National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

W-Si-C composites were fabricated by active filler controlled pyrolysis of W powder (high tungsten content) and W-SiC powder mixtures (low tungsten content), infiltrated by a preceramic polymer and heat treated at temperatures from 1600 to 2000 degrees C. Material with high volume fraction of W in initial powder-polymer mixture, formed a composite material composed of W, W2C and W5Si3 with closed porosity in a single polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) cycle. After heat treatment at 1700 degrees C the material exhibited flexural strength above 350 MPa, hardness of 7.8 GPa and indentation modulus of 250 GPa. Room temperature thermal conductivity of the composite was rather low, 23 Wm(-1) K-1, however, thermal conductivity increased with increasing temperature achieving 35 Wm(-1) K-1 at 1000 degrees C. The effect of W as active filler in W-SiC powder mixtures with low volume fraction of tungsten was negligible. Therefore, six polymer infiltration and pyrolysis cycles were used to achieve significant densification with 15% porosity. The material fabricated at 1800 degrees C was composed of SiC, WC and WSi2 and exhibited flexural strength of 400 MPa and room temperature thermal conductivity of 100 W m(-1) K-1, which decreased to 32 W m(-1) K-1 at 1000 degrees C. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Powder mixtures of MgB2 and B4C with composition ((MgB2) + (B4C) x, x = 0.005, 0.01, 0.03) were consolidated by Spark Plasma Sintering at 1150 degrees C for 3 min. The average particle size of B4C raw powder was relatively high of 4 mm. Despite this, it is shown that processing processes are fast and, as in the case of the in-situ routes, for our ex-situ method carbon substitutes for the boron in the crystal lattice of MgB2. Specifics of microstructure are discussed based on electron microscopy observations. Carbon substitution and microstructure contribute to enhancement of the critical current density J(c) at high magnetic fields and of the irreversibility field H-irr. Samples are shown to be in the point pinning limit with some tendency toward the grain boundary pinning depending on B4C doping amount and temperature. An optimum composition is found for x = 0.01: for this sample, at 20 K, a J(c) of 100 A/cm(2) is obtained at 5.35 T. This value is higher than for the pristine MgB2 sample and for an optimum ex-situ nano-SiC-doped sample obtained for the same SPS processing conditions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Composites consisting of tantalum fiber/powder dispersed in a nanostructured W matrix have been consolidated by spark and pulse plasma sintering as well as by hot isostatic pressing. The microstructural observations revealed that the tungsten-tantalum fiber composites consolidated by hot isostatic pressing and pulse plasma sintering presented a continuous layer of Ta2O5 phase at the W/Ta interfaces, while the samples consolidated by spark plasma sintering evidenced a Ta+Ta2O5 eutectic mixture due to the higher temperature of this consolidation process. Similar results have been obtained for the tungsten-tantalum powder composites. A (W, Ta) solid solution was detected around the prior nanostructured W particles in tungsten-tantalum powder composites consolidated by spark and pulse plasma sintering. Higher densifications were obtained for composites consolidated by hot isostatic pressing and pulse plasma sintering. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nano-composite magnets with L1(0) structure derived from binary FePt alloys and prepared as melt-spun ribbons are of current interest due to their higher operating temperature and the ability to be cast as a two-phase magnet with exchange spring magnetic properties, as both soft and hard magnetic phase may emerge from the same metastable precursor, i.e. the disordered cubic A1 phase. The present paper studies the effect of Mn addition on the thermal stability and phase structure, on the abundance of the hard magnetic phase and relative proportion of the soft ones, on the microstructure of the alloy as a function of temperature and on the overall magnetic properties. The interplay of the various magnetic sublattices in the ordering of the L1(0) phases as a consequence of introducing antiferromagnetically coupled Mn atoms in the alloy composition is discussed and interpreted in terms of microstructural changes induced by this addition as revealed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and Xray diffraction. The temperature evolution of the phase composition and structural parameters is monitored using synchrotron radiation powder diffraction, while the compositional aspects are investigated using proton-induced X-ray emission and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Magnetic measurements reveal the magnetic parameters of interest (coercivity, remanence, Curie temperature, saturation magnetization), as well as the exchange-coupled two-phase nature of these magnets and provide information that hints at possible spin reorientation transitions in the Mn-containing planes of the L1(0) superlattice. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancement at low temperatures of the Raman scattering excited by laser light situated near the edge of the fundamental absorption band is often encountered when studying nanoscale structures. Theory devoted to this phenomenon has established that it originates in an exciton-phonon interaction process, known as the Frohlich interaction, Such a phenomenon was observed in PbI2. The experimental data conclude that the enhancement of the Raman emission results from: (i) an optical excitation near edge of fundamental absorption band; (ii) it is conditioned by the existence of excitonic PL; (iii) its occurrence is different over stokes and anti-stokes Raman branches as result of the different overlapping of the Raman spectral range and the excitonic PL band profile; and (iv) it appears more intense in micrometric powders or in bulk crystalline material. These data are interpreted as stimulated Raman effect resulting from the mixing of the pump laser light and the excitonic light. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dense samples (relative density > 93%) of bulk MgB2 with GeO2 additions were obtained by Spark Plasma Sintering. The critical current density J(c) of the added samples is improved at high magnetic fields when compared to the pristine sample. The optimum composition is for MgB2(GeO2)(0.005). For this sample, a J(c)(20 K) = 10(2) A/cm(2) is obtained at 5.1 T versus 3.9 T for the pristine sample. Ge substitution in the crystal lattice of MgB2 can be considered negligible, and T-c,T-onset and T-c,T-midpoint from magnetization measurements scatter within 0.2 and 0.6 K, respectively. TEM investigations show some specific details at nano scale: the tendency to form secondary phases (25-100 nm) with sphere-like or irregular shapes is observed and discussed. Samples are composites and the residual strain of MgB2 is constant for pristine and GeO2-added samples. Therefore, pinning enhancement leading to improvement of Jc for the GeO2 added samples is purely a 'microstructure' effect due to the presence of secondary phases. The point pinning is determined to be the predominant mechanism. Addition of a higher amount of GeO2 is shifting the pinning mechanism toward a grain boundary pinning. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The half-metallic properties of a new and promising full-Heusler compound, Zr2CoSn, are investigated by means of ab initio calculations within the Density Functional Theory framework. It was shown that the ferromagnetic ordered Hg2CuTi-type crystal structure is energetically the most favorable for this compound. The total magnetic moment is 3 mu(B)/f.u. and follows a typical Stater-Pauling dependence. The half metallicity disappears if the unit cell volume is contracted by more than 5%. 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Previous studies have shown that the magnetic parameters of the Romanian loess/paleosol sequences have recorded Quaternary glacial/interglacial cycles over the last 600 kyr. Previous rock magnetic investigations pointed out that the magnetic enhancement in Romanian loess sequences is mainly due to pedogenic magnetite close to superparamagnetic/stable single domain boundary. We report the first reconstruction of grain size distribution (GSD) of the superparamagnetic (SP) particles for two Romanian loess deposits, Costinesti and Mircea Voda, located in the Dobrogea Plateau between the Danube River and the Black Sea. The GSDs were obtained using both the wide-band frequency spectrum of magnetic susceptibility (FSMS) method and low temperature Mossbauer spectroscopy. The FSMS method shows that the SP particles are present both in loess and paleosols. The GSDs in loess are shifted to slightly higher diameters with respect to paleosols. The concentration of SP particles has an opposite trend. The largest value is reached in the forest paleosol and the lowest in the loess samples. Both loess and paleosols indicated almost the same dominant grain size (about 17 nm in paleosols and 18 nm in loess samples). However the GSD shapes in loess are different than those found in paleosols. in the paleosols, the shape of GSDs seems to be independent of climate and degree of pedogenesis. These factors control only the concentration of SP particles present in each paleosol. Temperature dependent Mossbauer spectroscopy also supports the presence of SP particles both in loess and paleosol with a mean diameter around 13-14 nm. Dispersion of the diameters in the case of Mossbauer spectroscopy varies from sample to sample being probably affected by random surface defects. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Homogeneous hybrids in which iron oxide nanoparticles are entrapped within polymer structure are of interest for their potential applications in biomedical field, such as diagnostic, therapeutic and theranostic purposes. For this reason, hybrid nanomaterials based on branched polyethyleneimine (PEI) and iron oxide with different ratios were synthesized in a single step by hydrothermal procedure at high pressure and low temperature. Iron oxide is formed in the presence of branched PEI and the interaction between them takes place in the reaction medium. The influence of synthesis parameters on the hybrid formation, as well as chemical and structural properties was studied by means of FTIR, DSC-TG, HRTEM, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), magnetic measurements (SQUID) and Fe-57 Mossbauer analyses. It has been shown that synthesis parameters influence thermal stability and morphology of the hybrids. FeO(OH) crystallites of 2-5 nm are formed. Iron oxyhydroxide nanoparticles strongly entrapped in PEI structure are obtained. The low and distributed values of the specific spontaneous magnetisation in samples prepared under the same pressure conditions support the presence of very fine FeO(OH) nanoparticles, which formation and magnetic properties are depending on the mass ratio between iron oxide and PEI. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A phenomenological 2D model, simulating the martensitic transformation, is built upon existing experimental observations that the size of the formed plates - in direct transformation - decreases as the temperature is lowered; then they transform back in reversed order. As such, if a reverse transformation is incomplete (arrested), the subsequent direct one will show anomalously a large number of big size plates - old plus newly formed - but consequentially a depletion of intermediate sizes, due to geometrical constraints, phenomenon that generates thermal memory. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.