Qingling Lin

Significance of stacking fault energy on microstructural evolution in Cu and Cu-Al alloys processed by high-pressure torsion

Disks of pure Cu and several Cu–Al alloys were processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature through different numbers of turns to systematically investigate the influence of the stacking fault energy (SFE) on the evolution of microstructural homogeneity. The results show there is initially an inhomogeneous microhardness distribution but this inhomogneity decreases with increasing numbers of turns and the saturation microhardness increases with increasing Al concentration. Uniform microstructures are more readily achieved in materials with high or low SFE than in materials with medium SFE, because there are different mechanisms governing the microstructural evolution. Specifically, recovery processes are dominant in high or medium SFE materials, whereas twin fragmentation is dominant in materials having low SFE. The limiting minimum grain size (d min) of metals processed by HPT decreases with decreasing SFE and there is additional evidence suggesting that the dependence of d min on the SFE decreases when the severity of the external loading conditions is increased.

Synthesis of Dental Enamel-like Hydroxyapaptite through Solution Mediated Solid-State Conversion

An ordered dental enamel-like structure of hydroxyapatite (HAp) was achieved through a solution mediated solid-state conversion process with organic phosphate surfactant and gelatin as the mediating agent. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) tests demonstrated uniform sizes in the obtained apatite nanorods which arranged in parallel to each other along the c-axis and formed organized microarchitectural units over 10 microm in size. The sizes of the synthetic hydroxyapatite nanorods were similar to that observed in enamel from human teeth. The formation and regulation of the orientation and size of HAp nanorods might lead to a better understanding of the biomineralization process for the preparation of high performance biomaterials.

Sintering kinetics of YAG ceramics

Solid state reactive (SSR) sintering kinetics was observed for YAG ceramics. There were two densification stages in sintering process due to its reaction. After the first stage, samples began to expand, then, the second densification stage began. At a heating rate of 10 °C/min, the sample warped down and warped back to straight. The apparent activation energy of the first densification process was about 522 kJ/mol for the initial shrinkage of Al2O3 and Y2O3 mixed powder green-body, which increased in the following process due to the solid state reaction. In the second densification stage, synthesis reaction of YAG still worked. Green-bodies processed with higher heating rate got more shrinkage at the same temperature than lower heating rate green bodies. And its kinetic field diagram was abnormal, compared with that of other reported ceramics, such as Al2O3. It was found that the reaction of YAG provided positive effect to the sintering driving force. The apparent activation energy for densification of SSR YAG sintered in ArH5 atmosphere was 855 kJ/mol at temperature holding sintering. And the apparent activation energy for grain growth was 1053 kJ/mol.

Sintering of transparent Nd:YAG ceramics in oxygen atmosphere

Abstract Yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) transparent ceramics were fabricated by sintering at oxygen atmosphere. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was added as the sintering additive to control the grain growth and densification. Pores were eliminated clearly at temperature lower than 1700 °C, while grain size was around 3 μm. The in-line transmittance was 80% at 1064 nm when samples were sintered at 1710 °C. The effect of TEOS was studied in oxygen atmosphere sintering for Nd:YAG transparent ceramics. At higher temperature like 1710 °C, the grain growth mechanism was solute drag, while at 1630 and 1550 °C the grain growth was controlled by liquid phase sintering mechanism. And 0.5 wt.% TEOS was the best adding content for Nd:YAG sintered in oxygen atmosphere.