Main subject among January experiments was photochemical deposition of silver nanoparticles on titania substrates.This experiment was conducted and directed on investigtion of first stages of the deposition hence nucleation stage. For that matter illumination time was set on 5 min.
Five different silver nitrade solution concentration (0,5, 1, 2, 5 10mM) were investigated under three levels of laser light intensity ( low, meidum, high). The blue laser ( 405nm) was used. The titania was previously annealed in 500 Celcius degrees.
It is expected that different conditions should result in different microstructure formation.
The samples will be examined by HR SEM imiging in following months.

This month I continued preparing and improving my PhD thesis. Additionally, I have submitted two abstracts for conferences. The first one is on 31.03-01.04 in London. The abstract:
Automated three-dimensional (3D) orientation microscopy was used for characterization of grain boundary geometry and pore morphology in cubic zirconia. A set of three samples sintered under different conditions was investigated. Specimens were composed of cubic zirconia stabilized by addition of 8 mol% of yttria. Investigations of grain boundaries and pore structures were carried out in a dual-beam field emission scanning electron microscope. For each sample, a volume of 15*103 μm3 was investigated. Stacks of inverse pole figure maps were used for visualization and reconstruction of sinters microstructure. The results of 3D analysis were compared to the ones derived from the regular, two-dimensional (2D) orientation maps from the areas of 2500 μm2. Based on 2D and 3D data the average grain diameter, number of grains, average number of neighbors and porosity were calculated. The average grain diameter varied in the range from 2.4 μm to 2.9 μm, and from 3.0 μm to 3.8 μm, while the level of porosity ranged from 1.22% to 1.77%, and from 1.30% to 5.61% for 2D and 3D data, respectively. The analysis of grain boundary networks revealed a strong dependence between grain boundary density and sample preparation parameters. Sintering parameters affected also the size and distribution of pores. The comparison between the 2D and 3D results revealed significant differences in the values of calculated microstructure parameters.
The second will be held in Oludenitz on 24.04-27.04. The abstract:
Due to the important role of grain boundaries in ion conductivity it is of great interest to analyze grain boundary character distribution in zirconia electrolytes which are widely applied in solid oxide fuel cells. Automatic serial sectioning and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) mapping was used to analyze grain boundary geometry and pore morphology in cubic zirconia sinters. A set of three samples composed of cubic zirconia stabilized by addition of 8 mol.% of yttria and sintered under different conditions was investigated. The analysis of grain boundaries geometry and pores microstructure were carried out in a dual-beam focused ion beam scanning electron microscope FEI Quanta 3D FEGSEM equipped with EDAX Trident system. For each sample, a series of parallel EBSD maps from the volume of 15•103 μm3 was collected. Stacks of inverse pole figure (IPF) maps and image quality (IQ) maps were used for reconstruction of sinters microstructure and visualization of pores distribution, respectively. The results of 3D analysis were compared with those acquired from two-dimensional (2D) EBSD measurements from the areas of 2500 μm2. Based both on 2D and 3D data, the average grain diameter, number of grains, average number of neighbors and porosity were calculated. The average grain diameter varied in the range from 2.4 μm to 2.9 μm for 2D and from 3.0 μm to 3.8 μm for 3D data, while the level of porosity ranged from 1.22% to 1.77% for 2D and from 1.30% to 5.61% for 3D. The analysis of grain boundary networks revealed a strong dependence between grain boundary density and ceramic fabrication. Sintering parameters affected also the size and distribution of voids. The comparison between the 2D and 3D results revealed some discrepancies in the values of calculated microstructure parameters. Thus, a great caution must be taken when deriving conclusions from 2D EBSD data.

In January, I continued my works on the thesis, namely on a part of literature review concerning production methods of particle reinforced aluminium matrix composites, e.g. mechanical alloying, reactive gas injection, etc..

I also performed some supplementary TEM investigations of in situ Al/AlN composites produced via reactive sintering.

This month I pulverized ribbons with two types of compositions. Obtained powders were used to prepare bulk samples by hot pressing. I have started to analyze these samples by XRD and SEM. First results are promising.
During this month I have prepared an abstract for the XV International Conference on Electron Microscopy concerning in-situ heating of melts spun ribbons with quasicrystalline particles.

This month I spent in writing the dissertation, but also managed to make a few AFM maps. It turns out that what is recommended not always is the best. Better than a standard probe FESPA dedicated to silicon was a harder one and that is what I'm going to continue my research.