Thin Ag films deposited onto substrates by DC magnetron sputtering and thereafter annealed ,it temperatures 100-50 are investigated by scanning tunneling and atomic forte microscopy. It is shown that the film surface topography and microstructure are considerably changed as a result of annealing. To provide a quantitative estimation of the surface topography changes of Ag films the surface fractal dimension was calculated. Elasticity and hardness of the films are studied by a nanoindentation technique. The films are found to have value of elastic modulus close to that of bulk silver while their hardness and yield stress are essentially higher.

Ni coated composite was successfully Prepared by the electroless deposition Process. The average size of Ni particles coated on the matrix powder was about 20 nm. It was hard to find any reaction compound as an impurity at interface between and Ni particles after sintering. The characterization of microstructure crystal structure and fracture behavior of the sintered body were investigated using XRD, TEM and Victors hardness tester, and compared with those of the sintered monolithic body. Many dislocations were observed in the Ni phase due to the difference of thermal expansion coefficient between and Ni phase, and no observed microcracks at their and Ni interface. In the /Ni composite, the main fracture mode showed a mixed fracture with intergranular and transgranuluar type having some ,surface roughness. The fracture toughness was slightly increased due to the plastic deformation mechanism of Ni phase in the /Ni composite.

Alpha-SiAlON ceramics having various compositions and modifying cations were investigated with respect to their phase stability, transformation kinetics. and resulting microstructures. Each composition was heat treated at 150 for 1h and measured the -SiAlON transformation. The phase-boundary composition in the single-phase -SiAlON region showed sluggish transformation from - to -SiAlON compared to the phase-center composition in the diagram. Using the different rare earth modifying cations, dependence of transformation kinetics on the phase stability in a fixed composition was also explained. By changing size of the stable u-phase region with exchanging cations, systematic change in transformation was observed. Transformation rate of -SiAlON at low temperature has an important role on controlling the final microstructure. Less transformation gives more chances to develop elongated grain in the microstructure.

The recent trend of miniaturization and high performance of vehicle engines has put an urgent necessity for the development of valve seats which can operate under more severe conditions. In order to develope valve seat material that has the most excellent wear resistance at operating temperature of engine through improvement of the progress of work. the effects of mixing ratio of the milled powder on sintered and Cu-infiltrated properties of sintered valve seats have been studied. The resultant radial crushing strength and hardness of sintered specimens were gradually increased with increasement of volume of milled powders. It is because increasement of sintering density by increasing of surface diffusion. The hardness of Cu-infiltrated specimens became lower than that of the commercial powders as the increasement of volume of milled powders. It was due to the decrease of the amount of the martensite. By results of this research, It has been found that martensite is formed around of the Cu-infiltrated site and the decrease of the amount of the martensite is due to decrease of the amount of the Cu-infiltrated site by the decrease of gas channel.

The effect of bedding on the microstructure of added with ultra-fine SiC was investigated. The bedding and the addition of ultra-fine SiC effectively inhibited grain growth of matrix grain. The microstructures of the specimens sintered with bedding powder consisted of fine-grains as compared with the specimens sintered without bedding powder. In addition, the grain size and the difference of grain size between the specimens sintered with bedding and without bedding was reduced with increasing SiC content. Some ultra-fine SiC particles were trapped in the grains growed. The number of SiC particles trapped in the grains increased with increasing the grain growth. When ultra-fine SiC particles were added in the ceramics, the strength was improved but the toughness was decreased, which was considered to be resulted from the decrease of the grain size

Al-l4wt.%Ni-l4wt.% Mm(Mm=misch metal) alloy powders rapidly solidified by the gas atomization method were subjected to mechanical milling(MM). The morphology, microstructure and hardness of the powders were investigated as a function of milling time using scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and Vickers microhardness tester. Microstructural evolution in gas-atomized Al-l4wt.%Ni-l4wt.% Mm(Mm=misch metal) alloy powders was studied during mechanical milling. It was noted that the as-solidified particle size of decreases during the first 48 hours and then increases up to 72 hours of milling due to cold bonding and subsequently there was continuous refinement to on milling to 200 hours. Two microstructurally different zones, Zone A, which is fine microstructure area and Zone B, which has the structure of the as-solidified powder, were observed. The average thickness of the Zone A layer increased from about 10 to in the powder milled for 24 hours. Increasing the milling time to 72 hours resulted in the formation of a thicker and more uniform Zone A layer, whose thickness increased to about . The TEM micrograph of ball milled powder for 200 hours shows formation of nano-particles, less than 20 nm in size, embedded in an Al matrix.

Hybrid ceramic particle reinforced 6061 and 5083 Al composite powders were prepared by the combination of twin rolling and stone mill crushing process, followed by consolidating processes of cold compaction, degassing and hot extrusion. The composite bar consists of lamellar structure of ceramic particle rich area and matrix area, in which the hybrid was decomposed into each TiC of about and particles of about in diameter. It also found that fine precipitates of about 30 nm were embedded in the matrix, which have grains of about 3 . Higher UTS was measured at the 5083 composite bar compared to the conventionally fabricated composite, due to again refinement effect by the rapid solidification. No particle was shown to form in the interface between the matrix and reinforcement, whereas carbon was diffused into the matrix.

Microstructure plays an important role in controlling the fracture behaviour of carbon-carbon composites and hence their mechanical properties. In the present study effort was made to understand how the different interfaces (fiber/matrix interactions) influence the development of microstructure of the matrix as well as that of carbon fibers as the heat treatment temperature of the carbon-carbon composites is raised. Three different grades of PAN based carbon fibres were selected to offer different surface characteristics. It is observed that in case of high-strength carbon fiber based carbon-carbon composites, not only the matrix microstructure is different but the texture of carbon fiber changes from isotropic to anisotropic after HTT to 2600℃. However, in case of intermediate and high modulus carbon fiber based carbon-carbon composites, the carbon fiber texture remains nearly isotropic at 2600℃ because of relatively weak fiber-matrix interactions.

Recently, the fabrication process of the W-Cu nanocomposite powders has been studied to improve the sinterability through the mechanical alloying and reduction of W and Cu oxide mixtures. In this study. the W-Cu composites were produced by mechanochemical process (MCP) using mixtures with two different milling types of low and high energy, respectively. These ball-milled mixtures were reduced in atmosphere. The ball-milled and reduced powders were analyzed through XRD, SEM and TEM. The fine W-Cu powder could be obtained by the high energy ball-milling (HM) compared with the large Cu-cored structure powder by the low energy ball-milling (LM). After the HM for 20h, the W grain size of the reduced W-Cu powder was about 20-30 nm.