The present study is intended to comparatively investigate the changes in microstructure and tensile properties at room and elevated temperatures in commercial AM50(Mg-5%Al-0.3%Mn) and 0.3 wt%CaO added ECO-AM50 alloys produced by permanent mould casting. The typical microstructure of AM50 alloy was distinctively characterized using two intermetallic compounds, β(Mg17Al12) and Al8Mn5, along with α-(Mg) matrix in an as-cast state. The addition of a small amount of CaO played a role in reducing dendrite cell size and quantity of the β phase in the AM50 alloy. It is interesting to note that the added CaO introduced a small amount of Al2Ca adjacent to the β compounds, and that inhomogeneous enrichment of elemental Ca was observed within the β phase. The ECO-AM50 alloy showed higher hardness and better YS and UTS at room temperature than did the AM50 alloy, which characteristics can be mainly ascribed to the finer-grained microstructure that originated from the CaO addition. At 175˚C, higher levels of YS and UTS and higher elongation were obtained for the ECO-AM50 alloy, demonstrating that even 0.3 wt%CaO addition can be beneficial in promoting the heat resistance of the AM50 alloy. The combinational contributions of enhanced thermal stability of the Ca-containing β phase and the introduction of a stable Al2Ca phase with high melting point are thought to be responsible for the improvement of the high temperature tensile properties in the ECO-AM50 alloy.
Synthesis of RGO (reduced graphene oxide)-CdS composite material was performed through CBD (chemical bath deposition) method in which graphene oxide served as the support and Cadmium Sulfate Hydrate as the starting material. Graphene-based semiconductor photocatalysts have attracted extensive attention due to their usefulness for environmental and energy applications. The band gap (2.4 eV) of CdS corresponds well with the spectrum of sunlight because the crystalline phase, size, morphology, specic surface area and defects, etc., of CdS can affect its photocatalytic activity. The specific surface structure (morphology) of the photocatalyst can be effective for the suppression of recombination between photogenerated electrons and holes. Graphene (GN) has unique properties such as a high value of Young's modulus, large theoretical specific surface area, excellent thermal conductivity, high mobility of charge carriers, and good optical transmittance. These excellent properties make GN an ideal building block in nanocomposites. It can act as an excellent electron-acceptor/transport material. Therefore, the morphology, structural characterization and crystal structure were observed using various analytical tools, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. From this analysis, it is shown that CdS particles were well dispersed uniformly in the RGO sheet. Furthermore, the photocatalytic property of the resulting RGO-CdS composite is also discussed in relation to environmental applications such as the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. It was found that the prepared RGO-CdS nanocomposites exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity as compared with that of CdS nanoparticles. Therefore, better efficiency of photodegradation was found for water purification applications using RGO-CdS composite.
ZnO thin films were grown on a sapphire substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. The characteristics of the thin films were investigated by ellipsometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), photoluminescence (PL), and Hall effect. The substrate temperature and growth time were kept constant at 200˚C at 30 minutes, respectively. The RF power was varied within the range of 200 to 500 W. ZnO thin films on sapphire substrate were grown with a preferred C-axis orientation along the (0002) plan; X-ray diffraction peak shifted to low angles and PL emission peak was red-shifted with increasing RF power. In addition, the electrical characteristics of the carrier density and mobility decreased and the resistivity increased. In the electrical and optical properties of ZnO thin films under variation of RF power, the crystallinity improved and the roughness increased with increasing RF power due to decreased oxygen vacancies and the presence of excess zinc above the optimal range of RF power. Consequently, the crystallinity of the ZnO thin films grown on sapphire substrate was improved with RF sputtering power; however, excess Zn resulted because of the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the ZnO thin films. Thus, excess RF power will act as a factor that degrades the device characteristics.
Recently, automobile parts have been required to have high strength and toughness to allow for weight lightening or improved stability. But, traditional micro-alloyed steel cannot be applied in automobile parts. In this study, we considered the influence of quenching temperature and cooling rate for specimens fabricated by vacuum induction furnace. Directly quenched micro-alloyed steel for hot forging can be controlled according to its micro structure and the heat-treatment process. Low carbon steel, as well as alloying elements for improvement of strength and toughness, was used to obtain optimized conditions. After hot forging at 1,200˚C, the ideal mechanical properties (tensile strength ≥ 1,000 MPa, Charpy impact value ≥ 100 J/cm2) can be achieved by using optimized conditions (quenching temperature : 925 to 1,050˚C, cooling rate : ≥ 5˚C/sec). The difference of impact value according to cooling rate can be influenced by the microstructure. A fine lath martensite micro structure is formed at a cooling rate of over 5˚C/sec. On the other hand, the second phase of the M-A constituent microstructure is the cause of crack initiation under the cooling rate of 5˚C/sec.
Enhancement of light trapping in solar cells is becoming increasingly urgent for the development of next generation thin film solar cells. One of the possible candidates for increasing light trapping in thin film solar cells that has emerged recently is the use of scattering from metallic nanostructures. In this study, we have investigated the effects of the geometric parameters of Ag nanorings on the light scattering efficiency by using three dimensional Finite Different Time Domain (FDTD) calculations. We have found that the forward scattering of incident radiation from Ag nanorings strongly depends on the geometric parameters of the nanostructures such as diameter, height, etc. The forward scattering to substrate direction is increased as the outer diameter and height of the nanorings decrease. In particular, for nanorings larger than 200 nm, the inner diameter of Ag nanorings should be optimized to enhance the forward scattering efficiency. Light absorption and scattering efficiency calculations for the various nanoring arrays revealed that the periodicity of nanorings arrays also plays an important role in the absorption and the scattering efficiency enhancement. Light scattering efficiency calculations for nanoring arrays also revealed that enhancement of scattering efficiency could be utilized to enhance the light absorption through the forward scattering mechanism.
Silica-based ceramic-matrix composites have shown promise as advanced materials for many applications such as chemical catalysts, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, and electronics. SiO2-CuO-CeO2 multi-component powders and their thin film, using an oxalic acid template as a chelating agent, have larger surface areas and more uniform pore size distribution than those of inorganic acid catalysts. SiO2-CuO-CeO2 composite powders were synthesized using tetraethylorthosilicate, copper (II) nitrate hemi (pentahydrate), and cerium (III) nitrate hexahydrate with oxalic acid as template or pore-forming agent. The process of thermal evolution, the phase composition, and the surface morphology of these powders were monitored by thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDXS). The mesoporous property of the powders was observed by Brunner-Emmett-Teller surface (BET) analysis. The improved surface area of this powder template with oxalic acid was 371.4m2/g. This multi-component thin film on stainless-steel was prepared by sol-gel dip coating with no cracks.
Hollow silica spheres were prepared by spray drying of precursor solution of colloidal silica. The precursor solution is composed of 10-20 nm colloidal silica dispersed in a water or ethanol-water mixture solvent with additives of tris hydroxymethyl aminomethane. The effect of pH and concentrations of the precursor and additives on the formation of hollow sphere particles was studied. The spray drying process parameters of the precursor feeding rate, inlet temperature, and gas flow rate are controlled to produce the hollow spherical silica. The mixed solvent of ethanol and water was preferred because it improved the hollowness of the spheres better than plain water did. It was possible to obtain hollow silica from high concentration of 14.3 wt% silica precursor with pH 3. The thermal conductivity and total solar reflectivity of the hollow silica sample was measured and compared with those values of other commercial insulating fillers of glass beads and TiO2 for applications of insulating paint, in which the glass beads are representative of the low thermal conductive fillers and the TiO2 is representative of infrared reflective fillers. The thermal conductivity of hollow silica was comparable to that of the glass beads and the total solar reflectivity was higher than that of TiO2.
We have grown AlN nanorods and AlN films using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy by changing the Al source flux. Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy of AlN was performed on c-plane Al2O3 substrates with different levels of aluminum (Al) flux but with the same nitrogen flux. Growth behavior of AlN was strongly affected by Al flux, as determined by in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction. Prior to the growth, nitridation of the Al2O3 substrate was performed and a two-dimensionally grown AlN layer was formed by the nitridation process, in which the epitaxial relationship was determined to be [11-20]AlN//[10-10]Al2O3, and [10-10]AlN//[11-20]Al2O3. In the growth of AlN films after nitridation, vertically aligned nanorod-structured AlN was grown with a growth rate of 1.6μm/h, in which the growth direction was<0001>, for low Al flux. However, with high Al flux, Al droplets with diameters of about 8μm were found, which implies an Al-rich growth environment. With moderate Al flux conditions, epitaxial AlN films were grown. Growth was maintained in two-dimensional or three-dimensional growth mode depending on the Al flux during the growth; however, final growth occurred in three-dimensional growth mode. A lowest root mean square roughness of 0.6 nm (for 2μm×2μm area) was obtained, which indicates a very flat surface.
In semiconductor manufacturing, the circuit integrity of packaged BGA devices is tested by measuring electrical resistance using test sockets. Test sockets have been reported to often fail earlier than the expected life-time due to high contact resistance. This has been attributed to the formation of Sn oxide films on the Au coating layer of the probe pins loaded on the socket. Similar to contact failure, and known as "fretting", this process widely occurs between two conductive surfaces due to the continual rupture and accumulation of oxide films. However, the failure mechanism at the probe pin differs from fretting. In this study, the microstructural processes and formation mechanisms of Sn oxide films developed on the probe pin surface were investigated. Failure analysis was conducted mainly by FIB-FESEM observations, along with EDX, AES, and XRD analyses. Soft and fresh Sn was found to be transferred repeatedly from the solder bump to the Au surface of the probe pins; it was then instantly oxidized to SnO. The SnO2 phase is a more stable natural oxide, but SnO has been proved to grow on Sn thin film at low temperature (< 150˚C). Further oxidation to SnO2 is thought to be limited to 30%. The SnO film grew layer by layer up to 571 nm after testing of 50,500 cycles (1 nm/100 cycle). This resulted in the increase of contact resistance and thus of signal delay between the probe pin and the solder bump.
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been widely used in many industrial applications because of their outstanding mechanical and chemical properties like hardness, wear resistance, lubricous property, chemical stability, and uniformity of deposition. Also, DLC films coated on paper, polymer, and metal substrates have been extensively used. In this work, in order to improve the printing quality and plate wear of polymer printing plates, different deposition conditions were used for depositing DLC on the polymer printing plates using the Pulsed DC PECVD method. The deposition temperature of the DLC films was under 100˚C, in order to prevent the deformation of the polymer plates. The properties of each DLC coating on the polymer concave printing plate were analyzed by measuring properties such as the roughness, surface morphology, chemical bonding, hardness, plate wear resistance, contact angle, and printing quality of DLC films. From the results of the analysis of the properties of each of the different DLC deposition conditions, the deposition conditions of DLC + F and DLC + Si + F were found to have been successful at improving the printing quality and plate wear of polymer printing plates because the properties were improved compared to those of polymer concave printing plates.
Metal nanowires can be coated on various substrates to create transparent conducting films that can potentially replace the dominant transparent conductor, indium tin oxide, in displays, solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, and electrochromic windows. One issue with these metal nanowire based transparent conductive films is that the resistance between the nanowires is still high because of their low aspect ratio. Here, we demonstrate high-performance transparent conductive films with silver nanofiber networks synthesized by a low-cost and scalable electrospinning process followed by two-step sequential thermal treatments. First, the PVP/AgNO3 precursor nanofibers, which have an average diameter of 208 nm and are several thousands of micrometers in length, were synthesized by the electrospinning process. The thermal behavior and the phase and morphology evolution in the thermal treatment processes were systematically investigated to determine the thermal treatment atmosphere and temperature. PVP/AgNO3 nanofibers were transformed stepwise into PVP/Ag and Ag nanofibers by two-step sequential thermal treatments (i.e., 150˚C in H2 for 0.5 h and 300˚C in Ar for 3 h); however, the fibrous shape was perfectly maintained. The silver nanofibers have ultrahigh aspect ratios of up to 10000 and a small average diameter of 142 nm; they also have fused crossing points with ultra-low junction resistances, which result in high transmittance at low sheet resistance.