• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.282-286
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• 2016

A sintered body of $TiB_2$-reinforced iron matrix composite ($Fe-TiB_2$) is fabricated by pressureless-sintering of a mixture of titanium hydride ($TiH_2$) and iron boride (FeB) powders. The powder mixture is prepared in a planetary ball-mill at 700 rpm for 3 h and then pressurelessly sintered at 1300, 1350 and $1400^{\circ}C$ for 0-2 h. The optimal sintering temperature for high densities (above 95% relative density) is between 1350 and $1400^{\circ}C$, where the holding time can be varied from 0.25 to 2 h. A maximum relative density of 96.0% is obtained from the ($FeB+TiH_2$) powder compacts sintered at $1400^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. Sintered compacts have two main phases of Fe and $TiB_2$ along with traces of TiB, which seems to be formed through the reaction of TiB2 formed at lower temperatures during the heating stage with the excess Ti that is intentionally added to complete the reaction for $TiB_2$ formation. Nearly fully densified sintered compacts show a homogeneous microstructure composed of fine $TiB_2$ particulates with submicron sizes and an Fe-matrix. A maximum hardness of 71.2 HRC is obtained from the specimen sintered at $1400^{\circ}C$ for 0.5 h, which is nearly equivalent to the HRC of conventional WC-Co hardmetals containing 20 wt% Co.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.426-431
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• 2015

Microstructural examination of the Nb-Si-B alloys at Nb-rich compositions is performed. The Nb-rich corner of the Nb-Si-B system is favorable in that the constituent phases are Nb (ductile and tough phase with high melting temperature) and $T_2$ phase (very hard intermetallic compound with favorable oxidation resistance) which are good combination for high temperature structural materials. The samples containing compositions near Nb-rich corner of the Nb-Si-B ternary system are prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) process using $T_2$ and Nb powders. $T_2$ bulk phase is made in arc furnace by melting the Nb slug and the Si-B powder compact. The $T_2$ bulk phase was subsequently ball-milled to powders. SPS is performed at $1300^{\circ}C$ and $1400^{\circ}C$, depending on the composition, under 30 MPa for 600s, to produce disc-shaped specimen with 15 mm in diameter and 3 mm high. Hardness tests (Rockwell A-scale and micro Vickers) are carried out to estimate the mechanical property.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.263-269
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• 2016

Graphene oxide (GO) powder processed by Hummer's method is mixed with p-type $Bi_2Te_3$ based thermoelectric materials by a high-energy ball milling process. The synthesized GO-dispersed p-type $Bi_2Te_3$ composite powder has a composition of $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_3$ (BSbT), and the powder is consolidated into composites with different contents of GO powder by using the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. It is found that the addition of GO powder significantly decreases the thermal conductivity of the pure BSbT material through active phonon scattering at the newly formed interfaces. In addition, the electrical properties of the GO/BSbT composites are degraded by the addition of GO powder except in the case of the 0.1 wt% GO/BSbT composite. It is found that defects on the surface of GO powder hinder the electrical transport properties. As a result, the maximum thermoelectric performance (ZT value of 0.91) is achieved from the 0.1% GO/BSbT composite at 398 K. These results indicate that introducing GO powder into thermoelectric materials is a promising method to achieve enhanced thermoelectric performance due to the reduction in thermal conductivity.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.420-425
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• 2015

Rare-earth zirconates, such as lanthanum zirconates and gadolinium zirconates, have been intensively investigated due to their excellent properties of low thermal conductivity as well as chemical stability at high temperature, which can make these materials ones of the most promising candidates for next-generation thermal barrier coating applications. In this study, three compositions, lanthanum/gadolinium zirconates with reduced rare-earth contents from stoichiometric $RE_2Zr_2O_7$ compositions, are fabricated via solid state reaction as well as sintering at $1600^{\circ}C$ for 4 hrs. The phase formation, microstructure, and thermo-physical properties of three oxide ceramics are examined. In particular, each oxide ceramics exhibits composite structures between pyrochlore and fluorite phases. The potential of lanthanum/gadolinium zirconate ceramics for TBC applications is also discussed.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.413-419
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• 2015

Lanthanum zirconate, $La_2Zr_2O_7$, is one of the most promising candidates for next-generation thermal barrier coating (TBC) applications in high efficient gas turbines due to its low thermal conductivity and chemical stability at high temperature. In this study, bulk specimens and thermal barrier coatings are fabricated via a variety of sintering processes as well as suspension plasma spray in lanthanum zirconates with reduced rare-earth contents. The phase formation, microstructure, and thermo-physical properties of these oxide ceramics and coatings are examined. In particular, lanthanum zirconates with reduced rare-earth contents in a $La_2Zr_2O_7-4YSZ$ composite system exhibit a single phase of fluorite or pyrochlore after fabricated by suspension plasma spray or spark plasma sintering. The potential of lanthanum zirconate ceramics for TBC applications is also discussed.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.408-412
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• 2015

This study attempts to manufacture a Ni-Cr-Al-Y coating layer using a kinetic spray process and investigates the microstructure and physical properties of the manufactured layer. The Ni-22Cr-10Al-1Y (wt.%) composition powder is used, and it has a spherical shape with an average diameter of $23.7{\mu}m$. Cu plate is used as the substrate. Optical microscope, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and Vickers hardness test are carried out to characterize the macroscopic properties of the coating layer. Furthermore, the coating layer underwent vacuum heat treatment at temperatures of $400^{\circ}C$ and $600^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour to check the effect of heat treatment temperature on the properties. The manufactured coating layer is 1.5 mm thick, and featured identical phases to those found in the powder. The porosity of the coating layer is measured at 2.99%, and the hardness is obtained at $490.57H_v$. The layer shows reduced porosity as heat treatment temperature increased, and hardness is reduced at $400^{\circ}C$ but shows a slight increase at $600^{\circ}C$. Based on the findings described above, this study also discusses possible manufacturing methods for a Ni-Cr-Al-Y coating layer using the kinetic spray process.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 2016

A microfluidic reactor with computer-controlled programmable isocratic pumps and online detectors is employed as a combinatorial synthesis system to synthesize and analyze materials for fabricating CdSe quantum dots for various applications. Four reaction condition parameters, namely, the reaction temperature, reaction time, Cd/Se compositional ratio, and precursor concentration, are combined in synthesis condition sets, and the size of the synthesized CdSe quantum dots is determined for each condition. The average time corresponding to each reaction condition for obtaining the ultraviolet-visible absorbance and photoluminescence spectra is approximately 10 min. Using the data from the combinatorial synthesis system, the effects of the reaction conditions on the synthesized CdSe quantum dots are determined. Further, the data is used to determine the relationships between the reaction conditions and the CdSe particle size. This method should aid in determining and selecting the optimal conditions for synthesizing nanoparticles for diverse applications.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.148-153
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• 2010

Thermal barrier systems have been widely investigated over the past decades, in order to enhance reliability and efficiency of gas turbines at higher temperatures. Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is one of the most leading materials as the thermal barriers due to its low thermal conductivity, thermodynamic stability, and thermal compatibility with metal substrates. In this work, rare-earth oxides with pyrochlore phases for thermal barrier systems were investigated. Pyrochlore phases were successfully formed via solid-state reactions started from rare-earth oxide powders. For the heat-treated samples, thermo-physical properties were examined. These rare-oxide oxides showed thermal expansion of $9{\sim}12{\times}10^{-6}/K$ and thermal conductivity of 1.2~2.4 W/mK, which is comparable with the thermal properties of YSZ.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.142-147
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• 2010

The ultrafine titanium carbonitride ($TiC_xN_y$) particles below 100 nm in mean size, including various carbon and nitrogen contents (x=0.55~0.9, y=0.1~0.5), were successfully synthesized by new Mg-thermal reduction process. Nanostructured sub-stoichiometric titanium carbide ($TiC_x$) particles were initially produced by the magnesium reduction of gaseous $TiCl_4+x/2C_2Cl_4$ at $890^{\circ}C$ and post heat treatments in vacuum were performed for 2 hrs to remove residual magnesium and magnesium chloride mixed with $TiC_x$. Finally, well C/N-controled $TiC_xN_y$ phases were successfully produced by nitrification heat treatment under normal $N_2$ gas atmosphere at $1150^{\circ}C$ for 2 hrs. The values of purity, mean particle size and oxygen content of produced particles were about 99.3%, 100 nm and 0.2 wt.%, respectively.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.247-252
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• 2012

Effect of Cu and $DyF_3$ powder mixing with Cu-free (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B jet-milled powder on the magnetic properties of sintered magnets was investigated. The coercivity of a magnet prepared from the Cu-free (Nd, Dy)-Fe-B powder was about 10 kOe even though the alloy powder already contained some Dy (3.5 wt%). When small copper powder was blended, however, the coercivity of the magnet increased almost 100%, exhibiting about 20 kOe. On the contrary, the coercivity enhancement was moderate, about 4 kOe, when dysprosium content in the sintered magnet was simply increased to 4.9 wt% by the addition of small $DyF_3$3 powder.