The β-phase Titanium (β-Ti) alloys have been under the spotlight in the recent past for their use as biomedical prosthetic materials owing to their excellent properties such as low elastic modulus, high corrosion resistance and tensile strength. Recently, Niobium (Nb) has gained a lot of attention as a β-phase stabilizing element in Ti alloys to replace Vanadium (V) due to its excellent solubility in Ti, low elastic modulus and biocompatibility. In this work, low cost Ti-20Nb binary alloy has been fabricated via powder metallurgy procedures. The blended powder mixtures of Ti and Nb were sintered at 900°C for 20 mins by the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) with an applied uniaxial pressure of 40 MPa. The heating rate was fixed at 50°C/min. The sintered alloy was subject to heat treatments at 1200°C in vacuum condition for various time durations. The characterizations of microstructure obtained during this process were done using FE-SEM, EDS and XRD. By increasing heat treatment time, as understood, the volume of residual Nb particles was decreased resulting in accelerated diffusion of Nb into Ti. Micro hardness of the alloy increased from 340 to 355 HV with the increase in β phase content from 30 to 45%. The resultant alloys had relatively high densities and homogenized microstructures of dispersed lamellar β grains in α matrix.
The Nb-Si based in-situ composite was produced by resistive sintering (RS) technique. In order to identify present phases, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used on the composite. XRD analysis revealed that the composite was composed of Nb solid solution (Nbss) and α-Nb5Si3 phases. The microstructure of the composite was characterized by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) was performed for the micro-analysis of the chemical species. SEM-EDS analyses show that the microstructure of composite consists of Nbss, Nb5Si3 and small volume fraction of Ti-rich Nbss phases. The micro hardness of constituent phases of the composite was found to be as 593±19 and 1408±33 Hv0.1, respectively and its relative density was % 98.54.
Bismuth niobate (BiNbO4) ceramics were fabricated by mixed oxide method and sintered by presureless sintering method. BiNbO4 ceramics doped with V2O5 additive in amount 0.125 wt%, 0.250 wt% and 1 wt% of was sintered at T = 910°C whereas BiNbO4 ceramics doped with 2 wt% of CuO additive was sintered at T = 890°C and T = 910°C. It was found that V2O5 additive improved morphology of the ceramic samples. However, the chemical composition of BiNbO4 ceramics in relation to bismuth oxide and niobium oxide manifested a tendency of lack of Bi2O3 component. Absorption bands for the BiNbO4 compound were identified. FTIR band positions associated with NbO6 octahedra suggested that the crystal structure changes after V2O5 incorporation.
The results are based on two experimental high-manganese X98MnAlSiNbTi24-11 and X105MnAlSi24-11 steels subjected to thermo-mechanical treatment by hot-rolling on a semi-industrial processing line. The paper presents the results of diffraction and structural studies using scanning and transmission electron microscopy showing the role of Nb and Ti micro-additives in shaping high strength properties of high-manganese austenitic-ferritic steels with complex carbides. The performed investigations of two experimental steels allow to explain how the change cooling conditions after thermo-mechanical treatment of the analysed steels affects the change of their microstructure and mechanical properties. The obtained results allow assessing the impact of both the chemical composition and the applied thermo-mechanical treatment technology on the structural effects of strengthening of the newly developed steels.
An important element of Internet of Things systems (IoT) is wireless data transmission. Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and LTE Cat M1 (LTE-M) are the new standards for such transmission intended for LTE cellular networks. Cellular network operators has recently launched such transmission. The article presents the results of measurements of NB-IoT transmission parameters in this network, inside the building and in open urban areas. The main features of the NBIoT system and measuring equipment are briefly discussed.
This study investigates the microstructures and the mechanical properties of equiatomic Ti20Mo20Ta20Nb20V20 and non-equiatomic Ti40Mo15Ta15Nb15V15 and Ti60Mo10Ta10Nb10V10 HEAs using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and micro-Vickers hardness test. The specimens were fabricated using the vacuum arc remelting (VAR) process and homogenized at a temperature of 1300°C for 4 h in a vacuum atmosphere. The determined thermodynamic parameters, Ω ≥ 1.1, δ ≤ 6.6%, and VEC < 6.87, suggested that the HEAs consisted of BCC solid solutions. XRD patterns of all the HEAs displayed single BCC phases. The difference in the solidification rate led to the micro-segregation associated with the elements Ta and Mo enriched in the dendrite arms and the elements V and Ti in the inter-dendritic regions. The HEA specimens showed a decrease in hardness with higher concentration of Ti element because the intrinsic hardness of Ti is lower as compared to the intrinsic hardness of Nb and Mo.
This paper presents a study on anodizing titanium alloy Ti-6Al-7Nb in electrolyte of dilute sulfuric acid. The effects of the parameters – voltage, anodizing time, and electrode distance on the anodic film properties have been investigated. The anodic layers are found to become more compact with the increase of the applied voltage in the electrolytic cell. The microstructure, chemical element distribution and mechanical properties, i.e. microroughness and microhardness of the anodic coatings obtained at different operating conditions have been evaluated.
In the present paper results of the studies devoted to computer simulations of dielectric response of electroceramics in a frequency domain as well as analysis of the experimental data are given. As an object of investigations BiNbO4-based microwave ceramics was taken. Simulations of the hypothetical impedance response of the ceramic system were performed under assumption of the brick-layer model. A strategy for analysis and modelling of the impedance data for microwave electroceramics was discussed. On the base of the discussed strategy modelling of the dielectric response of BiNbO4 ceramics was performed with the electric equivalent circuit method. The Voigt’s and Maxwell’s circuits were taken as electric models. Parameters of the electric components of the circuits were determined and related to parameters of the ceramic object under study. It was found that fitting quality was good and changed within the range χ2 = 6.78 × 10–4 – 6.77 × 10–5 depending on the model.
Composition effect on electro-optic (EO) properties of a LiNbO3 (LN) single-crystal has been investigated in a Li2O-content range of 47.0–49.95 mol%. Some non-congruent LN crystals with different Li2O-contents were prepared by performing Li-deficient or Li-rich vapour transport equilibration treatments on as-grown congruent LN crystals. Unclamped EO coefficients γ13 and γ33 of these samples were measured by a Mach–Zehnder interferometric method. The measurements show that in the Li-deficient regime both γ13 and γ33 increase by ∼8% as Li2O-content decreases from the congruent 48.6 mol% to the 47.0 mol% in the Li-deficient regime. The feature is desired for the EO application of the Li-deficient crystal. In the near-stoichiometric regime, both γ13 and γ33 reveal a non-monotonic dependence. As the Li2O-content increases from the 48.6 mol%, the EO coefficient decreases. Around Li2O-content 49.5 mol%, a minimum is reached. After that, the EO coefficient recovers slowly. At the stoichiometric composition, it recovers to a value close to that at the congruent point. Comparison shows that different crystal growth methods give rise to different defect structure features and hence different composition effects.