Effect of the microstructure of graphitic boron nitride on the kinetics of the formation of boron nitride high-pressure phases

Three types of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with graphitic crystal structure having different microstructures were subjected to high pressures (HP) and high temperatures (HT), and the kinetics of the phase transitions to the sp³-hybridized phases (w-BN, c-BN) was studied using in situ synchrotron diffraction. The analysis of the phase transformation kinetics revealed the transformation paths and activation energies E_a of the transformation of h-BN to the high-pressure forms of BN for different microstructures of h-BN. Defect-poor h-BN transforms to metastable wurtzitic BN (w-BN) with E_a ≈ 0.3 eV/at. Defect-rich forms of h-BN transform directly to c-BN, but with a higher activation energy. It was observed that the turbostratic disorder in h-BN retards the phase transition as compared to h-BN containing corrugated basal planes and a low degree of turbostracity. The experimental results are discussed in view of the microstructure changes during the HP/HT treatment and compared to available theoretical phase transition models.     

Investigations on the nanostructures of GaN,InN and InxGa1−xN

A controllable approach to the formation of III- nitride nanocrystalline structures using hydrothermal assisted method is presented. The structural and morphological properties of the prepared nanostructures are analyzed using X-ray diffraction, Fast Fourier Transformation and transmission electron microscope techniques. The temperature dependent structural formation of nitride nanostructures have been systematically investigated using X-ray diffraction. Raman spectra of the samples grown at optimized condition exhibited different phonon modes of the respective nitrides (GaN, InN and In_xGa_1−xN). Nanoparticles and nanorods formation of the indium nitride and indium gallium nitride are observed in the TEM micrographs. FFT analysis revealed that the synthesized III-nitride nanostructures are of good crystalline quality. Nanorods of these nitrides showed better crystalline quality than the nanoparticles in the FFT reflections.     

Structural,electrical and mechanical properties of selenium doped thallium based high-temperature superconductors

In this study, highly-refined chemical powders were synthesized by having them ready in appropriate stoichiometric proportions with conventional solid state reaction method so that they would produce the superconductor TlPb_0.3Sr₂Ca_1−xSe_xCu₂O_y (x = 0; 0.4; 0.6; 1.0). This study aims to understand effect of the selenium doping on the superconducting, structural and mechanical properties of the aforementioned superconducting material. The effect of the doping rates on the structural and electrical properties of the sample has been identified. Electrical characteristics of the TlPb_0.3Sr₂Ca_1−xSe_xCu₂O_y material were measured using standard four point probe method. Structural characteristics were examined with the powder X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Mechanical properties were analyzed with Vickers microhardness measurements on the sample surface. According to the results, it was observed that the reflection comes from the (00l) and parallel planes increased with Se doping. Particle size increases with increasing doping ratio. According to results of the mechanical measurements, all samples exhibit indentation size effect (ISE) behavior. Comparing the obtained results with theoretical studies, it was understood that Hays Kendall approach is the best method in determination of mechanical properties and analyzing microhardness of the materials.     

Surface morphology evolution and ablation mechanism of SiC–Si multiphase ceramic coating on graphite under oxy-acetylene flame

A dense SiC–Si coating with average thickness of 580 μm was prepared on graphite by pack cementation. The surface morphology evolution and ablation mechanism of the coating at about 1780 °C were investigated by oxy-acetylene flame. After applying SiC–Si coating, the ablation surface temperature dropped about 300 °C. The ablation products SiO₂ presented high viscosity and provided good protection in the early-to-middle stage of the ablation. The mechanical denudation gradually became severe with the ablation time increasing. Finally, the convection between the gases formed in the subsurface and the ablative gases turned out to be the primary ablation barrier.     

The effect of grain refinement on the adhesion of an alumina scale on an aluminide coating

To understand the effect of grain refinement on the thermally grown alumina scale adhesion to the metal substrate, two δ-Ni₂Al₃ coatings, one coarse-grained (∼70 μm) and the other ultrafine-grained (generally below ∼500 nm), were prepared. The cyclic oxidation in air at 1100 °C shows that the ultrafine-grained (UFG) coating is better oxidation resistant than the coarse-grained (CG) coating due to the formation of a more adherent alumina scale. The latter is intrinsically correlated with the fact that the aluminide grain refinement helps to increase the oxide/metal strength through a route to prevent the formation of large-sized voids at the interface.     

Growth and characterization of 4-methyl benzene sulfonamide single crystals

Single crystals of 4-methyl benzene sulfonamide (4MBS) were successfully grown from aqueous solution by low temperature solution growth technique. The grown crystal was characterized by single crystal XRD and powder XRD methods to obtain the lattice parameters and the diffraction planes of the crystal. UV–vis–NIR absorption spectrum was used to measure the range of optical transmittance and optical band gap energy. The optical transmission range was measured as 250–1200 nm. FTIR spectral studies were carried out to identify the presence of functional groups in the grown crystal. The thermal behavior of the crystal was investigated from thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study. The absence of SHG was noticed by Kurtz and Perry powder technique. The third order NLO behavior of the material was confirmed by measuring the nonlinear optical properties using Z-scan technique and it was found that the crystal is capable of exhibiting saturation absorption and self-defocusing performance.     

Strontium and zinc co-substituted nanophase hydroxyapatite

It is well documented that biological hydroxyapatite (HA) differs from pure and synthetically produced HA, and contains of a mixture of calcium phosphate (CaP) phases in addition to a range of impurity ions, such as strontium (Sr²⁺), zinc (Zn²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺), fluoride (F^-) and carbonate(CO₃^2-), but to name a few. Further to this, biological apatite is generally in the form of rod (or needle-like) crystals in the nanometre (nm) size range, typically 60 nm in length by 5–20 nm wide. In this study, a range of nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA), substituted nHA materials and co-substituted nHA (based on Sr²⁺ and Zn²⁺) were manufactured using an aqueous precipitation method. Sr²⁺ and Zn²⁺ were chosen due to the significant performance enhancements that these substitutions can deliver. The materials were then characterised using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) techniques. The TEM results show that all of the samples produced were nano-sized, with Zn-substituted nHA being the smallest crystals around 27 nm long and 8 nm wide. The FTIR, XRD and XPS results all confirm that the materials had undergone substitution with either Sr²⁺ and Zn²⁺, for Ca²⁺ within the HA lattice (or both in the case of the co-substituted materials). The FTIR results confirmed that all of the samples were carbonated, with a significant loss of hydroxylation as a consequence of the incorporation of Sr²⁺ and Zn²⁺ into the HA lattice. None of the materials synthesised here in this study contained any other impurity CaP phases. Therefore this study has shown that substituted and co-substituted nanoscale apatites can be prepared, and that the degree of substitution (and the substituting ion) can have a profound effect of the attendant materials’ properties.     

Effects of annealing on nanocrystalline Bi2S3 thin films prepared by chemical bath deposition

Nanocrystalline Bi₂S₃ thin films are deposited on tin chloride treated glass substrate from the solution containing bismuth nitrate, triethanolamine (TEA) and thioacetamide (TAM) at a bath temperature 318 K. The prepared films are subsequently annealed at different temperatures for studying the effect of thermal treatment on the structural, surface morphology, optical and electrical properties of the films. The X-ray diffraction studies affirmed that the deposited films are orthorhombic structures with average crystallites size of 14 nm to 28 nm. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed that the films comprise of grains of spherical shape of unequal size. It is also observed that the small particles aggregate together to form a larger cluster. The average grain sizes determined from the TEM images are smaller than the crystallites size obtained from the XRD studies. The optical band gap of the films has been estimated to be 2.24–2.05 eV for the as-prepared and annealed films, respectively. The electrical conductivity of the as prepared Bi₂S₃ films at room temperature is found to be in the order of 10⁻³ Ω⁻¹ m⁻¹.