During last month I was investigating the influence of high energy ball milling on a morphology and mechanical properties of a 7475 aluminium alloy powder and AA7475/AlN composite powders in order to determine an optimal milling time for each composition. To achieve that I decided to investigate milled powders after 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 hours of ball milling using optical microscopy, x-ray difractometry and microhardness tests.
I also made an attempt to mill my powders with liquid nitrogen addition.

This month I have been trained in preparation of thin films on the observations in the transmission electron microscope (TEM).
I continued research with AA3004 aluminium alloy. I prepared new samples - samples pre-deformed by ECAP were annealed at 265°C and 280°C because in range from 250°C to 300°C was observed rapid grain growth (recrystalization occur).

Splash!!! I wish it had been me that jumped into cold blue water…Ehh, instead that I had an additional work…my freshly prepared buffer was spilled on a lab floor...it’s quite difficult to focus on important things when outside is the middle of summer. Anyway, opportunity to work in the lab with an air condition had convinced me to continue my science adventure in July. It was good time for reading papers because was really quite everywhere in the Institute. Moreover I carried out studies on diffusion phenomenon within cross-linked and non cross-linked polyelectrolyte multilayer films. I prepared samples for strength tests and for SEM analysis. I’ve started studies of endothelial and smooth muscle cells growth kinetics on PLL/HA films.

This month I did some measurements on Crofer 22APU samples. I recieved a new series of samples from Foundry Research Institute. Aditionally I started working on ZrO2 ceramics recieved from AGH Universsity of Thechnology. The ceramics have tetragonal structure that is very close to cubic and its grain size can be tuned by preparation conditions making it an interesting material for basic sturies and practise in 3D-EBSD.

In July i continued preparation and EBSD microstructure investigations of KoBo extruded samples. First just for sport I prepared sample from some aluminum alloy. Preparation compared to zinc and titanium was a breeze and good results was easily achieved, which was nice change after soft hexagonal materials. Microstructure was similar to this obtained in KoBo-ed titanium (grade2) with twisted grains and clearly visible two main directions around which crystals are oriented. Additionally EBSD IPF maps of those samples tend to have some nice artistic feel to them, and this one was not different.
Second one was sample of grade 4 titanium recently extruded by KoBo method. This one was much more difficult to prepare and finaly only smal areas of good surface was obtained for EBSD mapping. Obtained maps look similar to those from KoBo Grade 2 titanium with two main orientations (strong axial texture) of grains and grain sizes close to 5 micrometers.