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Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de corpos cerâmicos compostos bioativos com estrutura de gradiente funcional destinado à fabricação de componentes de implantes médicos. Na obtenção do compósito utilizou-se a alumina (\'AL IND.2\'\'O IND.3\') como base, a hidroxiapatita (HA) e o biovidro como componentes bioativos e a sacarose na obtenção da porosidade desejada. No desenvolvimento e na manufatura do material os métodos de processamento e os materiais utilizados foram selecionados de forma a atender as características desejadas para os componentes de implantes, ou seja, precisão dimensional, confiabilidade mecânica, desempenho em serviço, repetibilidade e custo aceitável. Como resultado, obteve-se um material estrutural com gradiente funcional de dupla camada. A dupla camada é composta de uma camada densa que confere a resistência mecânica desejada ao componente e a camada porosa promove a interação com os tecidos biológicos. A interação foi obtida com a infiltração de hidroxiapatita e biovidro na camada porosa. Ensaios mecânicos foram realizados para verificar a influência dos poros, da hidroxiapatita e do biovidro sobre a resistência mecânica do compósito. Foram executadas análises por microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV) e espectrometria de energia dispersiva de raios-X (EDS) para observação da estrutura porosa, morfologia, distribuição e comunicação dos poros, e a eficiência da infiltração da hidroxiapatita e do biovidro. / This work shows the development of bioactive composite ceramic body with functional gradient structure to use in medical implant components. The used materials were, alumina (\'AL IND.2\'\'O IND.3\') as a base material, hydroxyapatite (HA) and bioglass that were the bioactive components and sucrose used for obtaining pores. In the development and manufacture of the bioactive composite, the processing method and the materials were selected so that the dimensional characteristics, performance and repetition of production of the pieces present to the components specified characteristics with reliability and acceptable cost. The developed structure possesses a dense layer, which gives the mechanical resistance and a porous layer to have a biological interaction between the component and the tissue. Hydroxyapatite and bioglass were added in the porous layer to improve that interaction and mechanical tests were made in order to check if the pores, hydroxyapatite and bioglass, interferes the mechanical resistance of the components. Scanning eletronic microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis were made to observe the porous structure and performance of the filtration of hidroxyapatite and bioglass.

Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de corpos cerâmicos compostos bioativos com estrutura de gradiente funcional destinado à fabricação de componentes de implantes médicos. Na obtenção do compósito utilizou-se a alumina (\'AL IND.2\'\'O IND.3\') como base, a hidroxiapatita (HA) e o biovidro como componentes bioativos e a sacarose na obtenção da porosidade desejada. No desenvolvimento e na manufatura do material os métodos de processamento e os materiais utilizados foram selecionados de forma a atender as características desejadas para os componentes de implantes, ou seja, precisão dimensional, confiabilidade mecânica, desempenho em serviço, repetibilidade e custo aceitável. Como resultado, obteve-se um material estrutural com gradiente funcional de dupla camada. A dupla camada é composta de uma camada densa que confere a resistência mecânica desejada ao componente e a camada porosa promove a interação com os tecidos biológicos. A interação foi obtida com a infiltração de hidroxiapatita e biovidro na camada porosa. Ensaios mecânicos foram realizados para verificar a influência dos poros, da hidroxiapatita e do biovidro sobre a resistência mecânica do compósito. Foram executadas análises por microscopia eletrônica de varredura (MEV) e espectrometria de energia dispersiva de raios-X (EDS) para observação da estrutura porosa, morfologia, distribuição e comunicação dos poros, e a eficiência da infiltração da hidroxiapatita e do biovidro. / This work shows the development of bioactive composite ceramic body with functional gradient structure to use in medical implant components. The used materials were, alumina (\'AL IND.2\'\'O IND.3\') as a base material, hydroxyapatite (HA) and bioglass that were the bioactive components and sucrose used for obtaining pores. In the development and manufacture of the bioactive composite, the processing method and the materials were selected so that the dimensional characteristics, performance and repetition of production of the pieces present to the components specified characteristics with reliability and acceptable cost. The developed structure possesses a dense layer, which gives the mechanical resistance and a porous layer to have a biological interaction between the component and the tissue. Hydroxyapatite and bioglass were added in the porous layer to improve that interaction and mechanical tests were made in order to check if the pores, hydroxyapatite and bioglass, interferes the mechanical resistance of the components. Scanning eletronic microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis were made to observe the porous structure and performance of the filtration of hidroxyapatite and bioglass.

Arsenic and perchlorate are two types of emerging contaminants commonly found in various water bodies worldwide. Therefore, the development of effective removal technologies has become an important issue today. To this end, the following research studies were conducted. First, trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) was used for the surface modification of a laboratory-prepared outside-in tubular TiO2/Al2O3 composite membrane aiming at enhancing the filtration performance of the said membrane layer. Second, the TMCS-modified tubular ceramic membrane coupled with the simultaneous electrocoagulation/ electrofiltration (EC/EF) process was tested and evaluated their combined performance in the remediation of arsenic- and perchlorate-spiked waters and one actual As-contaminated groundwater. In this research, the results of a preliminary electrocoagulation study have indicated that aluminum outperformed iron as the anode material. Thus, aluminum was selected as the sacrificial anode for the EC/EF tests throughout this work. In the course of various EC/EF testing, the removal efficiencies of the target contaminant in the test water specimens were compared for the tubular TiO2/Al2O3 composite membranes with and without surface modification. Also evaluated included the permeate flux, unit mass of target contaminant removed, and relevant power consumption. Though surface modification might not yield a better removal efficiency of the concerned contaminant, it gave rise to a greater permeate flux resulting in a greater removed mass of the contaminant for each of the synthetic wastewaters. Meanwhile, lower power consumption was found as compared with the case of no surface modification. As for the actual As-contaminated groundwater, the optimal EC/EF conditions for the tubular composite membrane without surface modification could low the As concentration to meet the local irrigation water quality criteria.

Boron carbide (B₄C) is a non-oxide ceramic in the same class of nonmetallic hard materials as silicon carbide and diamond. The high hardness, high elastic modulus and low density of B₄C make it a nearly ideal material for personnel and vehicular armor. B₄C plates formed via hot-pressing are currently issued to U.S. soldiers and have exhibited excellent performance; however, hot-pressed articles contain inherent processing defects and are limited to simple geometries such as low-curvature plates. Recent advances in the pressureless sintering of B₄C have produced theoretically-dense and complex-shape articles that also exhibit superior ballistic performance. However, the cost of this material is currently high due to the powder shape, size, and size distribution that are required, which limits the economic feasibility of producing such a product. Additionally, the low fracture toughness of pure boron carbide may have resulted in historically lower transition velocities (the projectile velocity range at which armor begins to fail) than competing silicon carbide ceramics in high-velocity long-rod tungsten penetrator tests. Lower fracture toughness also limits multi-hit protection capability. Consequently, these requirements motivated research into methods for improving the densification and fracture toughness of inexpensive boron carbide composites that could result in the development of a superior armor material that would also be cost-competitive with other high-performance ceramics. The primary objective of this research was to study the effect of titanium and carbon additives on the sintering and mechanical properties of inexpensive B₄C powders. The boron carbide powder examined in this study was a submicron (0.6 μm median particle size) boron carbide powder produced by H.C. Starck GmbH via a jet milling process. A carbon source in the form ofphenolic resin, and titanium additives in the form of 32 nm and 0.9 μm TiO₂ powders were selected. Parametric studies of sintering behavior were performed via high-temperature dilatometry in order to measure the in-situ sample contraction and thereby measure the influence of the additives and their amounts on the overall densification rate. Additionally, broad composition and sintering/post-HIPing studies followed by characterization and mechanical testing elucidated the effects of these additives on sample densification, microstructure development, and mechanical properties such as Vickers hardness and microindentation fracture toughness. Based upon this research, a process has been developed for the sintering of boron carbide that yielded end products with high relative densities (i.e., 100%, or theoretical density), microstructures with a fine (∼2-3 μm) grain size, and high Vickers microindentation hardness values. In addition to possessing these improved physical properties, the costs of producing this material were substantially lower (by a factor of 5 or more) than recently patented work on the pressureless sintering and post-HIPing of phase-pure boron carbide powder. This recently patented work developed out of our laboratory utilized an optimized powder distribution and yielded samples with high relative densities and high hardness values. The current work employed the use of titanium and carbon additives in specific ratios to activate the sintering of boron carbide powder possessing an approximately mono-modal particle size distribution. Upon heating to high temperatures, these additives produced fine-scale TiO ₂ and graphite inclusions that served to hinder grain growth and substantially improve overall sintered and post-HIPed densities when added in sufficient concentrations. The fine boron carbide grain size manifested as a result of these second phase inclusions caused a substantial increase in hardness; the highest hardness specimen yielded a hardness value (2884.5 kg/mm²) approaching that of phase-pure and theoretically-dense boron carbide (2939 kg/mm²). Additionally, the same high-hardness composition exhibited a noticeably higher fracture toughness (3.04 MPa•m¹/²) compared to phase-pure boron carbide (2.42 MPa• m¹/²), representing a 25.6% improvement. A potential consequence of this study would be the development of a superior armor material that is sufficiently affordable, allowing it to be incorporated into the general soldier’s armor chassis.

This diploma thesis deals with the preparation of doped piezoceramic materials based on BaTiO3 using electrophoretic deposition. Five rare earth oxides, i.e. Er2O3, Dy2O3, Eu2O3, Tb407 and CeO2, were used as dopants in amounts of 1, 3, and 5 wt. %. The prepared deposits were evaluated in terms of preparation methodology, high temperature dilatometry, X-ray diffraction analysis, relative density, mean grain size, hardness and fractographic analysis. The study of dilatometric curves described the sintering behavior and its changes at different material compositions. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed a tetragonal phase in all samples; the tetragonality of the BaTiO3 crystalline cell decreased with dopant content. By a suitable choice of dopant, it was possible to significantly increase the relative density of sintered samples, their hardness and at the same time prevent the samples from coarsening of the microstructure during heat treatment. A relative density up to 98 %, a mean grain size below 1 m and a hardness of over 10 GPa were achieved. Analysis of the fracture surfaces revealed that the fracture mode was transcrystalline for the most of studied materials; only the samples doped with cerium dioxide had fracture surfaces with both transcrystalline and intercrystalline fracture modes. Based on the obtained results, a suitable composition of the material for the intended use in a layered piezoceramic harvester was identified, which, in addition to the BaTiO3 layers, consists of functionally-protective Al2O3 and ZrO2 layers.

The thesis was focused on preparation of bioceramic composite materials containing Ca-phosphates and zirconia fibers using electrophoretic deposition. A series of experiments were aimed at determining the appropriate composition of the suspensions. High-energy milling was used for preparing deposits with good physical and mechanical properties using EPD. The influence of milling time, the amount of monochloroacetic acid in isopropanol slurry indifferent electrolyte LiCl and ZrO2 were evaluated on the course deposition and the resulting properties of the deposits. Influence of sintering temperature, the milling time and the fiber content of ZrO2 on the chemical and structural composition was determined by X-ray analysis, measurement of density and structural analysis using a scanning electron microscope. Mechanical and bioactive properties of sintered deposits were determined depending on the milling time and content of ZrO2 fibers.

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<p> Pure zinc and zinc/yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) composite coatings for combined wear and corrosion protection of ferrous substrates were prepared by electrodeposition using acidic zinc sulphate solutions containing YSZ and gelatin. The morphology of the electrodeposit was studied by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). X-ray diffraction was employed to determine the texture of the zinc deposits. In the electrodeposition of pure zinc coatings, the influence of electrodeposition parameters, including current density, deposition time and solution pH was studied. It was found that the deposition rate was controlled by the current density and that an increase in deposition time resulted in the formation of deposit microstructures with coarse, columnar grains. The deposits prepared from solutions with lower pH were composed of uniform, fine grains and exhibited a basal plane preferred orientation.</p> <p> The effects of gelatin on zinc electrodeposition were investigated. It was found that the addition of gelatin profoundly modified the microstructure and crystallographic orientation of the zinc deposit. As the gelatin concentration increased, the mean grain size of zinc deposit was reduced and the basal plane preferred orientation was inhibited. The modification of the microstructure and orientation by gelatin increased microhardness of the zinc coating. However, the corrosion protection property which was assessed by potentiodynamic polarization test was not significantly changed.</p> <p> In the study on composite coatings, the incorporation of ceramic particles in the zinc deposit was characterized as a function of the deposition solution composition. The effect of ceramic particles on the hardness of the composite coatings was assessed by microhardness. The corrosion potential of the composite coating was determined by potentiodynamic polarization tests. The results showed that decrease in solution pH and addition of gelatin promoted the co-deposition of ceramic particles with zinc. The mechanical and corrosion properties of conventional zinc coatings were improved by the incorporation of ceramic particles.</p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)