فصلنامه مواد پیشرفته در مهندسی
سال سی و چهارم شماره 3 (پاییز 1394)

Mullite and alumina are common in high-temperature applications because of their low thermal expansion coefficient and good thermal shock resistance. Evolution of SiC in the matrix and using it as reinforcing phase can improve thermo-mechanical properties of these materials. Also, in-situ formation of the reinforcing phases by using inorganic materials is an economical process. In this work, crystallization of SiC as reinforcing phase in the matrix of mullite-alumina by carbothermal reaction processes of inorganic materials (andalusite and kaolinite) was studied. According to the ratio of C/SiO2 and process conditions, some properties of the composite such as phase transformation, microstructure and physical and mechanical properties were investigated. The results showed that optimal ratio of C/SiO2 and firing temperature of densification to form SiC crystals were 3.5 and 1600°C for andalusite and 5.5 and 1500°C for kaolinite.

The purpose of this work was to study the hydrogen adsorption on the surface of mesoporous materials based on silica (SBA-16) modified with palladium via temperature. Since mesoporous silica materials have a high specific surface area, and the ordered mesoporous size of 2-10nm, they are suitable for adsorption and storage of hydrogen. SBA-16 is suitable for this purpose due to its cubic crystalstructure and open pores. Single-stage sol-gel method was used to produce nanostructure composite from salt of palladium (PdCl3) and mesoporous silica precursor. The aging time was selected as 12 hr at 80˚C. Furthermore, the obtained materials were heated at 550˚C for 6 hr to remove surfactant and to form pores. Then the materials were characterized by large angle and small angle x-ray diffraction analysis, and hydrogen absorption analysis at upto 200kPa pressure at three different temperatures of -196˚C (77 K), -123˚C (150 K) and 30˚C (303 K). Furthermore, adsorption-desorption of nitrogen gas was studied. The surface morphology was observed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). In addition, the amount of palladium, oxygen, and silicon were measured by using energy dispersive spectroscopy) EDS). Finally, the functional groups on the surface of mesoporous silica materials were evaluated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results of XRD and EDS analyses confirmed the presence of palladium and palladium oxide in mesoporous amorphous silica. In addition, BET results showed that addition of palladium in SBA-16 decreased the surface area, and produced 791 and 538m2/g for SBA-16 and SBA-16/Pd, respectively. Hydrogen absorption in nano structure composite was decreasing with temperatur in comparison with SAB-16. On the other hand, the maximum hydrogen absorption in the nano structure composite containing palladium was obtained at -196˚C (77 K).

In this investigation, Ni47Mn40Sn13 ferromagnetic shape memory alloy was prepared by mechanical alloying. The metal powders were ball milled in argon atmosphere for 20 hours. X-ray diffraction pattern confirmed formation of crystalline structure of Heusler alloy. As-milled powder samples were sealed in quartz tubes under high vacuum and subjected to heat treatments at 950°C for different time durations. Then, the effect of isothermal ageing on structural, magnetic and electrical properties of samples was investigated. Results of electrical resistance displayed a metal-like behavior around martensitic transformation. The results showed that 16 hours of annealing was the optimal time for producing this alloy which could be an appropriate candidate for magnetic refrigerant.

Sodium molybdate (Na2MoO4) as a grain refiner was used to refine the microstructure of Al-0.7Fe alloy. Al-Fe samples with the addition of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 wt.% sodium molybdate were fabricated by casting in sand molds at 750 ͦC. The microstructures of the as-cast samples were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the present phases were revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of sodium molybdate on the microstructure was examined by measuring the average grain sizes of the alloys, determining the widths of intermetallic compounds and carrying out hardness and tensile tests. The results showed that the addition of sodium molybdate modified the microstructure of Al-Fe alloy by reducing the average grain sizes. Also, it was found that the optimum amount of sodium molybdate to add to Al-0.7Fe alloy melt was 0.3 wt.% in this study.

In this study, the effect of nano-titania addition on the mechanical strength of mullite-bonded alumina-siliconcarbide nano-composites was investigated. To this end, the gel-casting process via nano-silica sol was used for shaping the nano-composite.The firing temperature of composition was determined by use of STA. The compressive and bending strengths of samples were measured after firing at 1300 °C. Besides, the physical properties, phase composition and microstructure of the composites were evaluated after firing. The results showed that the use of nano-titania up to 1 wt.% had a higher effect on improvement of nano-composite mechanical strength. The nano-titania addition led to increasing of mullite phase and higher growth of its needle-like grains. Enhancing of ceramic bonds between grains and the improvement of mechanical strength were obtained by increasing the mullite phase.

Conventionally, a film of TiO2 particles of ~300 nm size is employed in DSCs as the back reflector film to enhance the light harvesting. In this study, two electrolytes with different transparencies, iodide-based and cobalt-based electrolytes, were used to investigate the transparency effect of electrolytes on light back-scattering from back scattering layer and also to study its effect on the performance of DSCs. The use of cobalt-based electrolyte is recommended from the view point of optical properties as due to the light absorption in electrolytes, the current density losses are 2.9mA/cm2 and 4.2 mA/cm2 in cobalt- and iodide-based electrolytes, respectively, and the transmission of 100% is observed for cobalt-based electrolyte in 500-600 nm in spite of iodide-based electrolyte. Use of light back-scattering layer, unlike iodide-based cell, causes external quantum efficiency in cobalt-base cell to increase for the wavelengths lower than 350 nm since cobalt-base electrolyte has transparency in this region. In addition, optical calculations demonstrate that in the range 400-500 nm, in which dye has a noticeable absorption, absorption loss is 40% and 30% for iodide- and cobalt-based electrolytes, respectively.

In this research, stiffness of polymer-clay nanocomposites was simulated by Mori-Tanaka and two and three dimensional finite element models. Nanoclays were dispersed into polymer matrix in two ways, namely parallel and random orientations toward loading direction. Effects of microstructural parameters including volume fraction of nanoclays, elastic modulus of nanoclays and interphase, thickness of interphase, aspect ratio of nanoclays and random orientation of nanoclays on elastic modulus of the nanocomposite were investigated by finite element model. Comparing the simulation with experimental results showed that the Mori-Tanak simulation results were closer to the experimental results. Analysis of results showed that the volume fraction of nanoclay, elastic modulus of nanoclay, deviation of nanoclay layers with respect to loading direction, nanoclays aspect ratio, thickness of interphase and the elastic modulus of interphase had respectively the most to the least effect on elastic modulus of nanocomposite.

Titanium dioxide-nickel oxide porous coatings were synthesized by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO)/ ElectroPhoretic Deposition (EPD) in one step and within a short time. The main purpose of this research was to increase photocatalytic activity of titanium oxide by increasing surface area and coupling of titanium oxide with nickel oxide. Applied voltage effects on phase structure, surface morphology and photocatalytic efficiency of coatings were studied. Phase structure and surface morphology of the synthesized catalysts were investigated by XRD and SEM, respectively. Photocatalytic efficiency of the samples was studied through measuring the decomposition rate of 4-chlorophenol. The results showed that the coatings mainly consisted of anatase and nickel oxide phases whose amounts in coatings increased with the voltage. There was an enhancement of the photocatalytic efficiency in TiO2/NiO composite coatings compared with TiO2 coatings. Besides, there was an optimum amount of NiO to reach maximum photocatalytic efficiently.

Precipitation has always been one of the important methods in the preparation of ceramic nanopowders. In this study, the most important parameters, ageing time and concentration parameters, have been studied. Yttrium oxide (Yttria) nanopowder was synthesized by precipitation method. Yttria micropowder and ammonium hydrogen carbonate were used as precursor materials. The study involved aging time and concentration in four and three levels, repectively (3, 6, 12 and 24h for ageing time and 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 mol/L for concentration). Synthesized phases, thermal behavior and particle size were studied by X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis (FTIR) was used for studying bonding before and after the heat treatment at 900, 1000 and 1100 °C.

Aluminium 5xxx alloys excellent properties make them suitable for many industrial applications. The corrosion behavior of this alloy family in industrial environments such as sea water is the main focus of many researches. Due to need for joining large segments of this alloys, the effect of single as well as multipass (double and triple pass) gas metal arc welding (GMAW) on microstructure and corrosion behavior of Al5083-H321 alloy was studied. For this purpose, ER5183 filler metal was used. Microstructures were evaluated using optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Corrosion measurements were performed using open circuit potential test, immersion test in 3.5%NaCl solution and polarization tests. Results indicated that the corrosion resistance of the two passes weldment was improved in comparison with the base metal and its icorr and Ecorr were equal to 0.087´10-6 (µA/cm2) and -0.4395 (V), respectively.