Surface engineering of aerospace aluminium alloys: Understanding alloying effects on chemical pre-treatment and sol-gel coating adhesion

The sol–gel process is a chemical surface preparation method based on hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions for enhanced adhesion for metallic substrates in adhesive bonding and coating applications. This paper describes an investigation into the effect of the microstructural complexity of two commonly used aerospace aluminium alloys (AAs...

Optical and morphological characterization of nanostructured AgO thin films

Silver oxide (AgO) thin films were prepared by using a cylindrical direct current reactive magnetron sputtering system at 10⁻⁵ torr initial pressure on BK7 glass substrate. Samples deposited for 3, 5 and 7 minutes. Surface characterization of AgO thin films in the nanometer scale can be accurately determined using the atomic force...

Analysis of the cohesion/adhesion proportion around bitumen-mineral failure interface under tensile loading

The occurrence of cohesive/adhesive hybrid failure at the bitumen-aggregate interface is widely acknowledged, however, the quantitative evaluation of the cohesion/adhesion proportion is relatively weak. This study explored cohesive/adhesive hybrid failure and provided a quantitative analysis of the proportion between cohesion and adhesion....

Influence of Silicon Substrate Surface Finish on the Screen-Printed Silver Metallization of Polysilicon-Based Passivating Contacts

Passivated contact based on a thin interfacial oxide and a highly doped polysilicon layer has emerged as the next evolutionary step to increase the efficiencies of industrial silicon solar cells. To take maximum advantage from this layer stack, it is vital to limit the losses at the metal polysilicon interface, which can be quantified as...

Scrutinizing the importance of surface chemistry versus surface roughness for aluminium / sol-gel film adhesion

The sol-gel synthesis process is a versatile method used to produce a wide diversity of materials and is being increasingly used as a surface modification method to alter porosity, wettability, catalytic activity, biocompatibility and corrosion performance of underlying substrates. Silane sol–gel films deposited on aluminium and aluminium...

Effect of surface morphology on the Ti–Ti adhesive bond performance of Ti6Al4V parts fabricated by selective laser melting

Surface morphology of adherends is an important factor to take into consideration when studying and improving the performance of an adhesive bonded joint. In this study, the adhesion performance three different surface morphologies of Selective Laser Melted (SLM) Ti6Al4V was studied. The three surface morphologies were created by manufacturing...

Effect of Plasma-Activated Bleaching on Enamel Microhardness and Morphology

This in vitro study aimed to evaluate the effect of nonthermal atmospheric pressure plasma (NAPP)-activated hydrogen peroxide (HP) and deionized water (DW) on enamel microhardness and enamel surface morphology.<br/>

Data on the surface morphology of additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V implants during processing by plasma electrolytic oxidation

Additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V implants were biofunctionalized using plasma electrolytic oxidation. At various time points during this process scanning electron microscopy imaging was performed to analyze the surface morphology (van Hengel et al., 2017) [1]. This data shows the changes in surface morphology during plasma electrolytic...

Formation and control of wrinkles in graphene by the wedging transfer method

We study the formation of wrinkles in graphene upon wet transfer onto a hydrophilic target substrate, whereby draining of water appears to play an important role. We are able to control the orientation of the wrinkles by tuning the surface morphology. Wrinkles are absent in flakes transferred to strongly hydrophobic substrates, a further...

Corrosion Performance of Carbon Steel in Simulated Pore Solution in the Presence of Micelles

This study presents the results on the investigation of the corrosion behavior of carbon steel in model alkaline medium in the presence of very low concentration of polymeric nanoaggregates [0.0024 wt % polyethylene oxide (PEO)113-b-PS70 micelles]. The steel electrodes were investigated in chloride free and chloride-containing cement extracts....

Modulated surface textures for enhanced light trapping in thin-film silicon solar cells

Substrates with a modulated surface texture were prepared by combining different interface morphologies. The spatial frequency surface representation method is used to evaluate the surface modulation. When combining morphologies with appropriate geometrical features, substrates exhibit an increased scattering level in a broad wavelength region....

A scattering model for surface-textured thin films

We present a mathematical model that relates the surface morphology of randomly surface-textured thin films with the intensity distribution of scattered light. The model is based on the first order Born approximation [see e.g., M. Born and E. Wolf, Principles of Optics, 7th ed. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1999) ] and on...

SiGe growth on patterned Si(001) substrates: Surface evolution and evidence of modified island coarsening

The morphological evolution of both pits and SiGe islands on patterned Si(001) substrates is investigated. With increasing Si buffer layer thickness the patterned holes transform into multifaceted pits before evolving into inverted truncated pyramids. SiGe island formation and evolution are studied by systematically varying the Ge coverage and...

Investigation of Corrosion and Cathodic Protection in Reinforced Concrete. I: Application of Electrochemical Techniques

The electrochemical behavior of steel reinforcement in conditions of corrosion and cathodic protection was studied, using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and compared to reference (noncorroding) conditions. Polarization resistance (PR) method and potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) were employed as well, in addition to ac 2 pin...

Defects and morphological changes in nanothin Cu films on polycrystalline Mo analyzed by thermal helium desorption spectrometry

Thermal helium desorption spectrometry (THDS) has been used for the investigation of defects and thermal stability of thin Cu films (5–200?Å) deposited on a polycrystalline Mo substrate in ultrahigh vacuum. These films are metastable at room temperature. On heating, the films transform into islands, giving rise to a relatively broad peak in the...

Magnetic properties of electroplated nano/microgranular NiFe thin films for rf application

A granular NiFe thin film with large in-plane magnetic anisotropy and high ferromagnetic-resonance frequency developed for radio-frequency integrated circuit (IC) applications is presented. During the deposition, three-dimensional (3D) growth occurs, yielding NiFe grains (? ? 1.0??m). Nanonuclei (? ? 30–50?nm) are observed in single NiFe grains...

Orientation of the charge-density-wave chains in thin films of Rb 0.30 MoO 3