Electro-explosive alloying of VT6 alloy surface by boron carbide powder with the subsequent electron-beam treatment

The formation of electro-explosive alloying zone with the thickness up to 50 µm has been revealed. It has been shown that it has a gradient structure, characterized by the decrease of carbon and boron concentration with the increase of the distance up to the treatment surface. The subsequent electron-beam treatment of alloying zone leads to flattening of alloying surface relief and is accompanied by the formation of a multilevel structure at the depth up to 30 µm, characterized by the interchange of some layers with a different level of alloying, having structure of a submicro- and nanoscale level

Surface structure of commercially pure VT1-0 titanium irradiated by an intense pulsed electron beam

It is shown that pulsed electron beam irradiation of commercially pure titanium at a beam energy density of 10 J/cm{2}, pulse duration of 150 [mu]s, number of pulses of N=5 pulses, and pulse repetition frequency of 0.3 Hz with attendant polymorphic [alpha]->[beta]->[ alpha] transformations allows a more than five-fold decrease in the grain and subgrain sizes of the material structure

Aluminum surface layer strengthening using intense pulsedbeam radiation of substrate film system

The paper presents formation of the substrate film system (Zr-Ti-Cu/Al) by electric arc spraying of cathode having the appropriate composition. It is shown that the intense beam radiation of the substrate film system is accompanied by formation of the multi-phase state, the microhardness of which exceeds the one of pure A7 aluminum by = 4.5 times

Modification of the sample's surface of hypereutectic silumin by pulsed electron beam

The article presents the results of the analysis of the elemental and phase composition, defect substructures. It demonstrates strength and tribological characteristics of the aluminium-silicon alloy of the hypereutectic composition in the cast state and after irradiation with a high-intensity pulsed electron beam of a submillisecond exposure duration (a Solo installation, Institute of High Current Electrons of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences). The research has been conducted using optical and scanning electron microscopy, and the X-ray phase analysis. Mechanical properties have been characterized by microhardness, tribological properties - by wear resistance and the friction coefficient value. Irradiation of silumin with the high-intensity pulsed electron beam has led to the modification of the surface layer up to 1000 microns thick. The surface layer with the thickness of up to 100 microns is characterized by melting of all phases present in the alloy; subsequent highspeed crystallization leads to the formation of a submicro- and nanocrystalline structure in this layer. The hardness of the modified layer decreases with the increasing distance from the surface exposure. The hardness of the surface layer is more than twice the hardness of cast silumin. Durability of silumin treated with a high intensity electron beam is ≈ 1, 2 times as much as the wear resistance of the cast material

The accumulation of femtosecond laser radiation energy in crystals of lithium fluoride

We present the results of studies of energy accumulation during the non-destructive interaction of extremely intense near infrared laser radiation with model wide band gap dielectric crystals of lithium fluoride, when the intensity of pulses is sufficient for effective highly nonlinear absorption of light and for the excitation of the electron subsystem of matter and the energy of pulses is still not sufficient for significant heating, evaporation, laser breakdown or other destruction to occur. We studied the emission of energy in the form of light sum of thermally stimulated luminescence accumulated under conditions of self-focusing and multiple filamentation of femtosecond laser radiation. It was established that it's the F2 and F[3]{+} color centers and supplementary to them centers of interstitial type which accumulate energy under the action of a single femtosecond laser pulses. When irradiated by series of pulses the F3, F[3]{-} and F[4] centers additionally appear. F2 centers are the main centers of emission in the process of thermally stimulated luminescence of accumulated energy. The interstitial fluoride ions (I-centers) are the kinetic particles. They split off from the X[3]{-} centers in the result of thermal decomposition of latter on the I-centers and molecules X[2]{0}. I-centers recombine with F[3]{+} centers and form F[2] centers in excited state. The latter produce the characteristic emission spectrum emitted in the form of thermally stimulated luminescence

Fabrication of endothelial cell-laden carrageenan microfibers for microvascularized bone tissue engineering applications

ecent achievements in the area of tissue engineering (TE) have enabled the development of three-dimensional (3D) cell-laden hydrogels as in vitro platforms that closely mimic the 3D scenario found in native tissues. These platforms are extensively used to evaluate cellular behavior, cell-cell interactions, and tissue-like formation in highly defined settings. In this study, we propose a scalable and flexible 3D system based on microsized hydrogel fibers that might be used as building blocks for the establishment of 3D hydrogel constructs for vascularized bone TE applications. For this purpose, chitosan (CHT) coated κ-carrageenan (κ-CA) microfibers were developed using a two-step procedure involving ionotropic gelation (for the fiber formation) of κ-CA and its polyelectrolyte complexation with CHT (for the enhancement of fiber stability). The performance of the obtained fibers was assessed regarding their swelling and stability profiles, as well as their ability to carry and, subsequently, promote the outward release of microvascular-like endothelial cells (ECs), without compromising their viability and phenotype. Finally, the possibility of assembling and integrating these cell-laden fibers within a 3D hydrogel matrix containing osteoblast-like cells was evaluated. Overall, the obtained results demonstrate the suitability of the microsized κ-CA fibers to carry and deliver phenotypically apt microvascular-like ECs. Furthermore, it is shown that it is possible to assemble these cell-laden microsized fibers into 3D heterotypic hydrogels constructs. This in vitro 3D platform provides a versatile approach to investigate the interactions between multiple cell types in controlled settings, which may open up novel 3D in vitro culture techniques to better mimic the complexity of tissues.Authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the personal grants SFRH/BD/42968/2008 through the MIT-Portugal Program (SMM) and SFRH/BD/64070/2009 (EGP). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no REGPOT-CT2012-316331-POLARIS and MIT/ECE/0047/2009 project

Effect of laser treatment of TiO2 on optical and photocatalytic properties

Nanomaterials based on dark titanium dioxide are of considerable interest as promising photocatalysts. In this work, titanium dioxide initially obtained by pulsed laser ablation (Nd:YAG laser with 1064 nm, 7 ns, 20 Hz) was subjected to additional laser treatment. The thus obtained powder materials were annealed and study of the structure by X-ray diffraction, optical properties by diffuse reflection spectroscopy, and photocatalytic properties in the processes of decomposition of the Rhodamine B dye and evolution of hydrogen from an aqueous methanol solution are presente

Study of highly defective titanium dioxide prepared via pulsed laser ablation

TiO2 powder was synthesized in the following way. At first, a colloidal solution of Ti in distilled water was obtained by PLA using Nd:YAG laser (wavelength of 1064 nm, frequency of 20 Hz, pulse duration of 7 ns). Then the colloidal solution was dried at 60 °C. After that, the powder was annealed at different temperatures

The Effect of vapor subcooling on film condensation of metals

This work presents an analysis of the interfacial "vapor-condensate" temperature distribution, which includes the effect of subcooling (supersaturation) in the vapor. Experimental data from previous investigators for different metals were analyzed. It is shown that taking into account this subcooling effect permits the thermal interphase resistance to be described with assumption of [sigma] = Constant = 1.0 where[sigma] is the condensation (mass accommodation) coefficient.Sponsored by National Science Foundatio