• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.101-108
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• 2018

AA7010 is an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy containing Zr, developed as an alternate to traditional AA7075 alloy owing to their high strength combined with better fracture toughness. It is necessary to improve the corrosion resistance and surface properties of the alloy by incorporating plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) method. AA7010-T7452 aluminum alloy has been processed through the forging route with multi-stage working operations, and was coated with $10{\mu}m$ thick $Al_2O_3$ ceramic aluminina coating using the plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) method. The corrosion, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and nano-mechanical behaviours were examined by means of potentiodynamic polarization, slow strain rate test (SSRT) and nano-indentation tests. The results indicated that the additional thermomechanical treatment during the forging process caused a fully recrystallized microstructure, which lead to the poor environmental cracking resistance of the alloy in 3.5% NaCl solution, despite the overaging treatment. Although the fabricated PEO coating improved general corrosion resistance, the brittle nature of the coating did not provide any improvement in SCC resistance of the alloy. However, the hardness and elastic modulus of the coating were significantly higher than the base alloy.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.94-98
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• 2008

Silicon nitride($Si_3N_4)$ is one of the most widely used structural ceramic materials. However silicon nitride is difficult to sinter because of its strong covalent bonding characteristics. In this study, $Si_3N_4$ ceramics were fabricated by spark plasma sintering process with $Y_2O_3$ and $Al_2O_3$ addition to improve the sinterability and the mechanical properties and their phase transformation behavior, microstructure and mechanical properties were evaluated. Fully densified $Si_3N_4$ ceramics could be obtained by spark plasma sintering process at a lower temperature than conventional sintering method. The formation of network microstructure was affected by the addition of $Al_2O_3$ because it could accelerate a to ${\alpha}$ to ${\beta}$ phase transformation of $Si_3N_4$. As a result, the mechanical properties depended on amounts of $Al_2O_3$ addition. The hardness value increased with increasing ${\alpha}$-phase fraction, but fracture toughness value increase with increasing ${\beta}$-phase fraction.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.462-466
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• 2015

This paper reports the microstructure of hot-pressed $ZrB_2$-SiC ceramics with added $B_4C$ as characterized by transmission electron microscopy. $ZrB_2$ has a melting point of $3245^{\circ}C$, a relatively low density of $6.1g/cm^3$, and specific mechanical properties at an elevated temperature, making it a candidate for application to environments with ultra-high temperatures which exceed $2000^{\circ}C$. Due to the non-sinterability of $ZrB_2$-based ceramics, research on sintering aids such as $B_4C$ or $MoSi_2$ has become prominent recently. From TEM investigations, an amorphous layer with contaminant oxide is observed in the vicinity of $B_4C$ grains remaining in hot-pressed $ZrB_2$-SiC ceramics with $B_4C$ as an additive. The effect of a $B_4C$ addition on the microstructure of this system is also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.395-402
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• 2015

The suspension plasma spray (SPS) technique has been used to obtain dense $Y_2O_3$ coatings and to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional air plasma spray (APS). SPS uses suspensions containing micrometer or sub-micrometer sized powders dispersed in liquid media. In this study, microstructure developments and mechanical properties have been investigated as functions of particle size of source material and plasma processing parameters such as plasma power and stand-off distance. The microstructure of the coating was found to be highly related to the particle size and the plasma processing parameters, and it was directly reflected in the hardness and the adhesion strength. When fine powder (BET $16.4m^2/g$) was used as a raw material in the suspension, there was, with increasing stand-off distance, a change from a dense structure with a slightly bumpy surface to a porous structure with a cauliflower-like surface. On the other hand, when a coarse powder (BET $2.8m^2/g$) was used, the coating density was lower, with microscopic splats on the surface. Using fine $Y_2O_3$ powders, the coating layer with an optimum short stand-off distance showed a high hardness of approximately 90% of that of sintered $Y_2O_3$ and an adhesion strength several times higher than that of the coating by conventional APS.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.285-291
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• 2017

This study investigated the effects of grain size and phase constitution on the mechanical properties of $3Y-ZrO_2$ by varying the sintering conditions. The raw powder prepared by a low-cost wet milling using the coarse solid oxide powders was sintered by both pressureless sintering and hot-pressing, respectively. As increasing holding time at $1450^{\circ}C$ for pressureless sintering, it promoted the microstructural coarsening of matrix grains and the phase transformation to tetragonal phase, whereas the bimodal microstructure embedded with abnormal $cubic-ZrO_2$ grains was observed regardless of sintering time. On the other hand, the specimens hot-pressed at $1300^{\circ}C$ for 2 h reached ~ 97% of relative density with homogeneous fine microstructure and mixed phase constitution. It was found that the proportion of untransformed monoclinic zirconia had the most adverse effect on the biaxial strength compared to the impacts of grain size and density. The pressureless sintering of the low-cost powder for prolonged sintering time to 8 h led to a decent combination of mechanical properties ($H_V=13.2GPa$, $K_{IC}=8.16MPa{\cdot}m^{1/2}$, ${\sigma}=981MPa$).

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.199-203
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• 2002

To investigate an effect of sintering atmosphere on microstructure and properties of metallic particle dispersed ceramic based composites, the powder mixtures of $Al_2O_3$/Fe-Ni, synthesized by chemical solution process, were hot-pressed under different atmospheres such as hydrogen or argon gas and different sintering temperature. Hot-pressed composite in a hydrogen atmosphere exhibited less reaction phase of $FeAl_2O_4$ and enhanced mechanical properties than that in an argon atmosphere. Furthermore, decreasing hot-pressing temperature produced a refinement of ceramic matrix and metallic dispersion particles as well as improvement of mechanical properties. The change of mechanical properties in the composites with different sintering conditions was explained by microstructural characteristics relating to reaction phase formation.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.298-304
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• 2009

The effect of the surface treatments on the high temperature properties of the Inconel 617, one of the promising candidate alloys for high temperature heat-transport system, has been studied. Various surface modification methods including a rapid thermal process(RTP), a hydrothermal treatment, and a physical vapor deposition($2{\mu}m$ thick TiAlN film by an arc discharge) were applied to the Inconel 617. The morphological and the structural properties of the surface-modified Inconel 617 samples after heat treatment at $1000^{\circ}C$ in the air were compared to find out whether inhomogeneous formation of $Cr_2O_3$ crust at the surface region was suppressed or not. TiAlN-coated Inconel 617 showed homogeneous microstructure and the lowest wear loss compared to bare, RTP- and hydrothermally-treated Inconel 617 by suppressing the $Cr_2O_3$ crust formation.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.87-90
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• 2008

Co-Pt alloy thin films were galvanostatically electrodeposited on Ru (30 nm)/Ta (5 nm)/Si (100) substrates from a amino-citrate based electrolyte. We used Ru(0002)-oriented buffer layers to control the crystallinity and orientation of the Co-Pt alloy thin films. The effect of solution temperature on the microstructure and magnetic properties of the Co-Pt alloy thin film was investigated. The samples were characterized by EDS, FESEM, XRD diffractometer using Cu $K{\alpha}$ radiation. The magnetic properties of these films were analyzed by a VSM and torque magnetometer. The Co-Pt alloy thin films were exhibited very high out-of-plane coercivity and squareness of the multilayer were 6527 Oe and 0.93, respectively, without heat treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.560-565
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• 2003

M-doped (M=Al, Ni) ZnO thermoelectric materials were fully densified at low temperatures of 800∼1,000$^{\circ}C$ and their sintering characteristics and microstructural features were investigated. Electron microscopic analysis showed that the addition of NiO promoted tile formation of solid solution and caused actively grain growth. The addition of A1$_2$O$_3$ prevented the evaporation of pure ZnO at grain boundaries and suppressed the grain growth by the formation of secondary phase. In case of the addition of A1$_2$O$_3$ together with NiO, the specimen showed an excellent microstructure and also the SEM-EBSP (Electron Back-scattered Diffraction Pattern) analysis confirmed that it shows a superior grain boundary distribution to the others specimens. These microstructural characteristics induced by the addition of A1$_2$O$_3$ together with NiO may increase the electrical conductivity by the increase in carrier concentration and decrease the thermal conductivity by the phonon scattering effect and, consequently, improve the thermoelectric property.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.103-109
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• 2019

Cu-added SKD11 was manufactured through the casting process and the effects of Cu addition with different contents (0, 1, 2 and 3 wt%) and aging treatment on microstructure, mechanical characteristics such as tensile strength and hardness, and thermal conductivity were investigated. The microstructure was analyzed by FE-SEM and XRD, the mechanical characteristics by Rockwell hardness tester and Tensile tester, and the thermal conductivity by Laser flash. As a result, SKD11 containing Cu had higher hardness than as-received SKD11. The hardness of as-cast SKD11 containing 1 wt% Cu was 42.4 HRC, whereas the hardness of asreceived SKD11 cast alloy was 19.5 HRC, indicating that the hardness was greatly improved when Cu was added. In the case of tensile strength, Cu-added SKD11 cast alloy had lower tensile strength than as-received SKD11, and the tensile strength tended to increase as Cu content increased. After heat treatment, however, tensile strength of as-received SKD11 was significantly increased, whereas in the case of Cu-added SKD11, as the Cu contents increased, the tensile strength increased less and even reduced at 3 wt% Cu. The thermal conductivity of Cu-added SKD11 cast alloy was about 13 W m^-1 K^-1, which was lower than that of the asreceived SKD11 cast alloy (28 W m^-1 K^-1). After the heat treatment, however, the thermal conductivity of as-received SKD11 was reduced, while the thermal conductivity of the SKD11 added with Cu was increased. Thermal conductivity was generally larger with less Cu content, and this tendency became more pronounced after heat treatment.