On the very first day of February, which was not particularly frosty from what I can recall, the beforehand annealed samples (annealing is performed in order to ensure a satisfactory chemical homogeneity) were prepared to be sealed in quartz tubes. Annealing at 900 ºC for 1 hour and rapid quenching in water followed suit. This was done in order to induce martensitic transition.
This month we also studied by TEM one of the ribbons containing 3 at. % of aluminum namely the sample of the following chemical composition Ni48Mn39.5Sn9.5Al3. The analysis revealed the presence of martenistic phase.

January was rather heavy on didactic side of phd studies, which means that we had an exam to pass, and a couple of seminars to present, and preparation for these took a bit of time. However some scientific development also took place, mainly thanks to newly established cooperation with Professor Korbel and Bochniak from AGH, inventors of KoBo method for metal plastic forming. We received sample of pure zinc extruded by KoBo method along with samples of reference (initial) material. Zinc is a hexagonal material same as titanium, so it is expected that it might demonstrate some similarities in way it behaves during plastic deformation. Samples for EBSD investigation was prepared from both deformed and initial material. Preparation of samples proven to be a little bit challenging, as zinc is rather soft material and it is easily contaminated during grinding on SiC papers. Electrolytic polishing was also a bit tricky but finally I've managed to get some workable surfaces for EBSD tests. Initial orientation maps showed what was expected - big equiaxed grains in reference and smaller grains in deformed material. It also showed that metalographic preparation of samples was done more or less properly so it can be repeated/improved on for upcoming investigations.

Main studies carried out during January:

- analysis of the results obtained so far,
- preparation of two new quaternary alloys,
- microstructure analysis of prepared ingots using SEM,
- preparation of melt-spun ribbons from the cast ingots
- analysis of the ribbons cross-section using SEM
- microstructure analysis of the melt-spun ribbons with molybdenum and zirconium addition using TEM,
- participation in seminars and lectures

In january I participate in "Bath Electrochemistry Winter School" at Bath University (UK)

On the training I listened the following lectures:
- “Introduction to Electrochemistry”, Dr Petra Cameron (University of Bath);
- “Mass transport effects in voltammetry”, Dr Toby Jenkins (University of Bath);
- “Electron transfer kinetics”, Dr Jason Riley (Imperial College London);
- “How a potemtiostat works (with demonstration)”, Prof. Laurie Peter (University of Bath);
- “Mechanism of electrochemical reactions”, Dr Frank Marken (University of Bath);
- “Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy”, Dr David Fermin (University of Bristol);
- “Design of electrochemical experiment”, Prof. Laurie Peter (University of Bath);
- “An introduction to electroanalytical methods”, Dr Petra Cameron (University of Bath);
- “Spectroelectrochemistry”, Dr Jason Riley (Imperial College London);
- “Electrochemistry for biosensing”, Dr Toby Jenkins (University of Bath);

and I also attended in the following lab sessions:
-“Getting to know the equipment. an introduction to electrochemical instrumentation & techniques”;
- “Voltammetry at Rotating Disc and Ultramicroelectrodes”;
- “Quantitive analysis of solar cell absorber layer”;
- “The impedance properties of a simple redox reaction: the ferri/ferrocyanide couple”;
- “More complex cyclic voltammetry –the elucidation of reaction mechanisms”;
- “Electrochemical Deposition: Kinetics and Mechanism of Bismuth Electrodeposition onto glassy carbon electrodes”;
- “Protein electrochemistry: cytochrome c reduction and oxidation in a mesoporous membrane system”;
- “Spectroelectrochemical studies of an EC’Reaction”;
- “Gold nanoparticle electrocatalysis: electrophoretic deposition and catalytic reactivity of 5 nm diameter gold nanoparticles”.

It is really good training. I've learned a lot and I would recommend this school to anyone who wants to wirk with electrochemistry.

In January with the help of my prominent supervisors, which I have the privilege to work alongside with, we produced ribbons via a melt spinning technique. This method is based on rapid cooling of molten materials leading to quick solidification. There were four ingots prepared with nominal composition of Ni48Mn39.5Sn12.5, Ni48Mn39.5Sn11.5Al1, Ni48Mn39.5Sn10.5Al2, Ni48Mn39.5Sn9.5Al3 denoted as NMS, NMSA, NMSAA, NMSAAA respectively. The subsequently obtained ribbons were XRD and TEM analysed (only the first NMS sample was studied this month due to time constraints). During this task I had the opportunity to familiarize myself with the method utilized for fabrication of thin foils specific for Transmission Electron Microscopy studies. TEM observation showed very interesting results. Amongst them there were the so called tweed contrasts seen in the examined sample indicative of segregation processes. Also it was noticed that the resulting average elemental chemical composition slightly shifted with respect to the staring one. This is in accordance with literature and was reported in a paper by B. Hernando et al. (Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials V. 321 April 2009), which I came across. Nevertheless this interesting finding requires further studies.
The research goes on…