Structure of diamond and diamond like carbon thin films grown by hot-filament chemical vapour deposition technique

Micro-crystalline diamond (MCD) and diamond like carbon (DLC) thin films were deposited on silicon (100) substrates by hot-filament CVD process using a mixture of CH₄ and H₂ gases at substrate temperature between 400–800°C. The microstructure of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The low temperature deposited films were found to have a mixture of amorphous and crystalline phases. At high temperatures (> 750°C) only crystalline diamond phase was obtained. Scanning electron micrographs showed faceted microcrystals of sizes up to 2μm with fairly uniform size distribution. The structure of DLC films was studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry technique. An estimate of the amount of carbon bonds existing insp ² andsp ³ form was obtained by a specially developed modelling technique. The typical values ofsp ³/sp ² ratio in our films are between 1·88–8·02. Paper presented at the poster session of MRSI AGM VI, Kharagpur, 1995     

Effect of ground fly ash and ground bagasse ash on the durability of recycled aggregate concrete

This research aims to study the effect of ground fly ash (GFA) and ground bagasse ash (GBA) on the durability of recycled aggregate concrete. Recycled aggregate concrete was produced with recycled aggregate to fully replace crushed limestone in the mix proportion of conventional concrete (CON) and GFA and GBA were used to partially replace Portland cement type I at the rate of 20%, 35%, and 50% by weight of binder. Compressive strength, water permeability, chloride penetration depth, and expansion by sulfate attack on concretes were investigated.The results reveal that the use of GFA and GBA to partially replace cement in recycled aggregate concrete was highly effective in improving the durability of recycled aggregate concrete. The suitable replacement of GFA or GBA in recycled aggregate concrete to obtain the suitable compressive strength, low water permeability, high chloride penetration resistance, and high sulfate resistance is 20% by weight of binder.     

NaOH-activated ground fly ash geopolymer cured at ambient temperature

NaOH-activated ground fly ash geopolymers, cured at room temperature, were studied in this paper. Ground fly ash (GFA), with a median particle size of 10.5 μm, was used as source material. NaOH concentrations of 4.5-16.5 M (M) were used as an alkali activator. Compressive strength tests and microstructure observations using SEM, EDX, XRD and FTIR were performed. Results indicated that GFA gave higher strength geopolymer paste compared to original fly ash. Ground fly ash could be used as a source material for making geopolymers cured at room temperature. An increase in NaOH concentration from 4.5 to 14.0 M increased the strength of GFA geopolymer pastes. Microstructure studies indicated that NaOH concentrations of 12.0-14.0 M created new crystalline products of sodium aluminosilicate. The compressive strengths at 28 days of 20.0-23.0 MPa were obtained with the NaOH concentrations of 9.5-14.0 M. Increasing the NaOH concentration beyond this point resulted in a decrease in the strength of the paste due to early precipitation of aluminosilicate products.