Dense nanostructured was synthesized by high-frequency induction-heated combustion synthesis (HFIHCS) method within 1 minute in one step from mechanically activated Nb and Si powders. Highly dense with relative density of up to 99% was simultaneously synthesized and consolidated under the combined effects of an induced current and mechanical pressure of 60 MPa. The average grain size and mechanical properties (hardness and fracture toughness) of the compound were investigated

Nanostructured materials exhibit attractive mechanical properties that are often superior to the performance of their coarse-grained counterparts. However, one major drawback is their low ductility, which limits their potential applications. In this paper, different strategies to obtain both high strength and enhanced ductility in nanostructured materials are reported for Ti-base and Zr-base alloys. The first approach consists of designing an in-situ composite microstructure containing ductile bcc or hop dendrites that are homogeneously dispersed in a nanostructured matrix. The second approach is related to refining the eutectic structure of a Ti-Fe-Sn alloy. For all these materials, the microstructure, mechanical properties, deformation and fracture mechanisms will be discussed.

Magnetic properties of nanostructured materials are affected in complicated manner by their microstructure such as pain size (or particle size), internal strain and crystal structure. Thus, studies on the synthesis of nanostructured materials with controlled microstructure are necessary fur a significant improvement in magnetic properties. In the present work, nanostructured Fe-Co alloy powders with a grain size of 50 nm were successfully fabricated from the powder mixtures of (99.9% purity) and by chemical solution mixing and hydrogen reduction.

In the development of new hydrogen absorbing materials for a next generation of metal hydride electrodes for rechargeable batteries, metastable Mg-Ni-based compounds find currently special attention. Amor phous-nanocrystalline and alloys were produced by mechanical alloying and melt-spinning and characterized by means of XRD, TEM and DSC. On basis of mechanically alloyed Mg-Ni-Y powders, complex hydride electrodes were fabricated and their electrochemical behaviour in 6M KOH (pH=14,8) was investigated. The electrodes made from powders, which were prepared under use of a SPEX shaker mill, with a major fraction of nanocrystalline phase reveal a higher electrochemical activity far hydrogen reduction and a higher maximum discharge capacity (247 mAh/g) than the electrodes from alloy powder with predominantly amorphous microstructure (216 mAh/g) obtained when using a Retsch planetary ball mill at low temperatures. Those discharge capacities are higher that those fur nanocrystalline electrodes. However, the cyclic stability of those alloy powder electrodes was low. Therefore, fundamental stability studies were performed on and ribbon samples in the as-quenched state and after cathodic hydrogen charging by means of anodic and cathodic polarisation measurements. Gradual oxidation and dissolution of nickel governs the anodic behaviour before a passive state is attained. A stabilizing effect of higher fractions of yttrium in the alloy on the passivation was detected. During the cathodic hydrogen charging process the alloys exhibit a change in the surface state chemistry, i.e. an enrichment of nickel-species, causing preferential oxidation and dissolution during subsequent anodization. The effect of chemical pre-treatments in 1% HF and in solution on the surface degradation processes was investigated. A HF treatment can improve their anodic passivation behavior by inhibiting a preferential nickel oxidation-dissolution at low polarisation, whereas a treatment has the opposite effect. Both pre-treatment methods lead to an enhancement of cathodically induced surface degradation processes.

In the present work, the influence of the ball-milling time, milling atmosphere and weight ratio of ball to powder on characteristics of was studied. Results show that, the grain sizes of the and CuO in the ball-milled powder mixture were significantly decreased with increasing the milling time. Those of each oxide ball-milled in Argon and Hexane atmosphere for 30 and 20 hour were about 98 and 84 nm, respectively. After milling of 20 hour in Hexane as PCA, the powder had a homogeneously mixed structure and the average size of powders was determined to about 230nm.

The nanostructured cerium oxide powders were synthesized by spray thermal decomposition process for the use as the raw materials of resistive oxygen sensor. The synthesis routes consisted of 1) spray drying of water based organic solution made from cerium nitrate hydrate () and 2) heat treatment of spray dried precursor powders at in air atmosphere to remove the volatile components and identically to oxidize the cerium component. The produced powders have shown the loose structure agglomerated with extremely fine cerium oxide particles with about 15 nm and very high specific surface area (). The oxygen sensitivity, n ( and the response time, measured at in the sample sintered at , were about 0.25 and 3 seconds, respectively, which had much higher performances than those known in micron or sized sensors.

Nanostructured Alumina - 20 vol% 3YSZ composites powder were synthesized by wet-milling technique. The starting materials were a mixture of Alumina micro-powder and 3YSZ nano-powders. Nano-crystalline grains were obtained after 24 h milling time. The nano-structured powder compacts were then processed to full density at different temperatures by high-frequency induction heat sintering (HFIHS). Effects of temperature on the mechanical and microstructure properties have been studied. composites with higher mechanical properties and small grain size were successfully developed at relatively low temperatures through this technique.

In the present, the focus is on the synthesis of nanostructured TiC/Co composite powder by the spray thermal conversion process using titanium dioxide powder has an average particle size of 50 nm and cobalt nitrate as raw materials. The titanium-cobalt-oxygen based oxide powder prepared by the combination of the spray drying and desalting methods. The titanium-cobalt-oxygen based oxide powder carbothermally reduced by the solid carbon. The synthesized TiC-15wt.%Co composite powder at 1473K for 2 hours had an average particle size of 150 nm.

Nanostructured or partially amorphous Al-and Zr-based alloys are attractive candidates for advanced high-strength lightweight materials. Such alloys can be prepared by quenching from the melt or by powder metallurgy using mechanical attrition techniques. This work focuses on mechanically attrited powders and their consolidation into bulk specimens. Selected examples of mechanical deformation behavior are presented, revealing that the properties can be tuned within a wide range of strength and ductility as a function of size and volume fraction of the different phases.

Nanostructured aluminum powders were obtained by means of planetary ball milling with methanol as the Process Control Agent (PCA). The behavior, during milling, was considered measuring the microhardness and grain size at different milling times. Bulk near-full density samples were sintered using the Spark Plasma Sintering technology with different schedules: temperature of and , pressure of 30 MPa and 60 MPa and different modes of applying the pressure were changed in order to understand the behavior during sintering. All the samples retained their nanostructure with an increase of the grain size from about 46 up to 70-90 nm.

New manufacturing processes, such as thermochemical, mechanochemical and chemical vapor condensation processes have been developed to obtain nanostructured WC/Co materials. Nanoscale size WC/Co composite powders of near 100-150nm can be synthesizes by thermochemical and mechanochemical processes using water soluble precursors. Non-agglomerated and nano sized WC powder can be synthesized by the chemical vapor condensation process using metallorganic precursors as starting materials. In this paper, the scientific and technical issues on synthesis and consolidation of nanostructured WC/Co alloys produced by new chemical processes are introduced.

Magnetic properties of nanostructured materials are affected by the microstructures such as grain size (or particle size), internal strain and crystal structure. Thus, it is necessary to study the synthesis of nanostructured materials to make significant improvements in their magnetic properties. In this study, nanostructured Fe-20at.%Co and Fe-50at.%Co alloy powders were prepared by hydrogen reduction from the two oxide powder mixtures, and . Furthermore, the effect of microstructure on the magnetic properties of hydrogen reduced Fe-Co alloy powders was examined using XRD, SEM, TEM, and VSM.

The structural and magnetic properties of nanostructued alloy powders were investigated. Commercial alloy powders (Hoeganaes Co., USA) with purities were used to fabricate the nanostructure Fe-Si alloy powders through a high-energy ball milling process. The alloy powders were fabricated at 400 rpm for 50 h, resulting in an average grain size of 16 nm. The nanostructured powder was characterized by fcc and hcp phases and exhibited a minimum coercivity of approximately 50 Oe

In this study the nanostructured ceramics have been fabricated by the combined application of magnetic pulsed compaction (MPC) and subsequent spark plasma sintering (SPS), and their density and hardness properties were investigated. The prepared by the combined processes showed an increase by in density, approaching the value close to the true density, and an enhancement by in hardness, compared to those fabricated by MPC or static compaction method followed by sintering treatment.