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The aim of the present work is to explore the age-hardening potential of Ti-6Al-4V (Ti-64) alloy with variation of the starting microstructure, with attention to the precipitation of nano-sized Ti3Al phase, as influenced by microstructural features. The alloy was either solution-treated or deformed by compression at temperatures above and below its β-transus to produce microstructures comprising martensitic, lamellar and globular α morphologies, as well as the existence or absence of β phase, and subsequently submitted to ageing treatments at 400°C/8h using in situ x-ray diffraction. Precipitated fractions of Ti3Al were obtained via Rietveld refinement and aged microstructures were characterized by micro-hardness measurements. Results show that α2 precipitation is favored by a globular morphology of α and hindered by a martensitic α morphology, and suggest that the presence of β phase also has as influence on precipitation.

The austenitic stainless steels are a group of alloys normally used under high mechanical and thermal requests, in which high temperature oxidation is normally present due to oxygen presence. This study examines the oxide layer evolution for Fe24Cr12NiXNb modified austenitic stainless steel A297 HH with 0,09%Nb and 0,77%Nb content at 900°C under atmospheric air and isothermal oxidation. The modifiers elements such as Mo, Co and Ti, added to provide high mechanical strength, varied due to the casting procedure, however main elements such as Cr, Ni, Mn and Si were kept at balanced levels to avoid microstructure changing. The oxide layer analysis was performed by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The elemental analysis of the different phases was measured with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The Nb-alloyed steel generated a thicker Cr oxide layer. Generally elemental Nb did not provide any noticeable difference in oxide scale growth, for the specific range of Nb amount and temperature studied. High temperature oxidation up to 120h was characterized by protective Cr oxidation, after this period a non-protective Fe-based oxidation took place. Cr, Fe and Ni oxides were observed in the multilayer oxide scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiAlN/Ag multilayer coatings with a different number of bilayers and thicknesses of individual layers were fabricated by DC magnetron co-sputtering. Thermal conductivity was measured in dependence of Ag layer thickness. It was found anomalous low thermal conductivity of silver comparing to TiAlN and Ag bulk standards and TiAlN/TiN multilayers. The physical nature of such thermal barrier properties of the multilayer coatings was explained on the basis of reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy. The analysis shows that nanostructuring of the coating decreases the density of states and velocity of acoustic phonons propagation. At the same time, multiphonon channels of heat propagation degenerate. These results demonstrate that metal-dielectric interfaces in TiAlN/Ag coatings are insurmountable obstacles for acoustic phonons propagation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The room temperature growth of highly ＜111＞ oriented sputtered NiO thin films on glass and silicon substrates previously covered with a ＜111＞ oriented Cu2O film is reported. The results are compared to those obtained from single layer NiO thin films using the same deposition conditions. Electron microdiffraction analyses indicate that NiO columns are heteroepitaxially grown on the columns of a Cu2O seed layer. The well-matched atomic configurations between the Cu atoms in the {111} planes of Cu2O and the O atoms in the {111} planes of NiO may provide a strong driving force to promote this local heteroepitaxial growth. Such heteroepitaxial growth behavior in the columns can significantly improve crystallization. Moreover, valence electron energy loss spectroscopy has been employed to investigate the interband transition properties of the NiO films, which shows that the interband transition intensity can be tuned by this local heteroepitaxial growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Single-domain epitaxial ZnO films are grown near-room temperature (below 40 ℃C) on (0 0 0 1)-sapphire using reactive magnetron sputtering of a zinc target in the transition between the metallic and compound sputtering regimes. As the oxygen content in the reactive gas mixture is increased, the in-plane six-fold symmetry of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO, probed by ?-scan measurements, develops. Transmission electron microscopy analyses confirm that single-domain epitaxial layers are formed. This is accompanied by the incorporation of oxygen interstitial defects associated with oxygen over-stoichiometry and by compressive stresses. A model is proposed to explain the observed behaviour based on the transformation of the kinetic energy of fast oxygen particles into the mobility of the adatoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal behaviour (viscosity variation, dilatometric and crystallization trends) of several iron aluminium magnesium phosphate glasses that contain significant amounts (6--19 wt%) of uranium oxide (UO2·67) is presented as well as new data related to the densification of powder compacts prepared from such compositions. The sintering study of such vitreous powders can help to assess the relative capability for the immobilization and stability of the uranium oxide in these glassy or glass-ceramic matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]