian scientific school in Materials Science and Engineering of refractory compounds. The book series is devoted to the various materials with melting (or sublimation, thermal decomposition) points over or about 2500 °C. The first volume of the series, focused on the properties of elemental carbon (graphene/graphite) and refractory metals with the highest melting points, and was published in 2014, becoming one of the most downloaded on-line books in the area of Materials Science and Engineering for high-temperature applications. Over the decade from 2015 to 2025, in this ongoing book series, four more volumes have been published, devoted to refractory carbides of d-elements of groups 4–6 of the periodic table.

Personal life

Shabalin was born into the family of a serviceman, active in World War II. His father, Logan Savinovich Shabalin, began his service in the Red Army commandos providing the passages for the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences of the Allied Powers. In 2016, Colonel Shabalin L. S. was buried with full military honors at the Osypenkivske Cemetery in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Shabalin was raised by his grandmother Valentina Grigoryevna Getmanova, a daughter of Grigorii Poselnikov, a famous Cossack hero of the Russian wars in the Caucasus and Balkans at the turn of the 20th centuries. Due to the merits of her father, she received an excellent education at the boarding school of the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, the sister of Emperor Nicholas II. During World War II, Getmanova was noted as one of the best military interpreters in Soviet Russia. Shabalin's grandfather, Mikhail Nikolaevich Dosse, a famous Russian engineer, who graduated from the St. Peterburg and Paris universities, was arrested in 1927 and executed in 1929 by the Soviet authorities mainly because of his nobility origin (he was rehabilitated in 1991).

Shabalin married Natalia Ivanovna Shabalina (née Leshchenko) in 1972. His wife is a Master of Sport of USSR and Honorary Coach of the Russian Federation in track and field athletics. Their son Leonid Igorevich Shabalin is a Doctor of Criminal Law, Senior Lecturer in the Ural State Law University.

Main authored scientific articles/chapters

• Gorinskii, S. G.; Shabalin, I. L.; Korshunov, I. G.; Beketov, A. R.; Kokorin, A. F. (April 1979). "Thermophysical properties of hot-pressed TiC-C and ZrC-C composite materials at high temperatures". Soviet Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics. 18 (4): 266–269. doi:10.1007/BF00793813.
• Gorinskii, S. G.; Shabalin, I. L.; Beketov, A. R.; Podkovyrkin, M. I.; Kokorin, A. F.; Pakholkov, V. V. (November 1980). "Electrical resistivity of sintered TlC-SiC materials". Soviet Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics. 19 (11): 780–783. doi:10.1007/BF00793468.
• Gorinskii, S. G.; Beketov, A. R.; Shabalin, I. L.; Podkovrykin, M. I.; Kokorin, A. F. (November 1982). "Electrical resistivity of hot-pressed TiC-SiC-C composite materials". Soviet Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics. 21 (11): 867–871. doi:10.1007/BF00805476.
• Pakholkov, V. V.; Gorinskii, S. G.; Beketov, A. R.; Shabalin, I. L.; Ragozin, S. V. (August 1986). "Texture of hot-pressed vanadium carbide-carbon materials". Soviet Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics. 25 (8): 661–663. doi:10.1007/BF00796736.
• Strelov, K. K.; Gilev, Yu. P.; Shabalin, I. L.; Fekhretdinov, F. A. -K.; Snezhko, V. D. (March 1989). "Obtaining sialon products". Refractories. 30 (3–4): 211–214. doi:10.1007/BF01326669.
• Zhukov, Yu. N.; Cherepanov, A. V.; Beketov, A. R.; Shabalin, I. L. (April 1991). "Inspection of the nonuniformity of a ceramic compact for machining by hardness measurement". Soviet Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics. 30 (4): 349–351. doi:10.1007/BF00795973.
• Shabalin, Igor L.; Tomkinson, David M.; Shabalin, Leonid I. (January 2007). "High-temperature hot-pressing of titanium carbide–graphite hetero-modulus ceramics". Journal of the European Ceramic Society. 27 (5): 2171–2181. doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2006.07.008.
• Shabalin, Igor L.; Roach, Daniel L. (January 2007). "Synthetic resin-bonded transition-metal carbide–carbon hetero-modulus ceramics". Journal of the European Ceramic Society. 27 (12): 3527–3538. doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2007.02.198.
• Weidner, E.; Bull, D.J.; Shabalin, I.L.; Keens, S.G.; Telling, M.T.F.; Ross, D.K. (August 2007). "Observation of novel phases during deuteration of lithium nitride from in situ neutron diffraction" (PDF). Chemical Physics Letters. 444 (1–3): 76–79. Bibcode:2007CPL...444...76W. doi:10.1016/j.cplett.2007.07.010.
• Shabalin, Igor L.; Roach, Daniel L.; Shabalin, Leonid I. (December 2008). "Oxidation of titanium carbide–graphite hetero-modulus ceramics with low carbon content". Journal of the European Ceramic Society. 28 (16): 3165–3176. doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2008.04.035.
• Shabalin, Igor L.; Roach, Daniel L.; Shabalin, Leonid I. (December 2008). "Oxidation of titanium carbide–graphite hetero-modulus ceramics with low carbon content". Journal of the European Ceramic Society. 28 (16): 3177–3188. doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2008.04.036.
• Shabalin, I.L.; Vishnyakov, V.M.; Bull, D.J.; Keens, S.G.; Yamshchikov, L.F.; Shabalin, L.I. (March 2009). "Initial stages of oxidation of near-stoichiometric titanium carbide at low oxygen pressures". Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 472 (1–2): 373–377. doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2008.04.067.
• Shabalin, Igor L. (2008). "Oxidation Behaviour of Hetero-Modulus Ceramics Based on Titanium Carbide". Developments in Strategic Materials. Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings. pp. 261–276. doi:10.1002/9780470456200.ch26. ISBN 978-0-470-45620-0.
• Shabalin, I. (September 2009). "Advances in materials science of metals, ceramics, and composites at the turn of the millennium:: Review of the encyclopedia 'Inorganic materials science', G. G. Gnesin and V. V. Skorokhod (eds.), Naukova Dumka, Kiev, 2008–2009". Powder Metallurgy and Metal Ceramics. 48 (9–10): 610–612. doi:10.1007/s11106-010-9175-y.
• Bull, Daniel J.; Weidner, Eveline; Shabalin, Igor L.; Telling, Mark T. F.; Jewell, Catherine M.; Gregory, Duncan H.; Ross, D. Keith (2010). "Pressure-dependent deuterium reaction pathways in the Li–N–D system" (PDF). Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 12 (9): 2089–2097. Bibcode:2010PCCP...12.2089B. doi:10.1039/B903821N. PMID 20165757.
• Shabalin, I L; Wang, Y; Krynkin, A V; Umnova, O V; Vishnyakov, V M; Shabalin, L I; Churkin, V K (October 2010). "Physicomechanical properties of ultrahigh temperature heteromodulus ceramics based on group 4 transition metal carbides". Advances in Applied Ceramics. 109 (7): 405–415. Bibcode:2010AdApC.109..405S. doi:10.1179/174367509X12535211569431.
• Wang, Y; Shabalin, I L; Zhang, L; Zhdanov, V B (29 October 2011). "Reaction hot-pressing and property-composition relationships of modified sialon – boron nitride hetero-modulus ceramics". IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. 18 (8) 082009. Bibcode:2011MS&E...18h2009W. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/18/8/082009.
• Pasupuleti, R.; Wang, Y.; Shabalin, I.; Li, L.Y.; Liu, Z.; Grove, S. (March 2011). "Modelling of moisture diffusion in multilayer woven fabric composites". Computational Materials Science. 50 (5): 1675–1680. doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2010.12.028.
• Mileeva, Zh. A.; Shabalin, I. L.; Ross, D. K.; Bogolepov, V. A.; Zaginaichenko, S. Yu.; Schur, D. V.; Begenev, V. A.; Matysina, Z. A. (2011). "Carbon Nano/Microstructures for Hybrid Hydrogen Storage Based on Specially Treated Carbon Fibers". Carbon Nanomaterials in Clean Energy Hydrogen Systems - II. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Vol. 2. pp. 107–114. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0899-0_8. ISBN 978-94-007-0898-3.
• Yu. Popov, A.; Sivak, A. A.; Yu. Borodianska, H.; Shabalin, I. L. (April 2015). "High toughness TiB 2 –Al 2 O 3 composite ceramics produced by reactive hot pressing with fusible components". Advances in Applied Ceramics. 114 (3): 178–182. Bibcode:2015AdApC.114..178Y. doi:10.1179/1743676114Y.0000000202.
• Kotova, O. B.; Shabalin, I. N.; Shushkov, D. A.; Kocheva, L. S. (12 August 2015). "Hydrothermal synthesis of zeolites from coal fly ash" (PDF). Advances in Applied Ceramics: 1–6. doi:10.1179/1743676115Y.0000000063.
• Oleiwi, Hayder M.; Wang, Yu; Curioni, Michele; Chen, Xianyi; Yao, Guowen; Augusthus-Nelson, Levingshan; Ragazzon-Smith, A. H.; Shabalin, Igor (December 2018). "An experimental study of cathodic protection for chloride contaminated reinforced concrete". Materials and Structures. 51 (6) 148. doi:10.1617/s11527-018-1273-1. PMC 6394418. PMID 30881196.
• Shabalin, I. L. (September 2019). "Prospects of Nanotechnology and Design of Materials Based on Refractory Compounds". Russian Journal of Non-Ferrous Metals. 60 (5): 583–589. doi:10.3103/S1067821219050146.
• Xiang, Nan; Wang, Yu; Oleiwi, Hayder M.; Chadwick, Edmund; Yao, Guowen; Augusthus-Nelson, Levingshan; Chen, Xianyi; Shabalin, Igor (June 2020). "Modelling the electrical resistivity of concrete with varied water and chloride contents". Magazine of Concrete Research. 72 (11): 552–563. doi:10.1680/jmacr.18.00198.

(see also Refs. 1, 8-9)

Published books

• Shabalin, Igor L. (2014). Ultra-High Temperature Materials I. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7587-9. ISBN 978-94-007-7586-2.
• Shabalin, Igor L. (2019). Ultra-High Temperature Materials II. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-1302-1. ISBN 978-94-024-1300-7.
• Shabalin, Igor L. (2020). Ultra-High Temperature Materials III. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-2039-5. ISBN 978-94-024-2037-1.
• Shabalin, Igor L. (2022). Ultra-High Temperature Materials IV. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-07175-1. ISBN 978-3-031-07174-4.
• Shabalin, Igor L. (2025). Ultra-High Temperature Materials V. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-90263-5. ISBN 978-3-031-90262-8.