Having researched some more literature we came up with new compositions to be studied. New alloys will cast by means of induction melting as well as arc melting. Then we will transfer the bulk alloys into melt spun ribbons in order to compare the properties resulting, if any difference, from microstructure rfeinment.

I started last month with an attendance in The XXII Conference on Applied Crystallography which took place in Targanice. I had an opportunity to listen to many lectures covering a really vast spectrum of topics related to crystallography and materials science. I presented a poster entitled "On Frequencies of Occurrence of Geometrically Characteristic Grain Boundaries". In fact, during the preparation of the poster, many new ideas came out for the future and I started to work on extending the considered ideas to the cases of all holohedral symmetries with at least two-fold symmetry axis.

In September I was carrying measurements of Crofer22APU steel. EDS and WDS techniques were applied to investigate chemical composition of oxide layers forming on materials surface. Particular attention was paid to precipitates. It was found that with increasing oxidation time the density of crystallites containing higher amount of chromium was also increasing. Additionally, it increase in Mn amount on the samples surface, compared to theoretical value, was observed.

Simulation model based on measurements of enhancement of light transmission to the silicon substrate revealed that 160nm diameter sphere should be the most relevant in that case.
This model will be improved in the spring 2013.

In September I attended th XXIIth Conference on Applied Arystallography which took place between the 2nd-6th this month in Targanice in Silesia region. Few talks I found interesting although there weren't too many on shape memory materials. In fact there was only one concerning the mechanics of twin boundary motion in Ni-Mn-Ga alloys. In September also I busied myslef with milling. The ribbons obtained by melt spinning technique from induction cast alloys were subjected to the following milling times 1, 3, 5 hours. A sampel was taken after each milling time for XRD analysis. I managed also to get the powders milled the longest analysed in terms of voulme fraction distribution.