ARNAM 2006 Annual Workshop

St John's College

University of Queensland, Brisbane

28-30, June 2006

 
 

ARNAM 2006 Annual Workshop

St John's College

University of Queensland, Brisbane

28-30, June 2006

Program Schedule

See the full program details at the bottom of this page.

Jump to: Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3


Poster Session

Plenary Sessions

There will be plenary sessions for all participants consisting of 7 talks in total (2 international speakers, and 5 Australian keynote speakers).

Each plenary presentation will go for 40 minutes with 5 minutes for questions and will be held at Emmanuel college.

There will be 3 sessions dedicated to plenary the plenary speakers, and Rachel Caruso will be delivering her plenary address as an overture to a session dedicated to discussing sustainable materials. These addresses will be at the following times:

Session 1: Plenary Addresses 1 & 2
Day 1 - 10.45am Barry Luther-Davies, ANU
Day 1 - 11.30am Peter Hodgson, Deakin University

Session 6: Plenary Addresses 3 & 4
Day 2 - 8.30am Barry Muddle, Monash
Day 2 - 9.15am Koji Kato, Tohoku University, Japan

Session 11: Sustainable Materials - Plenary Address 5
Day 2 - 4.00pm Rachel Caruso, University of Melbourne

Session 12: Plenary Addresses 6 & 7
Day 3 - 8.30am Keith Bowman, Purdue University, USA
Day 3 - 9.15am John Dell, UWA

Poster presentation session

The poster session will be held commencing at 5.45pm on the afternoon of Day 1, Wednesday 28th June.

Each poster can be sized up 1000mm x 1000mm (1 metre x 1 metre) alternatively A0 size paper ( 841mm × 1189mm) is also acceptable.

Pizzas and beverages will be provided and lively discussion is encouraged.

Oral presentation sessions

Each Oral presentation is limited to strictly 16 minutes with 4 minutes for questions and switching between presenters. This time will be carefully monitored by a Chair for each session, and no presentations will be allowed to extend beyond this time.


ARNAM2006 Workshop Program

Rollover abstract title to see full abstract.
Note: this program is not finalised and still undergoing changes.
Changes and correction to: Elena Nobleza

Day 1 - Wednesday 28th June 2006
Registration and Coffee
9.00am - 10.30am
Opening Remarks - 10.30am - 10.45am
Session 1: Plenary Addresses 1 & 2
Session Chair: Jim Williams
10.45am - Barry Luther-Davies, ANU
Professor Barry Luther-Davies
ARC Federation Fellow
Professor/Head of Department, Laser Physics Centre Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University
Laser Physics Centre Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering
Research Activities: Materials for photonic devices; hybrid organic-inorganic optical glasses; nonlinear optical materials; film deposition by pulsed laser ablation; nano-materials grown by pulsed laser ablation
"Nonlinear Optical Materials and Processes for Optical Communications Systems"Barry Luther-Davies - ANU

All-optical processing will be required if single channel data rates on optical fibres is to reach speeds around 160Gb/s. In this talk I will review the various materials available for all-optical processing outlining their advantages and disadvantages for this application.
11.30am - Peter Hodgson, Deakin
Professor Peter Hodgson
ARC Federation Fellow
Professor of Engineering, Assoc. Dean (Research) Faculty Science & Technology, School of Engineering & Technology, Deakin University
Engineering and Technology Faculty of Science and Technology School of Engineering and Technology Waurn Ponds Campus Deakin University
Research Activities: Thermomechanical Processing, Mathematical Modelling, Physical Metallurgy, Steels, Surface Treatment, Sheet Metal Forming
"Challenges for Research in Advanced Manufacturing"Peter Hodgson - Deakin University

The manufacturing industry is going through yet another period of great change. The rise of China and potentially India has altered the nature of the manufacturing industry in Australia. A number of companies have grown through this period by injecting more know how into the products they produce. In some cases this has led to them setting up major manufacturing plants overseas. Where does all of this leave those undertaking research in this sector? This has become a great challenge as we struggle to find the balance between basic research and innovative research.
Lunch Break - 1 hour
12.15pm - 1.15pm
Session 2: Opening Session
Session Chair: Liangchi Zhang
1.15pm - Barbara Fairchild, UniMelb Ms Barbara Fairchild
Masters student
Shool of Physics University of Melbourne Parkville Victoria 3010
Research Activities: Micro machining in diamond

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Material issues in the micro-fabrication and functionalization of single-crystal diamond"P. Olivero[1], A. Cimmino[1], M. Draganski[2], B. C. Gibson[3], Andrew D. Greentree[4], D. Hoxley[1], S. T. Huntington[3], A. Mancuso[1], J. Rabeau[1], P. Reichart[1], S. Rubanov[1], A. Stacey[1], E. Trajkov[3], I. Zalziniak[1], D. N. Jamieson[4], S. Prawer[4]

[1] School of Physics, Microanalytical Research Center, The University of Melbourne [2] RMIT, Dept. of Applied Physics, RMIT University Melbourne [3] Quantum Communication Victoria, School of Physics, The University of Melbourne [4] Centre for Quantum Computing Technology, School of Physics, The University of Melbourne

Diamond is known for its extreme physical properties (hardness, chemical inertness, thermal conductivity, optical transparency...), which make diamond microstructures extremely promising in integrated micro-optics, MEMS technology and micro-fluidics. Recently, the properties of optical centers in diamond have shown great potential for diamond nano-devices in quantum cryptography and quantum information processing. Significant progresses have been made in diamond growth and characterizationin the last decades. Nonetheless, the micro-fabrication of diamond, as well as the engineering and control of optical centers, are still challenging tasks where many material issues need to be taken into account, such as impurities and defects in different native crystals, radiation-matter interaction, annealing and etching behavior of pristine and irradiated diamond. We report on our activity in the microfabrication of micro-optics elements, cavities and resonators, and in the engineering and control of optical centers in diamond by ion and electron irradiation, with a focus on the fabrication of practical devices using our novel ion beam lithography technique than can produce micron and nano-scale diamond devices.

(Originally to have been presented by Rongping Wang who was unable to attend due to other research commitments)

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
1.35pm - Alexander Fuerbach, Macq Dr Alexander Fuerbach
ARC Postdoctoral Fellow
Centre for Ultrahigh-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) Centre for Lasers and Applications (CLA) Division of Information and Communication Sciences Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109 Australia
Research Activities: Femtosecond-laser Micro- and Nanomachining, Fabrication of Photonic structures and Devices

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "High precision material processing using ultrashort laser pulses"Alexander Fuerbach*, Graham Marshall*, Martin Ams*, Nemanja Jovanovic*, Michael Withford*, Alma Fernandez†, Roswitha Graf†, Andreas Isemann‡, Thomas Mueller‡

*Macquarie University, Sydney †Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany ‡Femtolasers GmbH, Vienna, Austria

Laser micromachining using femtosecond pulses, is a most promising and versatile technique, having a variety of applications. The main features are an efficient and localized energy deposition, low ablation thresholds and no thermal and mechanical damage of the substrate material. The maximum benefits are obtained when one operates just above ablation or modification threshold. Under typical focusing conditions the required energies are 10s of nJ, which is slightly above the output of standard femtosecond oscillators. Amplified laser systems on the other hand are overkill for microstructuring as the pulse energy has to be strongly attenuated, resulting in a low average output power and process speed. This limits the achievable throughput and effects the overall process quality. The Chirped Pulsed Oscillator (CPO) is a new approach that resolves this problem. By adding a multipass cell into a standard oscillator, the cavity is extended. The low repetition rate results in pulse energies an order of magnitude higher. In contrast to a standard femtosecond oscillator, the CPO works in the positive dispersion regime whereby multiple pulsing is avoided. In this talk we will review the basic idea behind the CPO and will give an overview about the work we do at Macquarie University in the field of microfabrication of photonic structures and devices, aiming towards the development of the Photonic Chip. Amongst others, we will include our abilities in point-by-point inscription of fibre-Bragg gratings and the fabrication of waveguide structures in various materials, including laser-active crystals and chalcogenide glasses.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
1.55pm - Anthony Murphy, CSIRO Dr Anthony Murphy
Senior Principal Research Scientist
CSIRO Industrial Physics PO Box 218 Lindfield NSW 2070 Australia
Research Activities: Development of semiconductor materials for photocatalytic splitting of water Optical properties of thin films and nanoparticles Plasma processing at atmospheric pressures (waste destruction, nanoparticle production, computational modelling) Transport properties of high-temperature gases and plasmas

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Determination of optical properties of semiconductor thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting"Anthony B Murphy

CSIRO Industrial Physics and CSIRO Energy Transformed National Research Flagship

In photoelectrochemical water splitting, hydrogen is produced in an electrochemical cell by the action of light on a photoelectrode, typically an oxide-semiconductor thin film on a conducting substrate. The semiconductor absorbs photons at wavelengths below its band-gap wavelength, producing electron–hole pairs. These charge carriers diffuse to the water and the conductor, driving the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen. Since the diffusion length of the charge carriers is small (~100 nm or less), it is important that the semiconductor has a large absorption coefficient for sub-band-gap wavelengths. I consider here the problem of determination of the band-gap and optical properties of a photoelectrode consisting of an optically-rough titanium-dioxide thin film on a titanium substrate. The diffuse reflectance of the photoelectrode was measured using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. A two-flux (Kubelka–Munk) radiative transfer model, adapted to take into account reflection from optically-rough surfaces, was used to model the absorption and scattering of the radiation in the semiconductor film, and reflection at the semiconductor–air and semiconductor–metal interfaces. The dependence of the diffuse reflectance on parameters such as the absorption coefficient, scattering coefficient, film thickness and surface roughness was examined. The results show that determination of the semiconductor’s band gap from measurements of diffuse reflectance is by no means straightforward. Nevertheless, it was possible in some cases to derive the band gap, absorption coefficient and refractive index of the semiconductor, using a spectral-projected-gradient method to fit the model to the measured diffuse reflectance.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
2.15pm - Simon Ruffell, ANU Dr Simon Ruffell
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Electronic Materials Engineering Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University Canberra, 0200 Australia
Research Activities: Ion-implantation, ion-beam analysis, low energy implants in silicon, defects and dopants in semiconductors Nanoindentation of semiconductors, pressure-induced phase transformations in silicon

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Study of the kinetics of phase transformations on unloading during nanoindentation of silicon"S. Ruffell, J. E. Bradby, and J. S. Williams

Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, 0200, Australia

Silicon undergoes a series of pressure-induced phase transformations during nanoindentation. On loading, at a pressure of ~12 GPa, a transformation to a metallic phase occurs with further transformations to the crystalline phases (Si-III and Si-XII) or amorphous silicon (a-Si) occurring on pressure release. The post-indentation phases are dependent on the unloading conditions with slower rates promoting the formation of the crystalline phases. The effect of unloading conditions on the final structure has been studied in detail but the mechanisms driving the process are relatively poorly understood. Indentations in both crystalline (c-Si) and (ion-implanted) amorphous silicon have been studied via a combination of Raman micro-spectroscopy and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy where samples prepared by a focused ion beam milling method can be imaged and directly correlated with the Raman spectra and nanoindentation load/unload curves. Rapid unloading during indentation in c-Si has been previously shown to result in only a-Si being formed, an outcome we have exploited to track the high pressure phase transformations by unloading rapidly from selected points on the unload curve. Stark differences in the initial formation and subsequent growth of volumes of high pressure phases on unloading are observed when comparing the residual phases in c-Si and a-Si, with high pressure phases forming much more readily in a-Si.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
2.35pm - Barry Luther-Davies, ANU Professor Barry Luther-Davies
ARC Federation Fellow
Professor/Head of Department, Laser Physics Centre Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University
Laser Physics Centre Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering
Research Activities: Materials for photonic devices; hybrid organic-inorganic optical glasses; nonlinear optical materials; film deposition by pulsed laser ablation; nano-materials grown by pulsed laser ablation

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Impact of Annealing Temperature on Ultra Fast Pulsed Laser Deposited As2S3"R P Wang, C. Zha, S. Madden, A. Rode, B. Luther-Davies, R. Jarvis

Laser Physics Centre, RSPhysSE, ANU

Amorphous chalcogenide glases are being studied for their use in all-optical processing for future high speed telecommunications networks. Unfortunately chalcogenides films dsiplay properties quite different from the bulk glasses and this manifests itself in various instabiltiies in the bond structure when the films are subjected to heat or light. Here we report on the properties of films prepared by ultra-fast pulsed laser deposition which have been vacuum annealed at a range of different temperatures. Measurements of the glass transition temperature indicate that a crystallization process initiates at annealing temperatures around 170C. In combination with Raman scattering analysis, we conclude that phase separation is intrinsic for our as-deposited films. During annealing two sorts of phase transformation are identified: one between different amorphous polymorphs, and another from the amorphous to a crystalline state. We point out a correlation between these two types of transformation and two characteristic time scales identified from measurements of the relaxation of the refractive index, and explain the Arrhenius and non-Arrhenius behaviour leading to the observed temporal characteristics.

(Originally to have been presented by Rongping Wang who was unable to attend due to other research commitments)

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
2.55pm - Mihail Ionescu, ANSTO Dr Mihail Ionescu
Senior Research Scientist, Ion Beam Accelerator, ANSTO
ANSTO New Illawarra Rd Lucas Heights NSW 2234
Research Activities: Ion Beam Accelerator Applications (RBS, PIXE, PIGE, PESA, RToF, ERDA, NRA, ion beam implantation) Thin film deposition (PLD, EBE, MS) Thin film characterization (phisical, electric and magnetic properties)

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Total Hydrogen in SiNx thin films"M. Ionescu*, B. Richards†, K. McIntosh†, R. Siegele*, E. Stelcer*, D. Cohen*

*ANSTO †ANU

Thin SiN film deposited on Si by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) is used for surface passivation of Si. During the PECVD process Hydrogen is incorporated into the SiN film, and the passivation properties of the resulting SiNx:H layers play an important role in enhancing the energy conversion efficiency of solar cells. It is believed that the Hydrogen present in SiNx:H is responsible for this enhancement, and therefore its concentration in the passivating layer is an important parameter. The Hydrogen composition and its depth profile in thin SiNx:H films of 10nm to 200nm was measured by elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), using a 1.7MeV He+ ion beam of (1x2)mm2, generated by a high stability 2MV Tandetron ion beam accelerator. In the same time, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) spectra were recorded for each sample. The results show that Hydrogen concentration in the SiNx:H layers is dependent of the deposition conditions. Also, Hydrogen was found to be homogenously distributed across the SiNx:H layer thickness, and the SiNx:H/Si interfaces were well defined.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
10.50am - Jamie Quinton, Dr Jamie Quinton

School of Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences Flinders University GPO Box 2100 Adelaide SA 5001
Research Activities: Surface science Organosilicon coatings Thin films Surface modification

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Plasma Modified Carbon Surfaces for Novel Sensor Supports"J.S. Quinton1*, A. Deslandes1, A. Barlow1, J.J. Gooding2, D.B. Hibbert2

1. Smart Surface Structures Group, School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100 Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia 2. Electroanalytical and Sensors Group, School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

Surface modification is used to alter the surface properties of a given material to enhance its favourability for a given application. This important aspect of all material applications is essential for optimal performance and working lifetime. In modern nanotechnological applications for materials, modified surfaces tend to be ‘active’ in that they serve a functional purpose (such as sensing, enhancing wettability, preventing bacterial growth, etc), rather than simply serving as an improved form of passivation. In collaboration between our laboratories, we are presently working on various carbon (Highly ordered pyrolytic graphite – HOPG, nanotubes and glassy carbon) surfaces as a new substrate of choice for the preparation of new, novel biological and chemical sensing devices. Flinders role within this project involves modification of these carbon surfaces with various plasma treatments, in preparation for subsequent attachment of sensing architectures. I will highlight our work to date, which has focussed on the surface modification of HOPG and carbon nanotubes with various plasma (CH4, H2, SF6) treatments, followed by characterisation with techniques such as scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToFSIMS). *email: Jamie.Quinton@flinders.edu.au

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Afternoon Tea Break - ˝ hour
3.15pm - 3.45pm
Session 3: Polymers/Polymer composites
Session Chair: Graham Shaffer
3.45pm - Geoffrey Spinks, UWollongong Professor Geoffrey Spinks
Discipline Advisor, School of Mechanical, Materials & Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong

Research Activities: Mechanical properties of polymers, coatings and adhesives, mechanical actuators and sensors for structural health monitoring.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Polymer artificial muscles- current status and applications"G.M. Spinks, P.G. Whitten, B. Xi, V. Mottaghitalab, M. Barami-Samani, G.G. Wallace,

ARC Centre of Excellence in Electromaterials Science, Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong

Polymer artificial muscles are attractive alternatives to conventional mechanical systems (motors, engines, hydraulics and pneumatics) in applications where space/weight are important. The presentation will review the performance of various polymer actuators and consider recent developments in conducting polymer, carbon nanotube and hydrogel actuators. Various potential applications will also be described.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
4.05pm - Celeste Gloria-Esparza, UniMelb Miss Celeste Gloria-Esparza

Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia
Research Activities: conduct experiment work to develop an electrially condcutive polymer nanocomposites

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Electrically Conductive Glass Fiber Reinforced Nanocomposites"Celeste Gloria Esparza (1), Qiang Yuan(2), Kenong Xia(1)

(1) University of MElbourne (2) CSIRO

Electrically conductive composites were made from short glass fiber (GF) and carbon black (CB) blended with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) using a single screw extruder. Mechanical Properties were highly enhanced and Percolation threshold was lowered by the addition of Glass Fiber achieving surface conductivity in the static dissipative range of 10-6 to 10-9 S at CB content as low as 1 wt.%, significantly lower than that in the unreinforced CB/HDPE. Addition of coupling agents like MAPE and GMA improved bonding between fibers and the polymer matrix and increased the stiffness and fracture resistance.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
4.25pm - Indra Kemal, UNSW Mr Indra Kemal
PhD student / Researcher at UNSW

Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Development of PVC nanocomposites"A/Prof. Mark Hoffman

School of Materials Science and Engineering The University of New South Wales, Sydney

Recent progress of nano processing technology has enabled production of nano particles of Calcium Carbonates in commercial scales. It has been demonstrated that presence of inorganic nanoparticles could improve toughness of PVC properties when the particles are homogeneously distributed. However, integrating this technology into current manufacturing process has brought another challenge in achieving fine particles dispersion. In this study, PVC/CaCO3 polymer nanocomposites were made by two roll mills and twin screw extruder. TEM micrographs of the two different processing will be shown to indicate which processing give better dispersion.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
4.45pm - Jian Fang, Deakin Mr Jian Fang
PhD Student
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation Geelong Technology Precinct (GTP) School of Engineering and Technology Deakin University, Pigdons Rd. Waurn Ponds, Geelong, VIC, 3217, Australia
Research Activities: functionized textile materials

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Toughened Electrospun Nanofibres from a Thermoplastic and a Crosslinkable Elastomer Blend"Jian Fang, Tong Lin, Xungai Wang

Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, Geelong, Vic 3217

A polymer blend of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and a crosslinkable elastomeric polyester urethane (PEU) was electrospun into nanofibres. The effects of the PAN/PEU ratio and the crosslinking reaction on fibre morphology and the tensile properties were investigated. When the overall polymer concentration was kept constant during electrospinning, the variation of the PAN/PEU ratio had a little effect on the fibre morphology. With an increase in the PEU composition, the fibre diameter decreased slightly, but the tensile strength and the ultimate strain increased. An interconnected web structure was formed when the polymer blend contained a high PEU composition. The slight crosslinked PEU in the PAN/PEU blend noticeably improved the tensile strength and the ultimate strain.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
5.05pm - Jamie Booth, CSIRO Dr Jamie Booth
Postdoctoral Fellow
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology, Locked Bag 33, Clayton South, Victoria 3169
Research Activities: Sol-Gel Materials Science Nanoparticle Nucleation and Growth Combinatorial Design X-ray Structural Characterisation

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "A Rehological Investigation of the Inhibition of Hydrolytic Polycondensation of Titanium Butoxide by Protons"Jamie M Booth, CSIRO Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology

Colin J Rix School of Applied Sciences (Applied Chemistry), Science, Engineering and Technology Portfolio, RMIT University

The high reactivities of transition metal alkoxides with respect to hydrolytic polycondensation, i.e. the sol-gel process, are well known. In order to gain control over the kinetics, and thus the morphologies of the resultant products, methods such as complexation by acetylacetone or 2-methoxyethanol have been employed with some success. However, an equally effective method is the addition of a small amount of an inorganic acid such as HCl. While efforts have been made to determine the mechanism by which the added protons retard the reaction rate, none have proposed a mechanism consistent with all of the available experimental data. The study described herein presents the first rigorous rheological characterization of the sol-gel process for titanium tetra-n-butoxide, and the data obtained allow a new mechanism to be formulated which is consistent with all experimental evidence.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
5.25pm - Aravind Dasari, USyd Mr Aravind Dasari
PhD Student
Center for Advanced Materials Technology (CAMT) School of Aerospace, Mechanical, and Mechatronic Engineering (Bldg. J07) The University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales 2006 Australia
Research Activities: • Tribology of polymer nanocomposites at different length scales • Structure-property relationships in polymer nanocomposites • Fracture behaviour of polymers

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "The Location and Extent of Exfoliation of Clay on the Fracture Mechanisms in Nylon 66-Based Ternary Nanocomposites"Mr. Aravind Dasari, Dr. Zhong-Zhen Yu, Prof. Yiu-Wing Mai

The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

The primary focus of this work is to elucidate the location and extent of exfoliation of clay during the fracture (under both static and dynamic loading conditions) of melt-compounded nylon 66/clay/SEBS-g-MA ternary nanocomposites prepared by different blending sequences. Distinct microstructures are obtained depending on the blending protocol employed. The state of exfoliation and dispersion of clay in nylon 66 matrix and SEBS-g-MA phase are quantified as the presence of clay in rubber is shown to have negative affect on the fracture toughness of the nanocomposites. The level of enhancement in fracture toughness of the ternary nanocomposites is found to depend on the capability of different fillers to activate the plastic deformation mechanisms in the matrix and the blending protocol employed. These mechanisms included: cavitation of the SEBS-g-MA phase, stretching of the voided matrix material, interfacial debonding of SEBS-g-MA particles, debonding of intercalated clay present inside the SEBS-g-MA phase, and delamination of intercalated clay platelets. Based on these results, some new insights and approaches for producing better toughened polymer ternary nanocomposites will be discussed.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Session 4: Materials Structures/Fabrication
Session Chair: Barry Luther-Davies
3.45pm - Shannon Orbons, UniMelb Mr Shannon Orbons
PhD Student
Rm 210 School of Physics University of Melbourne 3010 Victoria
Research Activities: Nanofabrication, Characterization of Novel Optical Materials and Computational Modelling

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Ion Beam Fabrication and Characterization of 3D Periodic Nanoscale Materials"S. M. Orbons1, L van Dijk2,3, M Bozkurt2,3, P N Johnston2, P Reichart1, D N Jamieson1

(1) School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia (2)Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (3)Applied Physics, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Victoria 3001, Australia

The demand for 3D periodic nanoscale materials in photonic systems is ever increasing. However, traditional analytical techniques of nanoscale systems such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), cannot provide any sub-surface information or elemental analysis, without destructive cross sectioning of the sample. In this work, a high aspect ratio sub-m periodic structure fabricated by Focused Ion Beam (FIB) lithography is characterized by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) using the macrochannelling technique. The technique overcomes the limitations of complementary techniques such as (SEM) and (AFM) by providing sub-surface elemental analysis of periodic materials. The diffraction grating under investigation consists of an array of 100 nm wide trenches in a 300 nm thick Ag film on a Si substrate. Using the surface structure imaged by SEM and AFM as a starting point, a numerical model for the RBS spectrum from the grating is fitted to the experimental spectrum as a function of the sub-surface structure. This process allows the width of the trenches to be determined as a function of depth even though the lateral structure is not resolved by the ion beam.The demand for 3D periodic nanoscale materials in photonic systems is ever increasing. However, traditional analytical techniques of nanoscale systems such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), cannot provide any sub-surface information or elemental analysis, without destructive cross sectioning of the sample. In this work, a high aspect ratio sub-m periodic structure fabricated by Focused Ion Beam (FIB) lithography is characterized by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) using the macrochannelling technique. The technique overcomes the limitations of complementary techniques such as (SEM) and (AFM) by providing sub-surface elemental analysis of periodic materials. The diffraction grating under investigation consists of an array of 100 nm wide trenches in a 300 nm thick Ag film on a Si substrate. Using the surface structure imaged by SEM and AFM as a starting point, a numerical model for the RBS spectrum from the grating is fitted to the experimental spectrum as a function of the sub-surface structure. This process allows the width of the trenches to be determined as a function of depth even though the lateral structure is not resolved by the ion beam.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
4.05pm - Paul Stoddart, Swinburne Dr Paul Stoddart
Research Fellow
Swinburne University of Technology Mail H38 - CAOUS PO Box 218 Hawthorn VIC 3122
Research Activities: Optical fibre chemical sensors Optical fibre distributed sensors Fibre Bragg grating sensors Synchrotron radiation for optical materials processing 3D shape measurement of specular surfaces Bacterial adhesion on textured surfaces Sub-wavelength anti-reflection coatings Miniature spectrometers

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Synchrotron Radiation for Lithography and Optical Materials Processing "Paul R. Stoddart(1), Scott A. Wade(2), Ben Smith(1), Peter Kemeny(3)

(1)Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Swinburne University of Technology (2)Department of Mechanical Engineering, Monash University (3) Kemeny Consulting

The need for deep sub-micron resolution has driven the development of various “next generation” lithographic techniques, amongst which X-ray lithography (XRL) has emerged as a leading candidate. Although the relatively weak interaction between X-rays and optical elements and photoresists presents a major challenge, XRL techniques based on the collimated flux from a synchrotron storage ring are gaining in popularity. In particular, high aspect ratio structures with very smooth sidewalls can be produced by exposing relatively thick layers of resist with energetic X-rays (7-20 keV). These structural characteristics are particularly useful for the fabrication of photonic devices and a range of recent applications are reviewed. We also discuss the potential for the fabrication of Bragg gratings in optical waveguide devices by means of synchrotron radiation. Although it has been known since at least 1953 that the refractive index of silica can be modified by energetic radiation, it appears that synchrotron light has not yet been used to fabricate optical devices in this way. The refractive index modification has been attributed to a compaction process similar to that observed in silicate glasses exposed to UV radiation with energy greater than the 8 eV band gap. The compaction process offers a number of advantages for the fabrication of Bragg gratings and waveguides. Finally, we discuss some preliminary modelling results relevant to the direct writing of refractive index structures with synchrotron radiation.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
4.25pm - Zonghan Xie, UNSW Dr Zonghan Xie
ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales
School of Materials Science and Engineering University of New South Wales NSW 2052, Australia
Research Activities: Effect of microstructure on contact deformation and wear behaviour of ceramics; deformation of hard coatings

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Deformation and Fracture Behaviour of Mono- and Multilayered TiN Coatings on Steel Substrates"Z. H. Xie 1, M. Hoffman 1, R. K. Singh 1, P. Munroe 1, A. Bendavid 2 and P. J. Martin 2

1 School of Materials Science and Engineering The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 2 CSIRO Division of Industrial Physics, PO Box 218, Lindfield, NSW 2070, Australia

TiN coatings have been widely applied onto metallic materials to provide protection against contact damage. An understanding of the behaviour of these coating systems subject to mechanical loading is therefore essential for improving their reliability and durability. This presentation will examine the controlling mechanisms of two typical TiN coating systems, i.e. mono- and multi-layered TiN coatings during micro-indentation and micro-scratch testing. A depth-sensing indentation instrument, equipped with a spherical-tipped conical indenter of 5 micrometer tip radius, was used to introduce deformation and fracture in these coating systems. Cross-sections of the indents were prepared and examined using a state-of-the-art dual ion/electron beam system. Cross-sectional TEM analyses were also conducted to reveal the interactions between cracks and coating microstructure. Based upon the observations, models were developed to understand the effects of coating microstructure, architecture (i.e. structural layering) and interlayer material properties upon the deformation and fracture behaviour of TiN coating systems.

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4.45pm - Warren McKenzie, UNSW Dr Warren McKenzie
Research Associate
Electron Microscope Unit UNSW Analytical Centre Basement, Chemical Sciences Building University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052
Research Activities: Nano-scale fabrication of diamond, characterisation of ion implanted diamond, Ion-solid interactions, thin film and interface fabrication and characterization, silicon on sapphire, semiconductor crystallography, novel atom probe and TEM sample preparation techniques. The commercial development of research.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Microstructural Improvement of Silicon-on-Sapphire Thin Films for Integrated Circuit applications"W.R. McKenzie* and P.R. Munroe*, H. Domyo† and T. Ho†

*School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, SYDNEY, NSW 2052, Australia, †Peregrine Semiconductor Australia Pty Ltd, HOMEBUSH, NSW 2140 Australia

Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) technologies offer many advantages over conventional bulk silicon in the performance of integrated circuits (IC’s) for radio frequency and microwave applications as the devices are significantly more radiation hard. SOS thin films, grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), are subject to a solid phase epitaxial re-growth (SPER) process to improve the quality of the silicon film to a level suitable device processing [1]. This paper studies the evolution of crystalline defects during the CVD and SPER processes. Understanding the evolution of the types and the locations of defects will aid in further improvements of the process currently aiming to support deep submicron device fabrication. Most of the developments of the SPER process since its inception have relied on electrical measurements to quantify crystalline quality. This study utilises the TEM to identify actual types of crystalline defects and their respective densities at different stages of the SPER process. For many of these defects, their origins and termination mechanisms have been identified. Based on these observations, optimisations of the SPER process have been suggested. 1. S.S. Lau, S. Matteson, J.W. Mayer, P. Revesz, J. Gyulai, J. Roth, T.W. Sigmon and T. Cass, Appl. Phys. Lett. 34(1) (1979) pp. 76-78.

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5.05pm - Nunzio Motta, QUT Professor Nunzio Motta
Adjunct Professor
School of Engineering Systems "O" Block, Level 7, Room O711 Queensland University of Technology (G.P.) 2 George Street, BRISBANE Qld 4001
Research Activities: Growth and characterization of Ge/Si quantum dots and nanostructures. Nanotube-Polymer composites for solar cells.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Towards nanomemories: Ge growth on naturally and artificially nanostructured Si surfaces"Nunzio Motta*, Anna Sgarlata**, P.D.Szkutnik**, A.Balzarotti**, Federico Rosei***, Isabelle Berbezier****

*School of Engineering Systems, Queensland University of Technology, GPO box 2434 Brisbane, Australia 4001 **Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitŕ di Roma Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma (Italy). ***INRS - Varennes (Canada) ****LM2P – Universite’ d’Aix –Marseille 2 (France)

Quantum dots (QDs) grown on semiconductors surfaces are actually the main researchers' interest for applications in the forecoming nanotechnology era. New frontiers in nanodevice technology rely on the precise positioning of the nucleation site and on controlling the shape and size of the dots. Novel approaches to form ordered patterns of homogeneous nanostructures are explored: natural patterning induced by surface instabilities (as step bunching of Si(111) or misoriented Si(001) surfaces), standard patterning with high resolution lithographic techniques, implantation of Ga+ ions by Focused Ion Beam (FIB), or in situ substrate patterning by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM). Based on the analysis of STM images we report on growth and arrangement of Ge islands on Si(001) substrates nanopatterned using several different approaches. The first is a natural method based on the regular step bunching that occurs on Si(111) surfaces with different annealing treatments. The second is based on the self organization of a Si(001) misoriented surface covered by a thin layer of a GeSi alloy. The third exploit an array of holes produced by STM lithography. The forth is a tight pattern created by FIB. We analyze the resulting distribution of islands resulting from all these approaches

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5.25pm - Jingxian Yu, Flinders Dr Jingxian Yu
Student
School of Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences Flinders University GPO Box 2100 Adelaide SA 5001
Research Activities: Silicon based nanostructured materials

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Molecular Memories using Hybrid Ferrocene/Porphyrin Monolayers"Jingxian Yu, Simon Mathew, Joseph Shapter, Jamie Quinton and Martin Johnston

School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia

During the past decade there has been an increasing interest in developing molecular-based memory devices. Approaches made toward this goal have generally involved the attachment of a collection of redox-active molecules (such as, porphyrin and ferrocene materials) to an electroactive surface (such as silicon). The redox-active materials serve as the active storage medium, with information stored in the discrete redox states of the molecules. In our paper we will present results of self-assembled monolayers composed of a mixture of ferrocene and porphyrin molecules. Through attachment of ferrocenecarboxylic acid and 5-(4-carboxyphenyl)-10,15,20-[tris(3,5-ditertbutylphenyl)] prophyrin to the terminal hydroxyl groups on the silicon surface, we will demonstrate how these SAMs are excellent candidates for molecular memory devices.

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Session 5: Poster Session
Session Chair: Julie Cairney, Aravind Dasari, Mark Hoffman and Jim Williams
· Alireza Asgari, Deakin Mr. Alireza Asgari
PhD Student

Research Activities: Multiscale modelling of TRIP steel

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Multiscale modelling of hardening mechanisms and phase transformation in TRIP steel"Alireza Asgari, Bernard Rolfe, Peter Hodgson

Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 3217

The numerical modelling codes currently used for forming, springback and crash modelling generally represent the sheet as homogenous material, uniform in thickness and material properties and use a continuum mechanics approach to simulate dynamic deformation processes. The assumptions of continuum mechanics are accurate enough for conventional steels where the effects of molecular processes are represented by the equations of state and the constitutive relations. These effective models, which are mostly empirical, have their limitations when complex structural steels are investigated. One of these limitations, besides generally poor accuracy, is the complete neglect of the microscale mechanisms which are of great importance in the case of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS), such as TRansformation Induced Plasticity (TRIP) steels. The option of just using microscale modelling methods, which have better accuracy and a physical foundation, is not the best answer. The reason ! is that the models are often too complex and the answers we get will likely contain too much information that is of little interest, further complicating the task of extracting useful data. However, multiscale modelling can efficiently improve the AHSS model predictions, by taking into account the profound effects of microstructural details such as nonlinearities, deformation induced phase transformation and history dependent large deformation. In this presentation, the path to build a multiscale modelling framework based on the hybrid Finite Element/Particle-in-Cell method is presented. This framework can be used to study the effect of hardening mechanisms and phase transformation of TRIP steel in micro scale toward simulation of macro scale metal forming processes.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Hossein Beladi, Deakin Dr Hossein Beladi
Research Fellow
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation GTP Building, Deakin University Geelong, VIC 3217
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Dynamic Strain-Induced Transformation of Bainite"H. Beladi1, Y. Adachi2, M. Wakita3 and P. D. Hodgson1

1. Centre for Materials and Fibre Innovations, Faculty of Science and Technology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia, VIC 3216 2. National Institute of Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba-Shi, Ibaraki, 305-0047, Japan 3. Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., 1-8 Fuso-cho, Amagasaki 660-0891, Japan

The excellent balance between strength and ductility is a key characteristic of steels compared with other metals. Recently, the costumer demands worldwide for superior mechanical properties have led to new research to further engineer the microstructures of steels. Among the different strengthening mechanisms, refinement of microstructure (such as ferrite and bainite) is the most promising way to improve the strength of steel without sacrificing the toughness. Of the approaches to date, the use of dynamic strain-induced transformation (i.e. inducing the austenite to ferrite transformation during deformation) has shown the greatest potential, with grain sizes of the order of 1µm or less being achieved. However, these high strength ultrafine ferritic microstructures suffer from limited ductility. Dynamic strain-induced transformation is potentially a promising approach to ultrafine bainite structure since the bainite transformation has a similar reaction to the ferrite transformation (i.e. nucleation and growth). In the current study, 0.2C-2Mn steel with high hardanbility was used to investigate the concurrent deformation and bainite transformation using compression testing. The results suggested that the bainite formation was accelerated by deformation at the early stage of transformation resulting fine ferritic bainite. However, the austenite was then stabilized through further transformation resulting retained austenite and martensite at room temperature. The retained austenite characteristics (i.e. volume fraction, size and distribution) can be controlled through thermomechanical parameters to improve the mechanical properties of steel.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Ivan Blajer, UTS Mr Ivan Blajer
PhD Student

Research Activities: Polymer optical fibres manufacture, microstructured fibres, imaging,

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Method for casting microstructured polymer fibre preforms."I.Blajer, J. Franklin, G.B. Smith

Applied Physics, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007

We report on an inexpensive method for producing optical quality microstructured pre-forms for production of optical fibre. This is achieved by polymerisation of PMMA in a specially designed mould and subsequent extraction of the finished pre-form. The successful production of the preform requires careful monitoring and control of the polymerisation reaction of the methyl methacrylate monomer. The transverse structure complicates the dynamics of the reaction. Maximum homogeneity of the final product is needed with avoidance of local stresss variations during growth . This varies between samples depending on the number of air channels in the pre-form. We report on the achieved optical losses and qualitative properties of the preform. The advantages and disadvantages of this method compared to others are also outlined.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· (not yet confirmed) Adam Brancher Mr Adam Brancher
PhD Student- Griffith University Gold Coast Campus
Semaphore Adelaide South Australia 5019
Research Activities: Writing PhD part time at Griffith University, Gold coast QLD on active non-destructive testing of marine fibre compsites using neural network evaluation.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Innovating Small Craft Manufacturing In Australia"A C Brancher, H Zhao, S Zhang

Griffith University

Production composite boat building in Australia has, with few exceptions, not progressed from the original 'bucket and brush' technology developed in the 1960's. This technology is wasteful, environmentally questionable,and often results in poorly engineered structures. Solutions to these issues are emerging in other parts of the world and this paper argues that they merit examination if the Australian industry is to meet its potential.

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· Kristin Carpenter, UWollongong Dr Kristin Carpenter
Research Fellow
Faculty of Engineering University of Wollongong Northfields Av Wollongong 2522 Australia
Research Activities: Research for product and process improvement for continuous casting of steel. Conventional Strip casting, Hot ductility testing (Gleeble 3500)

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "The hot ductility of Nb, Ti, Nb-Ti microalloyed steels and the influence of thermal history on ductility for the Nb-Ti steel."K.R. Carpenter, R. Dippenaar and C.R. Killmore*

Process Engineering Group, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia *BlueScope Steel, Central Laboratory, Port Kembla NSW 2505, Australia.

The hot-ductility of Nb, Ti and Nb-Ti containing steels have been studied under direct-cast conditions and the influence of thermal oscillations on the ductility of Nb-Ti steel was investigated. A Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical simulator was used to determine hot-ductility over the temperature range 1100-700C at a low strain rate of 7.5 x 10-4 s-1. Tensile samples were melted and solidified ‘in-situ’ to simulate direct casting and were subsequently cooled at two different cooling rates, 100K/min and 200K/min, simulating respectively, the cooling rate of thick and thin slab casting processes. Complex thermal patterns designed to simulate the cooling conditions experienced near the surface of a slab during continuous casting were performed for the Nb-Ti steel. The addition of thermal oscillations to hot ductility tests improves the tests accuracy in the simulation transverse cracking during unbending in the continuous casting of troublesome peritectic steels. The Nb-Ti steel had lower ductility than both the Nb and Ti steels. Increasing the cooling rate generally deteriorated ductility. The low recovery of ductility at higher temperatures was explained in terms of a low strain rate and fine precipitation delaying the onset of dynamic recrystallisation, which can promote intergranular cracking because of grain boundary sliding in austenite. At lower temperatures, the ductility decreased further due to the formation of thin ferrite films at the prior austenite grain boundaries. Simulating the thermal history experienced near the surface of thin (90mm) cast slab improved ductility of the Nb-Ti steel by promoting coarser NbTi(C,N).

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Chanokporn Chaiwong, USyd Ms Chanokporn Chaiwong

Applied and Plasma Physics, School of Physics, A28 The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Research Activities: - Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation and Deposition (PIII&D) for thin film deposition on polymeric materials - Ion Implantation for optical property modification

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Effects of the interface region on the adhesion of titanium nitride films grown by plasma immersion ion implantation onto polymer substrates"C. Chaiwong, D.R. McKenzie, M.M.M. Bilek

School of Physics, A28, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Adhesion is a major factor in coating performance. The interface region is of special interest since it is usually the site of adhesion failure. Titanium nitride films were deposited onto polymer substrate by filtered cathodic vacuum arc using the plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII&D) method. Tensile testing was used to ascertain and quantify the strength of the film adhesion. It was found that films grown by PIII&D showed excellent adhesion, comparable to that usual for TiN deposited onto stainless steel. The interfaces and microstructures of the films produced were analysed using cross-sectional TEM to determine the mechanisms by which the film bonds to the polymer.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Xiaobo Chen, Deakin Mr. Xiaobo Chen
postgraduate student
Geelong Technology Precinct, Deakin Uni. Pigdons Rd. Waurn Ponds, 3217 VIC
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Preparation of bioactive TiZr alloys via thermo-chemical surface pretreatments"X.B. Chen*, A. Nouri, X.J. Wang, P.D. Hodgson and C.E. Wen,

Material and Fiber Innovation, Deakin University

TiZr alloys have a high potential for biomedical applications due to the excellent biocompatibility of both elements of titanium and zirconium. Nevertheless, the surfaces of the TiZr alloys need to be modified by proper way in order to impart the implant materials bioactivity and therefore, eliminate the adverse reaction and shorten the implant-tissue osseointegration time. In the present study, a thermo-chemical pretreatment process followed by the soaking in simulated body fluid (SBF) were performed for the preparation of the bioactive TiZr alloys which exhibit a hydroxyapatite (HA) layer on the surface. Phase transformation, surface morphology, and interfacial microstructure were investigated using optical microscopy, hardness tester and SEM-EDS techniques.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Yiqing Chen, USyd Mrs Yiqing Chen
PhD student
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Polishing of Polycrystalline Diamond"Y. Chen , L. C. Zhang, J. A. Arsecularatne

School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia

Dynamic friction polishing (DFP) utilizes thermo-chemical reaction between a diamond surface and a metal disk tool rotating at a high peripheral speed and enables highly efficient polishing of polycrystalline diamond (PCD). Based on the experimental analyses, the material removal mechanisms can be described as: conversion of diamond carbon into non-diamond carbon by friction heating and contacting with catalytic metals; removal of these non-diamond carbon mechanically, and/or diffusion of carbon atoms into a counterpart metal, and/or oxidization of carbon and evaporation in the form of CO or CO2 gas.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Suk Chin, UWA Miss Suk Chin
PhD student
The University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia School of Biomedical & Chemical Sciences 35 Stirling Highway Crawley WA 6009 Australia
Research Activities: Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical Application

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Encapsulation of Magnetic Nanoparticles with Biopolymer for Biomedical Application"Suk Fun Chin, Mohamed Makha, Colin Raston

School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009

Magnetic nanoparticles have been extensively studied because of their potential applications as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of tumors, cell and DNA separation, magnetically guided drug delivery, tumor hyperthermia etc. Among the magnetic oxides, magnetite nanoparticles are most suitable due to their low toxicity and good magnetic properties. Magnetite is a ferromagnetic iron oxide, Fe3O4 with an inverse spinel crystalline structure in which part of the iron atoms are octahedrally coordinated to oxygen and the rest are tetrahedrally coordinated to oxygen. However, magnetite tends to aggregate due to strong magnetic dipole-dipole attractions between particles combined with inherently large surface energy. In this study, we attempt to encapsulate magnetite nanoparticles with chitosan derivatives using Spinning Disk Processing (SDP). The effects of synthesis parameters such as chitosan derivative concentrations, spinning disk rates, feeding rates of re! actants on the stability and particle size distributions of the magnetite nanoparticles have been studied. Our preliminary results show that particle size distributions, stability and disperbility in aqueous solution of chitosan derivative coated magnetite nanoparticles can be controlled by the choice of synthetic parameters including disk spinning speeds and reactants feeding rates. The coating enhances the stability and dispersibility of the magnetite nanoparticles in aqueous solution. Future work will focus on optimizing the synthesis conditions for preparation of stable chitosan derivative coated magnetite nanoparticles with desirable particles sizes and magnetic properties for biomedical applications.

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· Chuan Ming Deng, Deakin Mr Chuan Ming Deng
Ph.D candidate
Textile Group Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation Geelong Technology Precinct (GTP) Deakin University, Geelong Victoria Australia 3217
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "3-D Deformation Process of Irregular Animal Fibres "Chuanming Deng, Lijing Wang, Xungai Wang

Deakin University

The cross-section of animal fibres varies along the fibre length, and this geometrical irregularity has major implications for the mechanical properties and processing behaviour of these animal fibres. In this study, wool fibres were subjected to tensile loading using a new Single Fibre Analyzer (SIFAN) instrument. The 3D images of fibre specimens were captured during the deformation process, and the fibre diameter variations were analysed. Key words: wool, irregularity, diameter variation, 3-D image

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· Alec Deslandes, Flinders Mr Alec Deslandes
Student
School of Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences Flinders University GPO Box 2100 Adelaide SA 5001
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Hydrogenation of Carbon Surfaces via Plasma Treatments"A. Deslandes, J.G. Shapter, J. S. Quinton

School of Chemistry Physic and Earth Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

Graphite (HOPG) has been treated with hydrogen and methane plasmas in order to hydrogenate the surface. Features caused by the plasma treatment are observed as protrusions on the surface via scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). Etching and/or nucleation and growth features are observed, with the type of features and their distribution dependent on the precursor gas used (either hydrogen or methane) and various plasma variables. Pilot-study results using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToFSIMS) give an indication of the hydrogen coverage/content of the plasma treated surfaces (observed via the hydrogen content in CxHy groups), which can be correlated with these STM effects. The effects of the plasma hydrogenation are observed to change systematically with changes in the investigated plasma treatment variables, which include exposure time, plasma pressure and applied power. These investigations will enable optimisation of plasma treatments used to prepare surfaces for carbon-based electrochemical sensors.

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· Trevor Finlayson, Monash Dr Trevor Finlayson
Associate Professor
School of Physics Monash University Clayton 3800 Victoria
Research Activities: Precursor and time dependent effects in association with displacive phase transitions, particularly in martensitic alloys; relaxation and microstructural studies in triglycine sulphate ferroelectrics; studies of residual stresses in engineering materials particularly using non-destructive diffraction (neutron and x-ray) techniques; microstructural and magnetic studies of Sm-Co-based magnetic alloys; structural studies in YTZ and CaSrTiO3 ceramics.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Time-resolved studies of ferroelectric materials during the application of electric fields."J.E. Daniels*, T.R. Finlayson*, J.L. Jones†, A.J. Studer‡

*School of Physics, Monash University, Clayton, Vic.3800 †University of Florida ‡Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Engineering Organisation, Lucas Heights, N.S.W, 2234

An experimental facility to measure the time dependence of neutron Bragg peak intensities, in response to applied high-voltage electric fields has been developed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. The stroboscopic technique with a timing resolution below 20?s, has been applied to the study of ferroelectric materials such as triglycine sulphate (TGS), a common pyroelectric detector material, and lead zirconate titanate (PZT), the most widely used material for electromechanical transducer applications. The results obtained show the first insight into the real-time structural response of these materials during dynamic electrical loading. Single crystal TGS shows very interesting structural behaviour in the first few hundred microseconds of switching of field intensity, which is apparent in large relaxation effects in the diffracted intensity of particular hkl reflections. In ceramic PZT we have characterised both the intrinsic (lattice strains) and extrinsic (domain wall motion) contributions to the macroscopic strain for the first time during dynamic actuation.

(Originally to have been presented by Rongping Wang who was unable to attend due to other research commitments)

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· Benjamin Flavel, Flinders Mr Benjamin Flavel
Student
School of Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences Flinders University GPO Box 2100 Adelaide SA 5001
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Nanosphere Lithography Using Thermal Evaporation of Gold"B.S. Flavel, J.G. Shapter, J.S. Quinton

School of Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences, Flinders University, Sturt Road, Bedford Park, Adelaide SA 5001

Ordered nanoparticle and patterned metal arrays on surfaces have attracted much recent attention due to their potential for far reaching application in biosensors, magnetic materials, catalysts and data storage. Nanosphere lithography, which allows the fabrication of patterned metal surfaces, is a simple, effective and unconventional technique that exploits a self-assembly process. Using this technique, polystyrene nanospheres with diameters of 100nm, 500nm, and 1μm were assembled onto a ‘muscovite’ mica substrate in a hexagonally close packed monolayer array, to provide a physical mask for material deposition. Thermal evaporation was subsequently used to deposit gold through the nanosphere mask layer, to generate a periodic array of quasi triangular gold nanostructures. Upon changing the mask to a multi-layered array of nanospheres, slightly more complex nanostructures were achieved. While nanosphere lithography is capable of producing arrays that are scalable to large areas, the technique is strongly influenced by defects in the crystalline nanosphere mask, the various types of which and their origin are investigated and discussed. Carbon nanotubes, which were chemically shortened with high carboxylic acid functionality from 3:1 concentrated sulphuric and nitric acid treatment, were immobilised onto the lithographically fabricated gold nanostructures using a surface condensation reaction. An amine terminated monolayer was assembled onto the gold array using the alkanethiol cysteamine to provide an anchor site for the nanotube.

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· Rajkumar Gopiraj, Monash Mr Rajkumar Gopiraj
Undergraduate Student
School of Materials Engineering Monash University Faculty of Engineering
Research Activities: Prioritizing research in Light Alloys by using a process of 'Virtual Materials Selection' with the aid of new software and computer modelling. Instead of asking which material is best for a given set of properties, we see if new light alloys could be theoretically created and used to replace existing materials in the market-place.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Researching ‘Research’ in the Light Alloys: Can we objectively prioritize our research activities?"Rajkumar Gopiraj and Christopher R. Hutchinson§

§ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, 3800, Vic. Australia

In selecting a material for a particular application, an engineer has to make a choice from ~80,000 currently available distinct materials. For an optimal choice, we should consider the competition between all materials, considering their properties, combinations of properties, economic factors, processability, etc. Software is now available to facilitate this and ‘Computed Materials Selection’ is now used by many leading engineering companies and has become a core component of the materials education at many institutions around the world. The methodology is now rather well developed but clearly it can only be applied to existing and well characterized commercially available materials. Instead of asking which material is best for a given application we may instead want to ask: If I can make a new material with properties X, Y and Z, what could it be used for? What materials could it replace? What might be the market impact? Or, what improvement in properties must I achieve in the lab to make a new material which will have a large impact in the market. In many ways, these are reverse materials selection questions and a similar methodology can be used. Here we describe our work in using a process of ‘Virtual Materials Selection’ to help prioritize and quantify those areas of materials property development that would offer the greatest competitive advantage for the light alloys (Al, Mg and Ti). Such a process may help prioritize fundamental research in these areas.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Joel Gresham, ANU Mr Joel Gresham
Student
Department of Engineering (Bldg 32) The Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Stamp Forming Fibre-Metal Laminates at Elevated Temperatures"Joel Gresham

Dept of Engineering, Australian National University

Fibre-Metal Laminates (FML) are manufactured by means of bonding alternate layers of metal and fibre-reinforced composite materials. The result is a sandwich structure with the potential to tailor the overall mechanical properties based on the properties of the constituents. Typically, manufacturing techniques used in the production of Fibre-Metal Laminates are time consuming with low volume output. Due to this, there has been limited use of FMLs in the high volume industries such as automotive. Stamp forming, a common manufacturing technique used in the automotive industry, has the potential to increase the production rate of FMLs. Current research identifies important parameters affecting the success of forming FMLs to be, preheat temperature, tooling temperature, blank-holder force, and feed rate. The main emphasis of the present study is to investigate the formability of thermo-plastic based FML systems, focusing on biaxial forming behaviour at elevated preheat temperatu! res. Measurement of real time surface strain distribution during shallow and deep drawing of laminates is used to elucidate the effects of forming at elevated temperatures. Results have shown that significant change in the strain distribution occurs at forming temperatures above the melting temperature of the adhesive. Comparison between FML and monolithic aluminium formed under identical conditions showed the FML system having a more uniform strain distribution and required less work to form. The experimental results obtained in the present study show FML systems have the potential to be adapted to the high volume production technique of stamp forming with comparable or better success than currently used materials.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Toby Hopf, UniMelb Mr Toby Hopf
PhD Student
MARC Group, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010.
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Development of a Single Ion Detection System for the Shallow Implantation of Individual Donors with Nanoscale Precision"Toby Hopf, David Jamieson, Changyi Yang, Grigori Tamanyan.

Microanalytical Research Centre, School of Physics, University of Melbourne.

We have developed a technique which enables the implantation and detection of single low-energy (<15 keV) ions in a silicon substrate with nanoscale precision, and with a detection efficiency approaching 100%. The ability to configure semiconductor devices with controlled doping has a number of potential applications. For example, some solid state quantum computer architectures based on nuclear spin, electron spin or charge require precision placement of single phosphorus atoms in a silicon matrix, with registration to control electrodes allowing the quantum state of individual atoms to be manipulated and read out. Controlled doping could also overcome performance degradation in sub-100 nm scale classical devices where lack of precision in dopant placement and number leads to problems with statistical fluctuations in electrical characteristics. Our method is based upon the Ion Beam Induced Charge (IBIC) technique of nuclear analysis, commonly used with MeV light ions (Z ≤ 2), but which we have adapted to the keV heavy ion (Z > 2) regime. Collection of the ionization created in a ion strike by electrodes fabricated on the silicon wafer is used to detect the implantation of a single ion. The detection of these single sub-20 keV implanted heavy ions is challenging because of the pulse height defect involved, which arises because a substantial fraction of the kinetic energy of the incident ion is dissipated as phonons rather than ionization. Both a high efficiency electrode configuration and an extremely low detector noise level are therefore necessary in order to detect ion strike events.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Maizlinda Idris, UNSW Mrs Maizlinda Idris
PhD Student
School of Materials Science & Engineering University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
Research Activities: Structural Integrity of Sandwich Composites

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Contact damage behaviour on carbon fibre/closed-cell aluminium foam sandwich composites"Ms. Maizlinda Izwana Idris, Assoc. Prof. Mark Hoffman

School of Materials Science and Engineering The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

A sandwich composite is a combination of two stiff composite skins and a lightweight core. The function of the skin is to carry bending and in plane forces, while the role of the core is to support the skin and to carry transverse loads. The combination of skins and core offers high energy absorption and increases the flexural stiffness (EI) without significant weight penalties. As a result, sandwich composites are widely used in the civil structures and transport industries. For examples, sandwich composite panels are used in helicopter blades and shield for space applications. However, during service life, these sandwich composites may experience impact damage such as tool drops, hailstones and bird strikes. This damage has been demonstrated to significantly reduce the structural properties of the sandwich composites. Therefore, in the present research, the contact damage behaviour on the carbon fibre skin and closed-cell aluminium foam sandwich composites is investigated.

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· Rudy Irwan, UQ Mr Rudy Irwan
PhD/Research Student
Room 45-118 Mansergh Shaw Mechanical Engineering Building University of Queensland Queensland 4072
Research Activities: Research on nanoindentation and nanoscratch for brittle materials

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Nanoindentation of Cemented Tungsten Carbide"Rudy Irwan and Han Huang

The University of Queensland

Nanoindentation is commonly used to study mechanical properties of materials, such as hardness and elastic modulus. Recently researchers have utilized this technique to investigate material removal mechanism involved in nanogrinding. This is because an indentation process that involves interaction between a diamond tip and a work material is analogous to an individual nanogrinding event. In this work, the nanoindentation technique was used to investigate the effect of microstructure on mechanical properties, deformation and removal mechanism of cemented tungsten carbide (WC). Indentation was performed on a Hysitron Triboindenter using a Berkovich diamond indenter. Various static loads, ranging from 2 to 30 mN, were applied to examine if cracking was occurred. For each load, five indentations were made. Indentations were also made intentionally on both WC grains and binder-rich regions to examine the influence of microstructure. Surface characteristics of indentations were examined using an atomic force microscope (AFM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The indentation results on cemented tungsten carbide show that both the hardness and the elastic modulus are different between grain and binder-rich regions. Crack-related events, such as pop-in and pop-out, are not evident in load-displacement curves, even though the load is increased up to 30 mN. AFM and SEM images indicate that there exist pile-ups developed near the impressions on the indented surfaces. However, no evidence of cracking can be found either, which is in agreement with the findings from the load-displacement curves.

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· Ruth Jarvis, ANU Dr Ruth Jarvis
Post-doc in the Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, ANU
Laser Physics Centre Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University Canberra, ACT, 0200
Research Activities: Optical thin film deposition using ultra-fast pulsed laser deposition of chalcogenide glass; characteristion for photonics applications; and optical waveguide fabrication, including silica, polymers, inorganic polymer glass, and chalcogenide glass.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Chalcogenide glasses for magneto-optics applications"Ruth A. Jarvis, A. Zoubir, E. Gamaly, A. Prasad, A.V. Rode, B. Luther-Davies

Laser Physics Centre, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University

Chalcogenide glasses have considerable potential for application in next generation photonic devices due to their large nonlinearities, high refractive indices and significant magneto-optic activity. We report on the optical and structural properties of laser deposited films of arsenic trisulfide and Ge-As-Se as well as the Faraday rotation of these glasses in thin film and bulk glass form across a wavelength range from 675-1550nm. As the germanium content is increased the Verdet constant is increased which we believe results from the higher refractive index.

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· Abdullah-Al Kafi, Deakin Mr Abdullah-Al Kafi
Postgraduate research student
Abdullah-Al-Kafi Postgraduate Research Student Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation Deakin University Geelong Victoria 3217 Australia.
Research Activities: 1. Preparation and development of the polymer composites by using different techniques such as hand lay-up, compression moulding, UV/Gamma radiation curing. 2. Cost and wastage minimization of raw materials: Standardization of the process by optimization of raw material content. 3. Full/partial replacement of glass fiber with indigenous natural fiber jute. 4. Improvement of stabilization/pot life of unsaturated polyester resin. 5. Characterization of sustainable glass/jute-reinforced composites by FTIR, SEM, XPS etc. 6. Study of the effect of different monomer, UV/gamma radiation on the physico-mechanical properties of composites. 7. Modification of unsaturated polyester resin system by low cost swelling solvent. 8. Development of advanced natural fiber based green composites.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Effect of hybridization and resin concentrations on the mechanical properties of jute/glass fiber reinforced unsaturated polyester composites."ABDULLAH-AL-KAFI* AND BRONWYN L. FOX Centre for materials and fiber innovation, School of Engineering and Information Technology Deakin University, Geelong VIC 3217, Australia. MUBARAK A. KHAN Radiation and Polymer Chemistry Laboratory Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission PO Box 3787, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. M. Z. ABEDIN Department of Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science Shah Jalal University of Science and Technology Sylhet, Bangladesh.



Jute fiber (Hessian cloth) and E-glass fiber (mat) reinforced unsaturated polyester (USP) hybrid composites were prepared by compression molding technique. The composite fabrication temperature, pressure and time were 930C, 8 MT and 5 minutes respectively and 40% hybrid (Jute:glass=1:3) fibers level were maintained. To compare the mechanical properties of hybrid composites; different composites were fabricated using only jute and glass. Increased mechanical properties of hybrid composites such as tensile strength (66%), bending strength (176%), tensile modulus (86%), bending modulus (78%) was found compared to jute-based composites. For further improvement of mechanical properties and also to reduce the cost of resin, USP was properly mixed with methanol as a swelling solvent at different concentrations (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%). It was investigated that 25% methanol in USP showed more or less same property as composites prepared with pure resin. FTIR studies were done to understand the nature of adsorbed functional groups on both jute and glass fiber surface. From FTIR analysis it can be assumed that hydroxyl groups of jute might be reacted with carbonyl group of USP. SEM analysis showed positive results such as less pull out of fibers in case of hybrid composites. *To whom correspondence should be addressed: aakaf@deakin.edu.au

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· Zulfiqar Khan, Deakin Dr Zulfiqar Khan
Research Fellow
Center for Material and Fibre Innovation Geelong Technology Precinct Deakin University, Geelong 3217, Australia
Research Activities: Fibres and Yarns

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Development of compact spun innovative products"Zulfiqar Khan

Deakin University

This work develops innovative products for a new market, using the short staple compact spinning technology. Compact spinning is achieved by the modification to the drafting process of a conventional ring spinning frame. In conventional ring spinning, twist is inserted in the drafted fibre ribbon as it emerges from the nip of the delivery rollers of the drafting zone. The twist insertion gives consolidation and strength to the forming yarn. This consolidation results in the formation of a triangle called spinning triangle where peripheral fibres of drafted ribbon are not fully incorporated into the yarn body. In compact or condensed spinning system, an extra ‘control zone’ is added to compact the ribbon of drafted but untwisted fibres. The compacting zone uses air-suction to reduce the size of the drafted fibre ribbon. As a result, fewer fibre ends poke out of the yarn surface producing less hairy and stronger yarn than equivalent ring spun yarn. The advantage of compact spinning can be realised in the reduction of up to 70% production costs than normal worsted process.

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· Taehyun Kim, ANU Mr Taehyun Kim

Department of Electronic Materials Engineering Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University Acton ACT 0200 Australia
Research Activities: Silicon-rich oxides as functional materials for electronic, photonics and optoelectronic Nanocrystal reactions and compound formation Self assembly of nanocrystals in layered materials structure

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Novel crack patterns and propagation modes in PECVD silica films – influence of film and substrate properties."Taehyun Kim, Verena Tobias, Marc Spooner, Tessica Weijers-Dall, Robert Elliman

Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200

Novel crack patterns, propagation modes, and crack interactions are observed in PECVD-deposited silicon-rich silica films on silicon substrates subjected to thermal annealing. Cracks form as a result of a significant increase in stress in the film, which in the temperature range 400-650°C is correlated with the loss of hydrogen from the film (up to 30 atomic-% of which is incorporated during deposition). Using ion beam techniques (including heavy ion ERD and FIB) and other complementary diagnostic techniques, we are investigating the role of the film properties (composition, hardness) on this behaviour.

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· Chi Li, UNSW Miss Chi Li

School of Materials Science and Engineering University of New South Wales Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "LaNi4.25Al0.75 hydrogen storage thin film fabricated by direct current magnetron sputtering"Chi Ying Vanessa Li*, S. L. I. Chan*, Zhongmin Wang†

*School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia †Department of Information Material Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, Guangxi, 541004, P. R. China

The electrochemical behaviour of LaNi4.25Al0.75 thin film fabricated by magnetron sputtering had been investigated. Single layer LaNi4.25Al0.75 thin films were deposited on Cu substrate by direct current magnetron sputtering with a thickness of 4.2 microns. Both scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy showed that the surface of the film is relatively rough with pores of 15-40 nm in diameter as potential hydrogen storage sites. X-ray diffraction revealed that the microstructure of the layer is of fine grained crystalline and of LaNi5 type. Pressure-composition-isotherm measurement showed that the hydrogen absorption content could reach up to 1.3 wt% at room temperature and hydrogen desorption of 1.1 wt%. Its specific discharge capacity was found to be 220 mAh/g and posed itself as an excellent candidate as negative electrode in thin film battery application.

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· Szu Hui Lim, USyd Miss Szu Hui Lim
Research Student

Research Activities: Mechanical Testing and Microscopy Analysis

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Mechanical properties of nylon 6/clay/rubber ternary nanocomposites"Szu-Hui Lim, Aravind Dasari, Gong-Tao Wang, Zhong-Zhen Yu, Yiu-Wing Mai

Centre for Advanced Materials Technology (CAMT), School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering J07, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Exfoliated nano-scale clay layers at low loadings in nylon 6 had been shown to remarkably improve the elastic modulus, tensile strength, barrier and flame retardant properties, as well as dimensional stability. This was attributed to the high aspect ratio, and homogeneous distribution of individual clay layers, providing a large interfacial contact area between the clay layers and the nylon 6 matrix. However, it was also reported that well exfoliated clay layers constrained the molecular mobility of the nylon 6 chains and suppressed the associated plastic deformation at the crack-tip, undesirably impairing the fracture toughness of nylon 6 nanocomposites and greatly limiting the applicability of these materials in load-bearing applications. Therefore, in this study, we focus on toughening of nylon/clay nanocomposites by incorporating maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene-octene copolymer (POE-g-MA) as the toughening agent in order to achieve high stiffness/strength along with high fracture toughness. Mechanical test results indicated that the ternary nanocomposites exhibited higher stiffness than the nylon 6/POE-g-MA binary blends at given POE-g-MA contents. Interestingly, the brittle-ductile transition of the nylon 6/POE-g-MA blends was not impaired in the presence of clay. TEM analysis revealed that the clay layers and elastomer particles were dispersed separately in the nylon 6 matrix. The achievement of such a microstructure depends on several parameters such as the nature of the rubber and the melt compounding conditions. The presence of fine clay layers in the matrix provided maximum reinforcement to the polymer; and at same time, its absence in the rubber particles allowed the latter to cavitate and impart toughness to the nanocomposite.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Hua Liu, UNSW Dr. Hua Liu
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering The University of New South Wales UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052
Research Activities: Abrasive waterjet machining for advanced material, Micro machining using abrasive waterjet

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Experimental study of contouring on an alumina ceramics by using abrasive waterjet"Hua Liu

School of mechanical and manufacturing Eng. University of New South Wales

As a kind of “beam” cutting, abrasive waterjet loses its energy and begins to lag or tail behind the entrance point of the beam at the top of the workpiece. This jet tail back nature is believed to result in kerf geometric deficiencies or shape errors in contouring. Hence, the understanding of this phenomenon and associated knowledge of the effects on kerf geometrical features is essential for precision and complex cutting tasks. However, it appears that only little amount of efforts has been devoted AWJ contouring, although contouring is a more common cutting process in AWJ machining. In this paper, an experimental investigation is presented to study the various cutting performance measures in contouring of an 87% alumina ceramics by using abrasive waterjet (AWJ) over a wide range of process parameters. It finds that the taper angles on the two kerf walls are in different magnitudes in AWJ contouring. The kerf taper on the outer kerf wall increases with the arc radius (or! profile curvature), while that on the inner kerf wall decreases. Moreover, the depth of cut increases with an increase in arc radius and approaches the maximum in straight cutting for a given combination of parameters. The other process variables affect the AWJ contouring process in a way similar to that in straight cutting. The analysis has provided a guideline for the selection of process parameters in contouring of alumina ceramics using abrasive waterjet.

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· Thanh Lu, UNSW Thanh Lu


Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "High Strength Aluminum Composite used in Elevated Temperatures"Y.C. Kang, Thanh Lu and S.L.I. Chan

School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 Australia

There is a constant challenge to increase the useful service temperature of aluminium alloys. This paper reports a study on the use of nano-particulate reinforcements to increase the useable temperature of an aluminum alloy. Different amounts of nano-SiC particulates with an average size of 50 nm were added to a 7775 matrix via powder metallurgy route. For comparison a monolithic 7775 alloy and a 7775 composite with micrometric SiC reinforcement were included. Creep tests were carried out over a range of temperatures from 673K to 773K. The creep lives of composites with nano-reinforcements were two orders higher than those of the monolithic alloy and micrometric particulate reinforced composites. The beneficial effect of nano-reinforcement was particularly significant for smaller applied loading or at lower testing temperature. Nano-particulate reinforced composites also have a threshold stress about three times that of the monolithic alloy. A logarithmic plot of minimum c! reep rate against stress leads to a high but variable stress exponent, and high apparent activation energy. Microstructural changes and precipitation coarsening during the creep test was observed under transmission electron microscope, and it was found that the extent of coarsening depended on test temperature. The nano-SiC particulates effectively pinned the grain boundaries and also interacted with dislocations within the grain, all these contribute to the superior creep resistance of the 7775 Al composites with nanometric reinforcement.

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· Wen Jie Ma, USyd Miss Wen Jie Ma
PhD student
AMME Building J07 The University of sydney Camperdown campus
Research Activities: Diamond like carbon coating for biomedical applications.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Effect of composition of diamond like carbon films on surface properties and biocompatibility"W.J. Ma*, A.J. Ruys*, R. Mason**, H. Zreiqat***, W.Y. Cheung****, S.P Wong****, P.J. Martin*****, A. Bendavid*****, V. J. Keast******

* Biomedical Engineering Unit/ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechtronic Engineering, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia **Department of Physiology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia *** Bone and biomaterial research unit, University of New South Wales, Australia **** Department of electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong *****Industrial Physics, CSIRO, Sydney, Australia ******Electron Microscopy Unit, University of Sydney, Australia

In Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) the sp3 fraction and the hydrogen content are the determining factors in controlling the mechanical functionality and biocompatibility. However, previous reports in this area have not adequately correlated these factors with coating optimization for specific biomedical applications. The present work is aimed at a systematic study of the structure, properties and biocompatibility of both hydrogenated and unhydrogenated DLC films produced by commercial deposition methods. Elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA), electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used for structural and compositional characterization. Surface energy and surface roughness were also investigated. Human MG-63 cell after 3 days in culture showed good attachment to DLC surfaces but no significant difference in morphology on different type of DLCs. The Alkaline phosphates assay (ALP) on filtered arc deposited (FAD) DLC indicated enhanced cellular differenation than tissue culture plastic (TCP) and glass over slip. This investigation showed that DLC coating caused no adverse effects on cells in culture disregarding the chemical composition.

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· Michael Mansfield, Deakin Mr Michael Mansfield
PhD Student
School of Engineering and Technology (Elgar Rd Campus) Deakin University 221 Burwood Hwy Burwood 3125 Victoria
Research Activities: Developing new lubricants for sheet metal forming

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Developing a new dry film lubricant for sheet metal forming"Michael Mansfield

Deakin University

Dry Film Lubricant (DFL) technology involves replacing conventional fluid (wet) lubricants with dry products that act as both protective layers and forming lubricants. This technology will reduce the use of fluid lubricants in the press shop and has the potential to allow manufacturers to produce components from grades of steel that until now have not been used in the stamping process due to formability concerns. Forming limit trials comparing the performance of the DFL with a conventional forming lubricant on conventional forming steel grades indicate that the DFL performance is comparable to current forming lubricant technology. Draw bead simulation and corrosion (wet stack) trials on conventional forming steel grades have indicated that the DFL frictional performance is superior to conventional forming lubricants. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been used to analyse the ability of the lubricant to be removed (Removability) in laboratory trials, samples were analysed before and after several cleaning regimes to determine how much Carbon was removed from the surface of the sheet material. Surface analysis of the DFL on conventional and high strength steel grades will be conducted after each SMF stage to give an insight into the performance of the lubricant throughout the SMF process.

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· Jelena Muric-Nesic, ANU Mrs Jelena Muric-Nesic
PhD student, Dept of Engineering, ANU
Department of Engineering (Bldg 32) The Australian National University Canberra, 0200 ACT Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Composite Materials - how to improve mechanical properties"J.Muric-Nesic, J.Campbell, P.Compston, N.Noble, Z.H.Stachurski

Dept. of Engineering, School of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200

A major research direction of the ANU advanced material research group is to develop new methods of improving manufacturing processes for composite materials. This specific project is concerned with improving the quality of laminated sandwich composite structure by eliminating common defects such as voids, bubbles and poor adhesion at interfaces. Our previous research established that, from a comparison of 3 selected methods: Quickstep, Autoclave and hand lay-up, Quickstep method is superior to the other two in terms of manufacturing time and cost, and with comparable mechanical properties. In order to improve mechanical properties we are now going to experiment and analyze the effect of vibrations on composite materials. Our initial stage is to study the movement of air bubbles in a viscous liquid using Stokes law. We are approaching this in two ways: 1. setting up a SDC (Stokes Diffusion Cell) and applying fundamental laws of science. 2. assembling small laboratory for vibration experiments in order to investigate the mode of vibration, the most appropriate position for application and the ideal frequency of vibration to reduce defects to a minimum.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· David Oliver, ANU Mr David Oliver
PhD Student
Department of Electronic Materials Engineering Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
Research Activities: Nanoindentation Mechanisms of plastic deformation High-pressure phase transformations Microscopy techniques: TEM and FIB Raman microspectroscopy

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Giant pop-ins in germanium under indentation"David J. Oliver*, Jodie E. Bradby*, and Jim S. Williams*, Michael V. Swain†, Paul Munroe‡

*Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia †Oral Science Department, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand ‡Electron Microscope Unit, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

The deformation behaviour of germanium (Ge) under indentation is interesting both technologically and scientifically. In this study, crystalline Ge was indented with a spherical diamond tip (R=4.3 um) up to maximum loads of 50-500 mN with the UMIS-2000 nanoindentation system. Sudden excursions, or ‘pop-ins’, of unusually large magnitude (>1 µm) were observed in the force-displacement curve at higher loads. An amorphous-like structural phase was observed in residual indents following the giant pop-in with Raman spectroscopy. Samples were cross-sectioned with a focussed ion-beam microscope to examine sub-surface crack morphology. The giant pop-in was found to cause considerable material removal. Digital analysis of optical micrographs shows that large amounts of debris are found around indents with a giant pop-in. Features observed in the load-unload curve are explained in terms of the linear spring-like response of plates of material detached by lateral cracking around the indent.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Alokesh Pramanik, USyd Mr Alokesh Pramanik
Postgraduate student
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering University of Sydney, NSW-2006, Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Mechanism of tool-particle interaction during orthogonal cutting of particulate metal matrix composites"(a)A. Pramanik1,(b)L. C. Zhang1 and (c) J. A. Arsecularatne1

School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

An analytical or experimental method is unable to explore the detailed machining mechanism of a particulate metal matrix composite (MMC) due to its complexity in deformation involving the interaction among particles, tool and matrix. This paper addresses an important issue in machining MMC, the tool-particle interaction, with the aid of the finite element method. According to the geometrical orientations, the interaction between tool and reinforcements was categorized into three circumstances, i.e., particles along, above and below a cutting edge. The development of stress and strain fields in an MMC during machining was analysed in detail. Some physical phenomena such as tool wear, particle fracture, particle delimitation, particle displacements and inhomogeneous deformation of matrix material were explored and compared with the experimental results available in the literature.

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· Amrita Prasad, ANU Miss Amrita Prasad
PhD Student
Laser Physics Centre, Building 54 John Carver Building Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering The Australian National University Canberra, ACT - 0200
Research Activities: Currently working on chalcogenide glass properties and waveguide fabrication for use in optical communication network applications.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Linear and nonlinear optical properties of As-Ge-Se chalcogenide glasses"A. Prasad, C. Zha, R. Wang, D. Choi, S. Madden, A. Smith, B. Luther-Davies, M. Samoc

Laser Physics Centre, RSPhysSE, ANU

Chalcogenide glasses in the Ge-As-Se system are of interest for applications in photonics because of their high optical nonlinearity, high refractive index and relatively high glass transition temperatures. However the absorption losses of these materials are also relatively high due most likely to instrinsic phase separation that is quite common in chalcogenide glasses. Here we report on the linear and nonlinear optical properties of glasses where the Ge content has been varied. We find that whilst high Ge levels leads to high glass transition temperatures, it also generally leads to elevated optical loss.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Daniel Pyke, UniMelb Mr Daniel Pyke

School of Physics, University of Melbourne, 3010
Research Activities: Investigation Hydrogen implanted into Silicon, crystallisation behaviour, defect formation, band structure modification, solid phase epitaxy; elastic recoil detection, Raman scattering spectroscopy, Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy, Time Resolved Reflectivity

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Raman Spectroscopy of Hydrogen Implanted Silicon"Daniel Pyke, Dr Jeffery McCallum

University of Melbourne

Hydrogen as an implantation material into silicon has a great deal of value to the microelectronics and semiconductor industries. Via various processes, it can be used to segregate materials, generate cavities within crystalline structures and form novel structures. In many of these cases, ion implantation of the hydrogen is the most efficient and economical technique. To these and other ends, it is important to have a strong array of measurement methods to identify hydrogen related features. Some of the common methods used are Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, multiple internal reflection plates and Positron Beam Doppler Broadening. Our investigation of ion implanted crystalline silicon using Raman spectrometry indicates a cluster of hydrogen related features in the range of wavenumbers 1900-2350 cm^{-1}. The region in which these Raman shift lines appear is in contrast with that found in measurements of hydrogenated silicon by Murakami et.al., who reported clear hydrogen related peaks at 2100 & 4150 cm^{-1}. However, it does largely agree with previous work by Stein et.al., who also found similar spectra of hydrogen features. The evolution of the Raman H-related features with low temperature anneals and in the presence of pre-formed cavity bands will be discussed.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Jamie Quinton, Flinders Dr Jamie Quinton

School of Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences Flinders University GPO Box 2100 Adelaide SA 5001
Research Activities: Surface science Organosilicon coatings Thin films Surface modification

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Grazing incidence X-ray studies of Lumogen Coatings for Ultra-Violet Sensing"S.J. Keough1,T.L. Hanley2, A.B. Wedding3 and J.S. Quinton1,*

1. School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100 Adelaide, SA, 5001 2. Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation PMB 1 Menai NSW 2234 Australia 3. School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

Coatings of Lumogen® Yellow S0790 are of interest for Ultraviolet radiation detection and have been used on the CCD cameras of the Hubble Space telescope and the Cassini space probe for UV imaging. Previous X-ray Diffraction (XRD) studies of (~100-500nm) films produced via physical vapour deposition (PVD) have revealed that a structural transition occurs upon annealing or even storing the film at room temperature [1]. In this paper, we report on X-ray Reflectometry (XRR) and Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXD) that were performed on 1-10nm ultra-thin Lumogen® films that were produced via physical vapour deposition (PVD) and spin-coating methods onto silicon wafer (with oxide) substrates. Our studies have shown that ultra-thin PVD films initially coat amorphously, with crystalline presence increasing with film thickness. Furthermore, the crystallinity observed in these PVD films show an identical structure to annealed PVD films of much greater thickness (~100-500nm) that have been reported earlier [1]. In contrast, ultra-thin spin-coated films, which have not been reported before, exhibit a second crystalline structure that are observed in much thicker (thermodynamically unstable) PVD films before annealing, but in the spin coated case the structure appears to remain upon annealing. Thus we have revealed two distinct equilibrium crystalline structures which are selectable by the preparation method. 1. Deslandes, A., Wedding, A.B., and Quinton, J.S., “Crystallinity In Lumogen Optical Thin Films”, Proc. 16th Biennial Australian Institute of Physics Congress, (2005), ISBN 0-9598064-8-2.

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· Daniel Riley, UNewcastle Dr Daniel Riley
ARC Fellow
School of Engineering The University of Newcastle, NSW, 2308
Research Activities: Using in-situ diffraction to optimise the synthesis of advanced materials, most notably complex ternary carbides - namely Titanium Silicon Carbide (Ti3SiC2) and related MAX Phases. These materials exhibit a unique combination of ceramic and metallic properties suitable for a wide range of applications. Current research has centred on optimising the phase purity and developing applications for these materials using a variety of techniques including, XPS, X-ray Diffraction, Neutron Diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscopy.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Using In-Situ Analysis in the Development of Advanced Materials"D.P. Riley and E.H. Kisi

The School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, NSW

It is widely established that the synthesis process of a material can be optimised by influencing the rate limiting stages of the reaction sequence. High-flux in-situ neutron diffraction can now be used to determine these mechanisms for ultra-fast solid state reactions. The D20 diffractometer situated at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), Grenoble, France, provides sufficient neutron flux to quantify the reaction sequence of solid state combustion processes with sub-second time resolution. We have recently applied in-situ neutron diffraction in investigation of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) of a novel class of materials; Mn+1AXn Phases, where M is an early transition metal, A is a group III or IV element, and X is either C or N. This class of materials exhibits a unique combination of ceramic and metallic properties, commonly related to their layered crystal structure. Using Quantitative Phase Analysis (QPA) of diffraction data obtained during SHS of several Mn+1AXn Phases various reaction mechanisms have been revealed. Specifically, in titanium based systems such as Ti-Al-C and Ti-Si-C, the α-Ti → β-Ti transition has been identified as a “reaction trigger”, initiating a self-sustaining chemical reaction that converts reactants into the final product phase. More generally, it is anticipated that in-situ neutron diffraction will allow for wider process optimisation and aid the development of novel materials. Furthermore, with the commissioning of the OPAL research reactor these techniques will soon be available to the Australian materials community.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Sergey Rubanov, UniMelb Dr Sergey Rubanov
Research Fellow
School of Physics The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010, Australia
Research Activities: Ion implantation, nanofabrication with Focused Ion Beam, heteroepitaxy, electron microscopy

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Ion beam induced amorphisation in silicon during 14 keV P+ implantation"S. Rubanov*, G. Tamanyan*, D.N. Jamieson*, J.C. McCallum*, S. Prawer*, F. Hudson†

*Centre for Quantum Computer Technology, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia †Centre for Quantum Computer Technology, Schools of Physics and Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, University of NSW, Sydney 2052, Australia

Ion implantation is one of the most important processes in Si integrated circuit technology because the implanted dopant atoms determine the electronic properties of semiconductor materials. The development of the single ion implantation techniques allows control over the number of dopant atoms by implanting ions one by one into a semiconductor wafer. Proposed silicon-based quantum computer architecture uses a single ion implantation technique to position an array of phosphorus donor atoms (qubits) beneath the surface of a semiconductor host. The spatial accuracy with which a single dopant can be implanted is mostly determined by hardware resolution. For the current generation of focused ion beam (FIB) systems, which can be used as single ion implantation instrument, this is of the order of 10 nm. However, during the ion implantation process the implanted ions collide with silicon atoms, thus changing their direction of propagation, generate lattice defects, gradually lose ! energy and finally coming to rest at some depth within the lattice. The crystalline to amorphous (c-a) phase transformation during ion implantation at high doses also attract significant attention because of the use of this technology in the semiconductor industry. In this work we employed TEM to study the ion beam induced amorphization in Si by 14 keV P+. Obtained data allowed estimating limitation of the accuracy of the placement of the individual donors with the single ion implantation technique.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Maksym Rybachuk, QUT Mr Maksym Rybachuk
PhD student
Centre for Built Environment and Engineering Research Queensland University of Technology GP O 401, GPO Box 2434 Brisbane Qld 4001 Australia
Research Activities: Investigation of properties of diamond like carbon (DLC) thin films in application to opto-electronics. An open Ar:CH4 plasma source and a bimodal ion beam sputtering deposition are used to fabricate the films.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Ion beam sputtering deposition of quality diamond like carbon films"Maksym Rybachuk and John M. Bell,

Centre for Built Environment and Engineering Research, Queensland University of Technology

Diamond like carbon (DLC) films were fabricated by bombarding a graphite target with Ne, Ar and Xe ions from a Kaufmann source. The substrate was positioned at the grazing angles to incoming the ions. In this arrangement the ions simultaneously bombard the target and the growing film. Prior to the experiments the target/substrate geometry was theoretically modelled using SRIM. The optimal angles of the target and the substrate to the ion flux were found to be 30ş and 10ş respectively. DLC films of high quality were synthesised at ion energies of 0.8 – 1 keV. Film growth rates were significantly higher for heavier ions i.e. Xe. We developed a simple technique suitable for DLC film fabrication at temperatures below 250ş C on a variety of non-conductive substrates.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Paul Saines, USyd Mr Paul Saines
PhD Student
School of Chemistry Building F11 The University of Sydney Camperdown Campus New South Wales 2006
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "A Structural Study of Lanthanide Containing Oxygen Deficient Double Perovskites"Paul J. Saines1, Margaret E. Elcombe2 and Brendan J. Kennedy1

1 School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia. 2 Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, New South Wales, 2234, Australia.

Oxygen deficient perovskites are of interest as electrolytes and as cathodes in solid oxide fuel cells. Increased understanding of the structures of these compounds both at room temperature and at elevated temperatures is required to achieve favourable conductivity and may enable the production of more efficient ionic conductors. While a vast body of literature on the structures of the stoichiometric perovskites of the type A2BB’O6 is available, little is known about the structures of oxygen deficient double perovskites of the type A2BB’O6-d. It is unknown how oxygen vacancies are distributed over these sites and in particular if the vacancies can order at particular sites in the lattice. The potential for ordering of oxygen vacancies on particular sites in these compounds could lead to anisotropic ionic conductivity potentially leading to the production of more efficient devices. To investigate this possibility a series of oxygen deficient double perovskites of the type Ba2LnSn1-xSbxO6-d (Ln = Nd3+ and Pr3+/4+) were synthesised. Subsequently their structures were examined using synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction to establish the distribution of oxygen vacancies in these structures. The structure of Ba2NdSnO5.5 was examined using a combination of synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction up to 800 °C to investigate the changes in the structure of this compound over the likely operating temperature range for fuel cells in which it might be incorporated. Unusual behaviour of the lattice parameters upon heating indicated the presence of water in this structure which was subsequently confirmed by thermal gravimetric analysis.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Paul Schwenn, UQ Mr Paul Schwenn
PhD Student
Department of Physics University of Queensland Brisbane, Queensland 4072 Australia
Research Activities: Semiconductor nanocrystal/conducting polymer blends for photovoltaics

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "PbS Nanocrystal/conducting polymer solar cells"Paul E. Schwenn*, Andrew A.R. Watt†, Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop, and Paul Meredith

*Soft Condensed Matter Physics Group, School of Physical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia; Telephone: +61 (07) 3365-3463, Fax: +61 (07) 3365 1242 Email: schwenn@physics.uq.edu.au †Department of Materials: Oxford University, UK; Email: andrew.watt@materials.ox.ac.uk

Organic photovoltaics promise a number of key advantages over conventional silicon, namely: Ease of processing, low cost, physical flexibility and large area coverage. However, the solar power conversion efficiencies of pure polymer devices are poor. When nanocrystals are blended with a conducting polymer to create a bulk heterojunction structure the optical and electronic properties of both materials combine synergistically to enhance overall performance. We use a novel single pot process to fabricate the nanocomposite photovoltaic material; in which PbS nanocrystals are grown directly in a solution of the conducting polymer MEH-PPV. This study investigates the dependence of nanocrystal growth size and subsequent power conversion efficiency as a function of polymer molecular weight. It was found that a higher molecular weight polymer resulted in the formation of a broken percolation of smaller nanocrystals that act to enhance the charge separation of excitons generated at t! he low energy band edge of MEH-PPV.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Damyanti Sharma, UniSA Dr. Damyanti Sharma
Reseach Associate
Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes, Adelaide SA-5095, Australia
Research Activities: Physicochemical studies in ionic micellar systems, Preparation of 2, 3- D arrays of metallic nanoparticles in biological liquid crystalline material for sensor applications.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "A single step method for the preparation of gold nanoparticles"Dr Damyanti Sharma and Prof. Roger Horn

Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia

There has been a keen interest for developing a biologically friendly approach for the preparation of gold nanoparticles for their application reasons. A quick and single step method is established for the preparation of gold nanoparticles in lecithin/water systems where lecithin itself acts as a reductant. This is a step forward for developing more biologically friendly and an approach providing less toxicity to gold nanoparticles. The method involves sonication of lecithin/aq hydrogentetrachloro aurate(HAuCl4) which produces a pinkish purple color within seconds of sonication. Two methods of sonication (using a bath type sonicator and sonicator with probe) were used and it was clear that power of sonication plays a role in reducing the time of reduction of HAuCl4. The bath type sonicator takes much longer time (140-150 min) than the sonicator with probe (30-50 sec). The UV-Vis, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments show that the of gold nanoparticles prepared this way are polydispersed and are of different shapes. The shapes varying from spherical to polyhedral and triangular, and rod shaped particles. Most of the nanoparticles are somehow attached to lecithin and some aggregating with each other. To overcome this, an anionic surfactant sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) and tri-sodium citrate were tried for stabilization. SDS stabilized particles are well dispersed and are stable over six months. Surprisingly the SDS stabilized particles are smaller in size (from 7-20 nm) and all the particles being spherical in shape as compared to citrate stabilized or without stabilizer samples. keywords- gold nanoparticles, egg-lecithin, autoreduction, sonication, stabilization

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Rajnish Singh, UNSW Mr Rajnish Singh
PhD Student
School of Material Science and Engineering University of New South Wales Sydney,NSW-2052 AUSTRALIA
Research Activities: Nanoindentation-induced damage and modelling of diamond-like carbon coating on ductile substrates.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Indentation modelling of a multilayer graded amorphous carbon coating on a steel substrate"Rajnish K Singh*, P.J. Slack*, Z.H. Xie*, P. Munroe*, M. Hoffman*, A. Bendavidb†, P.J. Martinb†

*School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney,NSW-2052,Australia †CSIRO Industrial Physics, PO Box 218 Lindfield, NSW 2070, Australia

A multilayer graded amorphous carbon coating system was developed for high loading protection, based upon the following design concepts: a) a thin TMS layer (a-C:H:Si) was deposited at the interface of the coating and steel substrate as an adhesion enhancer, b) Amorphous hydrogenated Carbon (a-C:H) was deposited using Plasma assisted Chemical vapour deposition (PACVD) as intermediate layer to increase the ductility and reduce the residual stress of the coating, and c) a rigid and hard DLC top layer was prepared using filtered assisted cathodic vacuum deposition (FACVD) for contact protection. Finite element modelling was performed to understand the deformation behaviour of the coated system during spherical indentation. Specifically, the indentation load-displacement relationship and stress distribution were analysed with consideration of residual stress. The advantage of this multi-functional coating system over the single layer amorphous carbon coating was revealed in terms of crack suppression, which is consistent with the subsurface observations of indentation damage using dual ion/electron beam instrument.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Kim Siow, UniSA Mr Kim Siow
Phd student
Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes Campus, Mawson Lakes SA5095 Australia
Research Activities: plasma polymerization technique for biomaterials, biomedical or pharmaceutical applications.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Functional coatings by plasma co-polymerisation"Siow KS, Kumar S, Britcher L and Griesser HJ

Ian Wark Research Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes SA5095, Australia

Plasma polymerization is an excellent means of producing ultrathin (nm to a few 100 nm) polymeric coatings with specific surface chemistries. However, for some desired chemistries it is difficult to polymerize suitable volatile compounds; in such instances it is advantageous to utilize a gas mixture comprising a hydrocarbon compound that readily forms a polymer and another volatile compound that provides desired surface functional groups. We illustrate this with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), which by itself polymerizes inefficiently. In contrast, co-polymerization with octa-1,7-diene yielded good functionalized coatings. The effects of discharge power on the resulting plasma polymers were investigated by XPS. Low powers (10-20 W) provided good deposition, whereas higher power resulted in extensive fragmentation of the monomers and lower deposition. Fitting of S2p and C1s peaks showed increased formation of sulfur and carbon moieties of higher oxidation states at higher dischar! ge power, due to more peroxide created. Electrical biasing of the substrate showed little effect, suggesting that radical polymerisation dominates over effects from ions. Oxidizing solutions like hydrogen peroxide proved ineffective at oxidizing sulfoxide groups to sulfonate groups FTIR studies revealed that polymerisation occurred by cleavage of S-CH3 bonds.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Nikolas Stavrias, UniMelb Mr Nikolas Stavrias
PhD Student, School of Physics, The University of Melbourne
School of Physics, University of Melbourne 3010
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Electronic Raman Spectroscopy of Interacting Phosphorus Donors in Silicon"Nikolas Stavrias, Paul G. Spizzirri, and Steven Prawer

Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computer Technology, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Australia, 3010.

We investigate the use of electronic micro-Raman spectroscopy (ERS) as a tool to measure the exchange interaction between neighbouring phosphorus (P) donors in silicon. Motivated by the challenge of building a silicon quantum computer (QC), the exchange coupling constant (J) provides a measure of the strength of the donor-donor interaction. Electronic Raman scattering is the inelastic scattering of light from electrons which, in the case of phosphorus donors, arises from a transition within the P ground state. Coupled pairs of donors split the P ground state into singlet and triplet states. The energy difference between these split states provides a measure of J. To produce samples of coupled donor pairs for this study, a molecular implantation doping strategy has been employed in which low energy P+ ions and P2+ dimers have been implanted into high purity silicon. The P2 dimers implantations provide an ensemble of pairs of P atoms in which the intra-pair separation is much smaller than the pair-pair separation. Experiments to date show sensitivity to a small number of donors (10^4) suggesting that resonant enhancement processes are active. Atomic implants provide, as expected, spectra similar to those obtained from bulk doped samples. By contrast, the dimmer implants show evidence of peak shifted to higher wavenumbers. Although the results cannot be described by any of the current models, the data suggests that the dimer implantation strategy does provide different donor distributions and that the interaction may be more complicated than first thought.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Nikolas Stavrias, UniMelb Mr Nikolas Stavrias
PhD Student, School of Physics, The University of Melbourne
School of Physics, University of Melbourne 3010
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Silicon surface hydrogenation for low energy ion implantation"Paul Spizzirri, Wayne Hutchison, Eric Gauja, Nikolas Stavrias and Steven Prawer

MARC, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Grattan Street Parkville,

One method for fabricating silicon based quantum devices (QD) employs low energy ion implantation techniques along with electron beam lithography to accurately position dopant atoms which, following activation, become the QD qubits. It is common practice to perform implantation into silicon wafers with a controlled oxide grown on their surface. High quality oxides exhibit low trap densities in contrast to their native oxide counterparts making them more suitable for electronic devices. Unfortunately, surface oxides can also be incompatible with very low energy implantation processes (< 10 keV) since they result in reduced dopant activation due to losses in the surface oxide layer. In this work, we have studied low energy molecular ion implantation as a means of locating donor pairs in close proximity to obtain greater donor wavefunction overlap. Using the electron spin resonance (ESR) technique, we have monitored the activation of donors implanted through high quality, thermally grown (5 nm) and native oxides. In addition to donor signals, ESR is also sensitive to the creation of electronic trap states including Pb centres which arise from silicon dangling bonds at the silicon / silicon oxide interface. The observation of low dopant activation and large Pb signals for this fabrication strategy suggested that an alternative surface termination may be needed. Employing wet chemical processing, we have successfully hydrogen passivated the silicon surface and characterized it using a number of techniques. We have observed reduced Pb centre creation and greater activation of donors following implantation at low energies (5 keV). We will discuss the latest measurements and implications for fabricating QD’s using the ion implantation process.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Feng Tang, USyd Feng Tang
Optical Fibre Technology Centre (OFTC) University of Sydney 206 National Innovation Centre Australian Technology Park Eveleigh NSW 1430 Australia

Research Activities: The fabrication of silica based specialty fibre using modified chemical vapour deposition process

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Microstructures of silica soot layer and Al incorporation in optical fibre fabrication"Feng zai Tang (1,2), Pam McNamara (1, 2, 3), Geoff Barton (1, 2), Simon Ringer (3)

(1) Optical Fibre Technology Centre, University of Sydney, NSW 1430 Australia (2) Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia (3) The Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia

Rare earth doped silica-based optical fibres used for optical fibre devices can be fabricated by extending the Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition (MCVD) process with a solution doping technique. In MCVD, oxide particles (soot) are deposited on inner surface of a silica tube, and consolidated into a glass layer by a traversing burner. Multiple glass layers with designed refractive index can be made and this tube collapsed into a glass rod (preform) from which optical fibre can be drawn. For solution doping, a soot layer is deposited at reduced temperature to form porous structures and then soaked for a period in a solution containing the desirable ions. After draining out the solution the tube is dried and collapsed into a preform from which rare earth doped fibres can be drawn. Since rare earth ions are not very soluble in silica glass rare earth clusters occur after exceeding certain concentration. Clustering quenches lasing. Aluminium co-doped with rare earth ions during solution immersion has been found to sufficiently reduce clustering due to the formation of a solvent shell. This work aims at understanding the mechanism of Al incorporation during solution doping. The microstructures of silica soot layers fabricated at different deposition temperatures have been analysed and this related to the characteristics of Al incorporation. The resultant uneven Al distributions across the sintered glass layers and preforms have been examined. It has been found that deposition temperature plays a more important role in Al incorporation than reactant flow.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Giuseppe Tettamanzi, UniMelb Mr Giuseppe Tettamanzi
PhD Student
School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
Research Activities: Superconducting electronics, Superconducting/semiconducting devices and STM/AFM studies of metal/semiconductors surfaces, Nanoparticles electronic proprierties. Focused Ion Beam tecnology.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Superconducting Microbridge Junctions Fabricated using Focused Ion Beams"G.C. Tettamanzi*, C.I. Pakes*, A. Potenza**, C.H. Marrows**, S. Prawer* and D.N. Jamieson*

*Centre for Quantum Computer Technology, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. **School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.

Sub-micron superconducting electronic devices may play a role in the realisation of proposed quantum computing architectures. Further miniaturization of superconducting electronics relies on an ability to fabricate the basic building block, the Josephson junction, on the scale of the superconducting coherence length, with sufficient accuracy that the junction characteristics may be controlled. We have explored this problem by measuring the properties of thin-film niobium microbridge junctions, fabricated using a crossed beam Scanning Electron Microscope/Focused Ion Beam system by Ga-ion beam milling. Wide microbridges show typical Josephson-junction behaviour, with a critical current dependent on the microbridge width. In narrow microbridges, transport measurements reveal voltage steps, characteristic of dynamic phase-slip centres. The effect of Ga ion poisoning on microbridge properties, and suppression of superconductivity in the narrow microbridges, will be discussed. Advanced quantum devices based on FIB-processed microbridges will be outlined.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Siu Wai, UWollongong Ms Siu Wai
Assoc. Research Fellow
School of MMM Faculty of Engineering University of Wollongong Northfields Ave. Wollongong NSW 2500
Research Activities: Investigation of adhesion properties of ionic hydrogels. Mechanical testing of thin compliant polymer films and hydrogels. Development and evaluation of Nano- and ultra-micro indentation testing techniques for polymeric materials

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Probe measurement for the determination of mechanical properties in polymers"Siu W Wai, Hugh R Brown, Geoffrey M. Spinks.

Department of Engineering, University of Wollongong

Recent development in micro-indentation methods has provided a means by which the mechanical properties of thin polymer films can be measured. However, the effect of viscoelasticity often renders these results meaningless, and various methods for the treatment of viscoelasticity were examined. In addition, adhesion measurements of different charged polymer surfaces and substrates could be determined by means of probe measurements.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Daniel Wright, Flinders Mr Daniel Wright
Student
School of Chemistry, Physics & Earth Sciences Flinders University GPO Box 2100 Adelaide SA 5001
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Streaming Zeta Potential Investigations of Functionalised Conducting Materials"D.S. Wright, and J.S. Quinton

Flinders University

Metallic materials are used heavily throughout our society due to their favourable mechanical properties. However many metals readily undergo corrosion reactions that adversely affects their mechanical properties. Organic surface modification may however hold the key in preventing such reactions from taking place via the creation of a chemisorbed organic layer on the metallic surface. One method of characterising a modified surface is via streaming Zeta potential, which involves forcing electrolyte through two identical samples in a parallel plate configuration (with the surface to be measured exposed) and measuring the potential difference between each end of the channel. However, Zeta potential measurements are challenging on conducting samples because the streaming and conduction currents can travel through the sample [1, 2]. To circumvent the conduction problem, two methods are typically used to determine the Zeta potential. The first method involves varying the plate separation and measuring the streaming potential [1, 2]. The second is that used by Hurd et al. [3] which involves the use of an external shunting circuit that creates a path of known resistance for the streaming current to flow through, which can then be related back to the Zeta potential. Preliminary experiments have been performed using an experimental setup similar to that of Hurd et al. [3].with aqueous solutions of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxy silane on titanium substrates. The results of this investigation will be discussed. 1.Fievet, P., et al., Determining the Zeta-Potential of Plane Membranes From Tangential Streaming Potential Measurements: Effect of the Membrane Body Conductance. 2003. 226(1-2): p. 227. 2.Yaroshchuk, A. and V. Ribitsch, Role of Channel Wall Conductance in the Determination of Zeta Potential from Electrokinetic Measurements. Langmuir, 2002. 18(6): p. 2036-2038.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Haowen Xie, Deakin Mr Haowen Xie
Ph. D student
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation Geelong Technology Precinct (GTP) School of Engineering and Technology Deakin University, Pigdons Rd. Waurn Ponds, Geelong, VIC, 3217, Australia
Research Activities: amorphous/nanostructure materials

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Amorphous formation and thermal stability of Mg-Ni-Si alloy by mechanical alloying"H.W. Xie, P.D. Hodgson, C.E. Wen and X. J. Wang

Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 3217

Magnesium alloys are well known light-weight alloy systems with outstanding specific mechanical properties that will find applications in a number of engineering fields. Unfortunately, the plasticity and the toughness of magnesium alloys are usually unsatisfactory and therefore, implementation treatments have to be conducted to improve these properties. As is widely reported, metallic materials with nano / or amorphous microstructure show extraordinary physical and mechanical properties and this suggests that the plasticity and the toughness of the Mg alloys can be modified if the grains are tailored into nano- or amorphous structure. In the present study, Mg-Ni-Si alloy powders haven been prepared by mechanical alloying. The synthesised materials have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) for their structure, morphology and the thermal stability. Results indicated that the amorphous Mg-Ni-Si alloys exhibit high potential of achieving excellent mechanical properties.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
· Huaying Yin, UNSW Ms Huaying Yin
Postgraduate Student
School of Materials Sci & Eng, UNSW, NSW 2052
Research Activities: · High temperature corrosion of iron and steel, especially focus on metal dusting phenomenon. · Focus on metal dusting of iron and Fe-2.25Cr-1Mo

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Metal dusting of iron and low alloy steel"Huaying Yin

School of Materials Science & Engineering, UNSW, Sydney

The effects of varying gas composition on metal dusting – the disintegration of a metal into a conglomerate of carbon nanotubes and metal-rich nanoparticles - were investigated at 650°C, using CO-H2-H2O mixtures, with a fixed carbon activity of 4.5 and varying CO partial pressure. Carbon uptake rates changed with gas composition, reaching a maximum at approximately 68%CO. Reaction rates of a 2.25Cr-1Mo steel were much faster than for pure iron. Analysis of the coke revealed only graphite and Fe3C, the latter being the nanoparticles. A very thin cementite layer surmounted by coke developed on the steel, whereas a thick cementite layer grew on pure iron.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au

Day 2 - Thursday 29th June 2006
Session 6: Plenary Addresses 3 & 4
Session Chair: Peter Hodgson
9.15am - Koji Kato, Tohoku University, Japan
Professor Koji Kato

Laboratory of Tribology School of Mechanical Engineering Tohoku University Aramaki Aza Aoba 6-6-01 Sendai, 980-8579, Japan
Research Activities: Fundamentals and Applications of Tribology
"Modern Tribology for Advanced Manufacturing"Koji Kato - Tribology Laboratory, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Advanced manufacturing methods require clean polutionless process, high speed and precise process, mechano-chemically integrated process, fully automated process, and highly reliable final products. Modern materials such as fine ceramics and hard coatings are offering new methods of manufacturing which will give solutions to the demand from advanced manufacturing. Modern tribology has been making large contribution to the development of such advanced manufacturing methods by the modern understanding of fundamentals of friction and wear with new tribo-materials. Tribology of ceramic tools, water lubrication of ceramics, N2-gas lubrication of CNx coatings, soft metal lubrication of ceramic/metal contacts in UHV, magnetic fluid grinding of ceramics, chemical-mechanical polishing, etc will be introduced as examples and candidates for the advanced manufacturing.
Morning Tea Break - ˝ hour
10.00am - 10.30am
Session 7: Metals I: Metals - bulk properties
Session Chair: Barry Muddle
10.30am - Peter Liddicoat, USyd Mr Peter Liddicoat
Student

Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Evolution of Nanostructure During the Early Stages of Ageing in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloys"P. V. Liddicoat, T. Honma, L. T. Stephenson, and S. P. Ringer

University of Sydney, Electron Microscope Unit

During age-hardening of certain Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, a 90% hardness increase can occur with 75 seconds. During this early rapid hardening (RH) quantitative stereology predicts only ~17% of this increase can be attributed to precipitate formation. The clustering and precipitation of solute element species during this reaction has been investigated through atom probe tomography, transmission electron microscopy, and Vickers hardness measurements. This study has focussed on the effect of copper by analysing three alloys; Al-2.0Zn-1.8Mg-0.7Cu, Al-2.0Zn-1.7Mg-0.2Cu and Al-1.9Zn-1.7Mg (at.%). We report preferred solute-solute interactions in the as-quenched materials. This quenched-in nanostructure acts as a template for subsequent solute clustering, the nature of which we have correlated with hardness and ageing.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.10am - Zohreh Keshavarz, Deakin Miss Zohreh Keshavarz
PhD student
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation Geelong Technology Precinct Deakin University Pigdons Rd, Geelong VIC 3217, Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Twinning Behaviour in As-Cast Mg-3Al-1Zn"Zohreh Keshavarz, Matthew R. Barnett

Deakin University, Centre for Fibre and Material Innovation, Geelong, Vic, 3217,

Magnesium alloys are attractive due to their low density. One problem with these alloys is their limited formability at room temperature. Twinning plays a dominant role in deformation behaviour and it can be expected that an increased understanding of twinning will help to improve formability. In present work, the behaviour of different types of twinning in as-cast Mg-3Al-1Zn was investigated. The results showed the importance of compression and double twinning.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.30am - Rian Holdstock, UWollongong Mr Rian Holdstock
PhD Student
Materials Engineering University of Wollongong Wollongong 2522
Research Activities: Hydrogen Cracking of High Strength Weld Metal

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Hydrogen Assisted Cold Cracking of High Strength Ferritic Steel Weld Metal – A Current Perspective"Rian Holdstock, David Nolan

University of Wollongong

Industry currently employs costly and conservative measures to reduce the likelihood of weld metal hydrogen assisted cold cracking. These preventative measures are based upon dated research, which was undertaken to avoid hydrogen cracking in the heat affected zone. It is believed that the increased alloying content of high strength weld metal has shifting hydrogen cracking from the heat affected zone into the weld metal and there are currently no specific standards available, which are aimed at controlling weld metal hydrogen cracking. The development of predictive methods for weld metal hydrogen cracking is therefore currently a topic of considerable international interest. This paper presents an overview of Hydrogen Assisted Cold Cracking (HACC) in high strength ferritic steel weld metal and addresses the requirement to produce a new laboratory based test method which will evaluate the relationship between diffusible hydrogen, stress and weld metal microstructure.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.50am - Gemma Mann, UQ Mrs Gemma Mann
PhD student

Research Activities: Casting of Mg Microstructural properties of Mg Physical properties of Mg

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Hall Petch Values in Mg and Mg-Zn alloys"G.E. Mann*, C.H. Cáceres*, J.R. Griffiths†

*Co-operative Research Centre for Cast Metals Manufacturing (CAST), Materials Engineering–School of Engineering The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia †Co-operative Research Centre for Cast Metals Manufacturing (CAST), CSIRO Manufacturing & Infrastructure Technology, PO Box 883, Kenmore, QLD 4069, Australia

Flow curves from testing in tension and compression of Mg and Mg-Zn solid solution castings with grain sizes ranging from 25 μm to 670 μm have been used to construct Hall-Petch plots. Three different methods were used to obtain the yield stress from the curves: 0.2% offset proof stress; finding the minimum of the second derivative; and stress at 0.2% true plastic strain. In difference to much previous work on Hall-Petch constancts, the σ0-values were calculated from physical constraints for each alloy and used along with the yield stress and grain size data to graphically obtain k-values. The results attest to softening on the prismatic plane due to low solute concentrations.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
12.10pm - Milli Styles, ANU Ms Milli Styles
PhD Student
Dept. of Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Engineering building 32, North Road The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
Research Activities: Static and Dynamic Behaviour of Novel Aluminium Foam/Composite Structures

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Flexural behaviour of Aluminium foam/composite sandwich structures"M. Styles, P. Compston, S. Kalyanasundaram

Department of Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, ANU

Polymer foam cores are widely used in sandwich structures for a variety of applications but have limited function in high temperature systems. Metal foams have attractive properties for use as sandwich cores, including good stiffness and strength to weight ratios, high impact energy absorption, good sound damping, electromagnetic wave absorption, thermal insulation and non combustibility. The use of high temperature thermoplastic materials for the sandwich skins is possible with metal foams, unlike traditional polymer foam cores. To understand the full functional potential of metal foam sandwich structures, investigations into the flexural and impact behaviour are required. Full field strain distributions were captured of flexural testing of sandwich structures manufactured with ALPORAS aluminium foam cores and Twintex® thermoplastic skins. The metal foam structures were observed to have different deformation mechanisms and strain distributions when compared with the tr! aditional thermoset/polymer foam structures. The irregular strain distribution in the metal foam evolved to an increased strain in the central deformation region whereas the polymer foam exhibited an even strain distribution with concentrations under the load rollers. The energy absorbed by the metal foam structure was found to be greater and deformed gradually while the polymer structure displayed a more catastrophic failure. This energy absorption characteristic of the aluminium foam structure, while displaying equivalent or enhanced mechanical properties compared to a polymer core, suggests metal foam structures could be advantageous in a variety of structural situations. Further examinations are needed to understand the behaviour of these structures in order to develop useful constitutive models.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Session 8: Nanoparticles/nanotubes
Session Chair: Julie Cairney
10.30am - Supakit Charnvanichborikarn, ANU Mr Supakit Charnvanichborikarn
Student

Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Controlling Nanoparticle Size in Si and SiO2"S. Charnvanichborikarn and J.S. Williams

Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences & Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

This study aims to control the size of nanosized metal precipitates in Si and SiO2 by first decorating nanocavities in Si and then oxidising to form SiO2. Nanocavities were formed by direct H irradiation into shallow surface layers of Si following by thermal annealing. Subsequent implantation of Au, which is a fast diffusing metallic species, followed by annealing at high temperature has been used to form metallic particles (metal silicide) in the nanocavities. The Si samples were subjected to a wet oxidation process to form metallic nanoparticles within SiO2. Samples were analysed by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Results indicate that this is an attractive method of controlling the size of nanoparticles in Si and SiO2, although the nanoparticle shape can be substantially modified by oxidation.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
10.50am - Annette Dowd, UTS Dr Annette Dowd
Lecturer
Department of Applied Physics University of Technology Sydney Broadway NSW Australia
Research Activities: Nanostructured VO2 - role of structure in insulator-to-metal transition Si Nanocrystal materials - understanding basis for luminescence Endohedral fullerenes Novel XRD analysis methods of sizing nanoparticles Materials for cheap, high-power terahertz emitters

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Critical assessment of nanoscale-VO2 as a smart plasmonic material for solar control glazing"A. Dowd, G.B. Smith

University of Technology Sydney

At room temperature VO2 is a semiconductor, but at 65 degrees C it undergoes a phase transition to a metallic state. This unusual change is accompanied by a switch in optical properties with transmission decreasing significantly. It has been proposed that this automatic transition be exploited for switchable photonics, in particular as the basis of a material for smart windows which would automatically decrease transmission of solar thermal radiation as the window increased in temperature. Hence there is a need for an evaluation of the potential of nanoscale VO2 (n-VO2) as a plasmonic material. The plasma frequency is generally considered most important in selecting materials for plasmonics. We demonstrate this to be overly simplistic, which leads also to the misinterpretation of optical measurements of n-VO2. We analyse the role played by plasma frequency in the long wavelength optical properties of n-VO2 and show that the lowest energy interband transitions and free carrier relaxation rate are also critical. The frequency and bandwidth of these terms with respect to the plasma frequency and solar infrared radiation substantially modify the optical response. The response of n-VO2 is modelled and compared with other well-studied plasmonic systems (such as n-Au) and it is shown that while n-VO2 is a good conductor at these frequencies, it is surprisingly only "weakly" plasmonic. We consider how the plasma frequency may be varied by modifying the nanostructure of the n-VO2. Finally, we indicate high priority experiments needed. Thin film VO2 dielectric constants reported vary widely and unpredictably. We have used bulk dielectric data in our models but expect that these values will be considerably altered due to additional carrier scattering in the nanostructures and the high surface to volume ratio which may alter aspects of the interband transitions.

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11.10am - Li Geng, UniSA Ms Li Geng

Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Research Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering University of South Australia Mawson Lakes SA 5095 Australia
Research Activities: Polymer based nanocomposites; Materials processing; Microstructure materials characterization

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Computational Simulation of Particle Aggregation in Self-assembled Polyvinyl Alcohol/Silica Nanocomposite"Li Geng, Lingxue Kong and Zheng Peng

Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Research, University of South Australia

The large silica particle aggregation demonstrates a significantly negative impact on the properties of self-assembly polyvinyl alcohol/silica (PVA/SiO2) nanocomposites. Based on the investigations of morphology and particle interaction with AFM and SANS, the project aims to computationally simulate the particle aggregation within PVA matrix.

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11.30am - Lee Hubble, UWA Mr Lee Hubble
PhD Research Student
Centre for Forensic Science M420 The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway CRAWLEY Western Australia 6009
Research Activities: Development of carbon-nanotube based sensors Production of all carbon architectural frameworks

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Nano-fibres based on a fullerene C60 ball and socket array"Lee Hubble*, Prof. Colin Raston†, Prof. R John Watling*

*Centre for Forensic Science, University of Western Australia. †School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, University of Western Australia.

In order to develop the use of carbon to its full potential it is important to be able to accurately prepare new structural carbon frameworks and to be able to generate new polymorphs with different spatial arrangement of arrays of carbon atoms. One way of achieving this is to use self assembly processes to order arrays of carbon moieties in a controlled way. Fullerenes, as the only form of molecular carbon, are in a unique position to be used for this process. Calix[5]arenes are of particular interest for the controlled self assembly of fullerenes as they regularly adopt a cone conformation, with dimensionality and curvature complementarity for singular C60 endo-cavity binding. This presentation details the co-crystallisation of p-t-Bu-calix[5]arene with C60 in the presence of a suitable solvent, resulting in the supramolecular arrangement of linear/zigzag arrays termed ‘nano-fibres’. In addition, annealing of the complex under an inert atmosphere restricts fullerene oxidation and selectively removes the calixarene backbone. This results in a three dimensional porous, all carbon architectural framework leading to a significant increase in specific surface area when compared to the parent complex. This one dimensional fullerene complex has significant implications in areas such as the development of catalyst support frameworks, hydrogen storage material architecture and device technology while the production methodology has implications in fullerene purification processes.

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11.50am - Philip Whitten, UWollongong Dr Philip Whitten
Associate Research Fellow
Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University Of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522 Australia
Research Activities: Carbon nanotube electrodes Polymer friction Polymer actuators Single molecule force spectroscopy

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Free standing carbon nanotube composite bio-electrodes"Philip G. Whitten, Tuann Anh Nguyen, Geoffrey M. Spinks, Kerry Gilmore, Gordon G. Wallace

Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, ARC centre for NanostructuredElectromaterials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522,Australia

Carbon nanotubes present a new material for the construction of electrodes for electrochemical devices such as batteries, capacitors and actuators. Such electrodes require high conductivity, strength and surface area. The latter two requirements are often incompatible. Electrodes composed entirely of carbon nanotubes (bucky paper) have high surface areas but are typically weak, and have insufficient conductivity for practical macroscopic applications. We report a technique which uses naturally occurring biopolymer to produce electrodes (free standing films) that exhibit conductivities of 300 S.cm-1. These composites also have considerable mechanical strength (up to 145 MPa) and sufficient specific capacitance of 19-27 F/g to enable them to be used as freestanding electrodes. We will report some of the process variables that contribute to the electrodes properties. One application that deserves special attention is that of bio-compatible electrodes, where the binder is a biopolymer already used in a range of implants. Preliminary studies reported here suggest that the new carbon nanotube biopolymer electrodes are biocompatible.

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12.10pm - Nigel Smith, UWA Mr Nigel Smith
PhD Student
Chemistry University of Western Australia School of Biomedical and Chemical Sciences Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences Crawley WA 6009 Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Synthesis of Magnetic Nanoparticles Using Spinning Disc Processing"Nigel Smith,* Colin L. Raston,** Martin Saunders,* and Robert Woodward***

* Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009 Australia. Email: lucifer@tartarus.uwa.edu.au ** School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009 Australia Fax +61 86488 3045 Fax +61 86488 8683 email: clraston@chem.uwa.edu.au *** School of Physics, University of Western Australia, Crawley, 6009 Australia, email: woodward@physics.uwa.edu.au

Spinning disc processing (SDP) has been utilized to modify the aqueous, inverse co-precipitation method for the production of Fe3O4 nanomaterials patented by Massart in 1982 [1]. Size distributions within the 3 to 12 nm range have been produced, with narrow particle size spread, on a rapid, continuous basis. It has been demonstrated that this processing technique results in a general reduction in particle size. Further, the role and limits of applicability of tartaric acid as a surfactant for particle formation control have been established to lie within the range of 1:1 to 10:1, [tartaric] to [Fe], with concentrations in excess resulting in amorphous materials and below this having minimal effect. Marginal, high concentrations have been demonstrated to occasionally result in particles with induced twinning and lattice dislocation defects.

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Lunch Break - 1 hour
12.30pm - 1.30pm
Session 9: Metals II: Innovative structures and Functional Materials
Session Chair: Trevor Finlayson
1.30pm - Alexey Glushenkov, ANU Mr Alexey Glushenkov
PhD student
Department of EME Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University Canberra 0200 Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Synthesis of ZnO, TiO2 and V2O5 nanowires using ball-milling and annealing method"Alexey Glushenkov, Ying Chen

Australian National University

A two-step process consisting of ball milling and annealing has been shown recently to be an efficient way to produce large quantities of one-dimensional nanostructures such as BN nanotubes and C3N4 nanorods via solid-state recrystallization. High-energy mechanical milling is also shown to be able to modify volatility of various materials to enhance synthesis of nanowires by vapor transport. It is believed that such two-step approaches including ball milling and subsequent annealing can be developed to grow large quantities of nanowires of many materials. The effects of milling and mechanochemical synthesis are studied in the current work. Different precursors created by ball milling are used to grow ZnO, TiO2 and V2O5 nanowires. Nanostructures have been produced in the subsequent controlled annealing. The nanowires are analyzed by SEM, XRD and TEM.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
1.50pm - Motin Md. Abdulla Al, UNSW Mr Motin Md. Abdulla Al
PhD student
Room 219 School of Materials Science & Engineering University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Effect of Silicon on Metal Dusting of Iron"M.A.Al-Motin*, J. Zhang*, P. R. Munroe,* and D. J. Young*†

* School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW-2052, Australia. †To whom all correspondence should be mailed; email: d.young@unsw.edu.au

The Model Fe-Si alloys were selected to test the hypothesis that cementite formation is essential for metal dusting to occur, making use of the fact that silicon inhibits cementite precipitation. The alloys were exposed to a 68% CO-26% H2-6% H2O gas mixture at 680°C (ac=2.9 and pO2= 2 x10-23 atm) under both isothermal and cyclic condition. Kinetic studies showed that surface graphite accumulation and metal wastage increased with the alloy silicon content. Metallographic cross-sections clearly showed a significant reduction in cementite precipitation with increasing alloy silicon levels and formation of internal silicon oxide. Further SEM, FIB and TEM analysis reveals the underlying dusting mechanism.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
2.10pm - Kevin Laws, UNSW Mr Kevin Laws
Research Student
School of Materials Science and Engineering Faculty of Science University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia
Research Activities: Ultra Light-Weight Amorphous Alloys

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Effect of die-casting parameters on the production of high quality bulk metallic glass samples"K.J. Laws, B. Gun and M. Ferry

School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney

The present study applies a repetitive low-pressure die-casting technique for optimising the processing parameters for casting high quality amorphous Mg65Cu25Y10 samples of dimensions 3mm x 7mm x 125mm. The objective is to establish the optimal combination of casting parameters for reducing the variation in quality from a minimum number of casting experiments. This study investigates the effect of various die-casting control parameters, such as the charge temperature, injection pressure and injection velocity on the length and porosity of Mg65Cu25Y10 samples. A comprehensive processing map was generated which shows the optimum casting conditions for this alloy.

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2.30pm - Alireza Nouri, Deakin Dr Alireza Nouri
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation GTP Building, Deakin University Geelong, VIC 3217
Research Activities: Calcium phosphate nanoparticles for transfection of cells

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Preparation and mechanical properties of porous Ti-16Sn-4Nb Alloy as load bearing implant materials"A. Nouri, X.B. Chen, P.D. Hodgson and C.E. Wen

Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, 3217

Titanium alloys are widely used as metallic biomaterials for orthopaedic and dental applications. Various types of titanium alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus and, at the same time, vanadium and aluminium free have been developed in recent years. Moreover, highly porous metals are innovative implant materials in orthopaedic applications such as total hip and knee replacements and in dentistry, where they mimic the porous structure and the low elastic modulus of natural bone. However, the porosity of porous metals results in dramatic reductions in mechanical strength. It is therefore desirable to develop new biocompatible titanium alloys with high strength and processability. In the present study, new biocompatible Ti-based alloys with excellent mechanical strength were prepared through powder metallurgy, in which Sn and Nb were added as alloying metals. The new alloys were synthesised by mechanical alloying and subsequently sintered at high temperature using vacuum furnace. The characteristics and the processability of the mechanically alloyed powders and the new alloys were characterised and evaluated using XRD and SEM. The mechanical properties of the new titanium alloys were examined by Vickers microhardness measurements and compression testing.

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2.50pm - Damon Kent, UQ Mr Damon Kent
PhD Student
Division of Materials, School of Engineering, The University of Queensland, Qld 4072, Australia
Research Activities: - The age hardening response of Al powder metallurgy alloys - The growth of aluminium nitride on aluminium

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "A novel method for the production of aluminium nitride surface coatings on bulk aluminium."D. Kent (a,b) G.B. Schaffer (a) T.B. Sercombe (a) J. Drennan (b)

a) Division of Materials, School of Engineering, The University of Queensland, Qld 4072, Australia b) Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland, Qld 4072, Australia

Nitriding of aluminium has a broad range of potential applications, from improving the mechanical properties of aluminium articles to components for high frequency communication systems. Recently, a novel method has been developed to produce thick ( 400 μm) aluminium nitride surface layers on aluminium plates at 540†C, under nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. A critical element of the process is the use of a magnesium vapour source placed in close proximity to the aluminium plate surface. The magnesium reduces/disrupts the natural, protective oxide film on the aluminium surface and facilitates nitriding. The nitride layers produced form through two distinct modes, one growing outward from the aluminium plate surface and the other growing into the aluminium.

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3.10pm - Anthony Jones, ANU Mr Anthony Jones
Student
Department of Applied Maths Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University Canberra 0200 ACT Australia
Research Activities: * Microcomputed tomography * Bone micromechanics * Femoral neck geometry * Physical Properties of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Variability in elasticity of human bone and tissue mineral density using nano indentation and back scattered electron imaging. "Anthony C. Jones1, Roger M. D. Zebaze2, Ego Seeman2, Mark Knackstedt1

1Department of Applied Mathematics, RSPhysse, Australian National University, Canberra, 0200, Australia 2Austin Hospital, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg 3084, Melbourne, Australia

Bone tissue is a composite of hydroxyapatite crystals and collagen fibrils fashioned and organized in a hierarchical structure serving one main purpose, bone strength – the ability to prevent the occurrence and progression of damage. The ability to understand the overall implications of the micro and nano structure is vital to our understanding of whole bone mechanics. Hitherto many descriptions have been proposed relating bone density to elastic properties; however these studies have focused on the macroscopic scale. Recent advances in experimental techniques such as nano-indentation, back scattered electron microscopy and micro-computed tomography have begun to explore bone property relationships at the micron scale. We explored structure-strength relationship between the bone’s elasticity using nano-indentation and its tissue mineral density using back scattered electron intensity and x-ray computed tomography in twelve human trochanteric sections. These measurements were then correlated using linear regression. In some specimens variability in bone tissue mineral density did not significantly influence the variability in Young's modulus, whilst in other specimens, bone tissue density variability accounted for 45% of the variability in Young’s modulus. We propose that variables other than bone tissue density are a strong determinant of bone strength. Moreover, the strength of bone tissue density and elasticity correlation varies with specimen, and may partly explain an increased liability to structural failure.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Session 10: Materials and Processing for Photonics/Electronics
Session Chair: Paul Stoddart
1.30pm - Weitang Li, ANU Dr Weitang Li
ARC Postdoctoral Fellow, Research school of Physical Sci. & Eng, ANU
Plasma Research Lab, Building 58 Research school of Physical Sci. & Eng. The Australian National University ACT 0200, Australia
Research Activities: Optical waveguide materials processing/characterisaion, and photonics device fabrication for optical telecommunication application

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "The Effect of Oxygen Deficiency on the Optical Nonlinearity of Silica Thin Film"W.T. Li, D. Bulla, M. Samoc, A. Samoc, R. Boswell.

Plasma Research Lab, Research School of Physical Science & Engineering, The Australian National University.

Second-order optical nonlinearity (SON) has been recently generated in silica-based materials using different poling techniques, which draws great interests worldwide. Such materials have a great potential for fabricating cheap and efficient integrated electro-optic devices, which may have significant application in optical telecommunication. SON normally does not exist in amorphous silica, because of its centro-symmetric or isotropic structure. Nevertheless, poling under high temperature and high electric field can lead to re-orientation of bonds and dipoles in the materials, and result in re-distribution of impurity charges in the materials; thus a frozen-in electric field may remain in the sample after poling, which breaks the centro-symmetric structure of the sample, and induces its SON. In our work, a helicon plasma activated reactive evaporation (HARE) technique was applied to deposit the silica films. Then the films were thermally poled under HV. The poling induced SON was characterized mainly by measuring the second harmonic generation (SHG). The experimental results reveal that the Ge-SiOx thin films with a high oxygen deficiency always enable a much higher optical nonlinearity comparing with those of stoichiometric Ge-SiO2 films. This is related to a mechanism of re-distribution of defect charge centers caused by poling. In addition, it was found that the birefringence of the samples normally increases after poling as an evidence of the breaking of the centro-symmetric structure of the samples.

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1.50pm - Martin Draganski, RMIT Mr Martin Draganski
PhD Student
Dept Applied Physics, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, PO Box 2476V, Melbourne 3001, Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Creation and Characterization of Buried Microstructures in Diamond by Ion Implantation"M. A. Draganski a*, P. Olivero b, S. Rubanov b,c, P. N. Johnston a, D. N. Jamieson b,c and S. Prawer b,c

a Applied Physics, School of Applied Sciences RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia b Microanalytical Research Centre, School of Physics University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia c Centre for Quantum Computer Technology

At the end of range of MeV ions in diamond, black spots are created corresponding to the Bragg peak in the stopping power; the characteristics of which are not well understood but may have application in the micromachining of diamond, Quantum State Storage and Diamond based Photonic Devices. This paper reports on the initial findings of studies to determine the physical properties of these buried black spots, while exploring how to optimally fabricate microstructures within the diamond. We have created buried 3-D structures in single crystal diamond by means of deep implantation with a focussed ion microbeam, over a wide range of fluences. Characterization is performed with Confocal Raman Spectroscopy.

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2.10pm - Satya Barik, ANU Mr Satya Barik
Ph.D. Student
Dept. of Electronic Materials Engineering Research School of Physical Sciences The Australian National University Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Research Activities: InAs/InP Quantum Dots, Implantation, Quantum Dot Laser, Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetector, ZnO Nanostructures, etc.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "The emission wavelength tuning of InAs/InP (100) quantum dots grown by MOCVD"S. Barik, H. H. Tan, and C. Jagadish

Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

Self-assembled InAs quantum dots (QDs) on InP substrates are very promising for high performance optoelectronic devices suitable for optical fiber communications (1.3-1.55 micron) and atmospheric pollution control systems. The InAs QDs are grown on GaInAsP and InP buffers by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) on InP (100) substrates. The indium segregation at the surface and the As/P exchange reaction cause serious problems like a large QD size fluctuation, alloying of QDs, rough interface, broad photoluminescence (PL) linewidth, and low PL efficiency. For device applications, it is essential to control QD size distribution and PL wavelength by understanding and controlling the exchange reaction. Our research shows that the exchange reaction has more pronounced effect on the QDs grown on the InP buffer than those grown on the GaInAsP buffer. A very thin (0.6 nm) GaAs interlayer grown between the buffer layer and the QD layer consumes segregated indium and minimiz! es the exchange reaction. Wavelength tuning from 1450 nm to 1750 nm covering the technologically important 1550 nm wavelength is also achieved for the QDs grown by varying either the GaAs interlayer thickness or the indium composition of the InGaAs interlayer. A theoretical model is developed which considers the As/P exchange, gallium interdiffusion, strain and barrier height. Our theoretical and experimental results show that gallium interdiffusion and the exchange reaction are mainly responsible for the observed shifts in the QD emission wavelength and can be utilized to selectively tune the QD emission wavelength over a wide range.

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2.30pm - Jonathon Mitchell, ANU Mr Jonathon Mitchell
Postgraduate student
Jonathon Mitchell Building 32 Faculty of Engineering and IT The Australian National University Acton Canberra 0200
Research Activities: Amorphous silicon solar cells, nano-technology

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Thermal Activation Energy of Hydrogen for Passivating Process of c-Si Surfaces"Jonathon Mitchell, Daniel Macdonald

The Australian National University, Canberra

Deposition of amorphous silicon on crystalline silicon wafers is becoming an attractive method to achieve both surface passivation and junction formation in crystalline silicon solar cells. However, the mechanisms behind the surface passivation properties are not well understood, although it seems clear that the introduction of hydrogen to the interface is a key aspect. In this work we have measured the increase in effective carrier lifetime during annealing of crystalline silicon wafers with amorphous silicon films on both surfaces. This allows an Arrhenius plot to be constructed, from which the activation energy for the surface passivation process by hydrogen can be determined. The resulting activation energy was found to be 0.63 ± 0.1eV. This value is significantly lower than those reported for hydrogen diffusion in amorphous silicon, with energies between 1.4eV to 3.5eV are required. This in turns suggests that the surface passivating hydrogen is already present at or near the surface during deposition, but does not passivate the c-Si surface until it is annealed.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
2.50pm - Catherine Cheung, USyd Ms Catherine Cheung
PhD Student
Optical Fibre Technology Centre (OFTC), University of Sydney, 206 National Innovation Centre, Australian Technology Park, Eveleigh, NSW 1430 Australia
Research Activities: Particle transportation and deposition in the Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition Process, computation fluid dynamics, silicate glass formation and particle characterisation (electron microscopy)

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "GeO2 Soot Study in the Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition Process"Catherine Cheung (1,2), Pam McNamara (1), Geoff Barton (1, 2), Zongwen Liu (3) and Simon Ringer (3)

(1) Optical Fibre Technology Centre, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia (2) Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia (3) The Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia

One of the most commonly employed fabrication methods for optical preforms is Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition (MCVD). An optical preform is a solid glass rod with a designed refractive index profile (RIP) from which optical fibre is drawn. The optical performance of the fibre therefore relies on the homogeneity of the layers of different chemical constituents (e.g. SiO2 and GeO2 mixture at different ratio) that make up the RIP. The objective of this study is to understand the formation of the preform layers and such knowledge can be used to assist the manufacture of specialty fibre using MCVD. In the MCVD process, solid soot particles are generated and deposited to form the layers which are sintered inside a tube and subsequently collapsed into the solid preform. To understand these complex stages, pure GeO2 soots were produced and the characteristics were studied using electron microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). It was found that the pure GeO2 soots were made up of primary sized particles (approximately 10 nm in size) fused together to form bigger agglomerates (with effective diameters ranging from ~50 nm to >500 nm) forming a porous network. The closer to the soot generation zone, the denser the agglomerates. The majority of these particles and agglomerates were crystalline which was unexpected from the process. Because the presence of crystallites can scatter light, any crystalline remnants as well as the heterogeneous soot layers (with irregular soot morphology) can alter the RIP and significantly decrease the fibre performance.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
3.10pm - Aiping Zeng, USyd Mr Aiping Zeng
Ph. D Student
Plasma Physics Group, School of Physics, A28, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Research Activities: 1.) Chemical sensor related materials 2.) based on chips chemical sensor related materials and their manufaction 3.) amorphous carbon film electrode for electro-analyis

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Electrochemical Characteristics of a-C:N Films Deposited by a Vacuum Filtered Cathodic Arc Source"Aiping Zeng*, Marcela Bileka*, David McKenzie*, Peter Lay†

*School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia †School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

It is a challenge to find materials which are both compatible with conventional semiconductor technology and have properties which make them suitable for use as electrodes in electrochemical transducers for (bio)chemical chips. Nitrogen doped amorphous carbon (a-C:N) films are being investigated as novel electrode materials for electrochemical applications. They have been found to have a larger electrochemical window and lower background current in water than competing materials. Additionally amorphous carbon films are typically smooth down to the atomic level, can be deposited at room temperature and can be micro-fabricated by masking methods. In this paper we report on the electrochemical performance of a set of a-C:N films with a range of film structures, deposited using a filtered vacuum cathodic arc source. We correlate their electrochemical potential window with the film structure. The oxygen reduction and redox responses at the a-C:N electrodes are compared with those! of glassy carbon electrodes. Results such as the catalytic function for the reaction H2O2 +2H+ +2e-  2H2O in oxygen saturated PBS solution at the a-C:N film electrodes, deposited at low nitrogen flow rates will be presented.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Afternoon Tea Break - ˝ hour
3.30pm - 4.00pm
Session 11: Sustainable Materials - Plenary Address 5
Session Chair: Nunzio Motta
4.00pm - Rachel Caruso, UniMelb Dr Rachel Caruso
ARC Australian Research Fellow
School of Chemistry University of Melbourne Parkville VIC 3010 Australia
Research Activities: The fabrication of porous inorganic structures. Advanced materials, Materials chemistry, Colloid science, Porous materials, Templating procedures, Sol-gel chemistry, Photocatalysis.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Morphological control of materials for environmental applications and energy generation"Rachel Caruso

University of Melbourne

The ability to control the morphology of materials is highly desirable as structure plays an important role in the final properties of the material. This can lead to enhancement of the performance of materials in applications due to changes in characteristics such as the accessible surface area and porosity. Likewise, modification of the material composition can alter crystal phase and particle size; both factors that can positively influence operational efficiency. A study of the synthesis of metal oxide structures with controlled morphology will be presented, with an emphasis on materials with environmental or energy generation applications. The tailoring of both outer morphology and inner porosity will be demonstrated by the use of templating techniques. In this process a sacrificial organic template was coated using sol-gel chemistry or the infiltration of nanoparticles, such that on removal of the template porous inorganic structures were formed. Characterisation of the final materials included the use of both scanning and transmission electron microscopy to determine the bulk and intricate structural details and X-ray diffraction to obtain information regarding the crystallinity of the particles. The surface area and pore sizes of the samples were calculated from gas sorption data, and thermal analysis allowed the inorganic loading of the template and the temperatures at which crystal phase changes occurred to be determined. The application of such materials and the performance efficiency in the photodecomposition of pollutants or the conversion of light to energy (dye-sensitized solar cell) will be discussed.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
4.45pm - Bin Yang, ANSTO Dr. Bin Yang
Research Scientist
Materials and Engineering Sciences Division Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization PMB 1 Menai, NSW 2234 AUSTRALIA
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Enhanced Photocurrent Conversion Efficiency Using Nanostructured Tungsten Trioxide Films prepared by sol-gel method"Bin Yang* and Vittorio Luca

Materials and Engineering Sciences Division, Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization. PMB 1, Menai, NSW 2234 AUSTRALIA

Novel mesoporous tungsten trioxide films with enhanced visible light conversion efficiency have been prepared by sol-gel route from aqueous precursor containing peroxotungstic acid (PTA). The morphology of the films can be systematically controlled by adjusting the perchloric acid or hydrochloride concentration in the precursor. Both transparent and semitransparent-mesoporous films have been obtained. In the later case, the film with high photoelectrochemical activity, was deposited from the precursor containing of PTA and HCl. After being calcined at 500 oC, the 2.3 nm-thick mesoporous film can generated anodic photocurrent of the order of 2.5 mA/cm2 under visible light of 1 solar illumination. The films were characterized by in-situ X-ray diffraction, SEM and cyclic voltammetry for the hydrogen intercalation reaction.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
5.05pm - Andrew Nattestad, Mr Andrew Nattestad
PhD Student
Materials Engineering Monash University Wellington Road Victoria 3800
Research Activities: I am working on developing tandem dye sensitised solar cells.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Tandem Dye Sensitised Solar Cells "Andrew Nattestad*, Michael Ferguson*, Udo Bach†, Yi-Bing Cheng*

*Materials Engineering, Monash University †Chemistry, Monash University

Dye sensitised solar cells (DSSC) are an emerging force in solar energy. DSSCs offer a low cost alternative to conventional silicon technology and have been shown to give efficiencies up to 11.3%. In order to make them more attractive to consumer applications (and compete against dry cell batteries) an important step is to increase their conversion efficiency in terms of W/$, and W/m2. DSSCs are limited by the same constraints as solid state p-n junction cells, with a single junction having a theoretical limit of 30%. In DSSCs this corresponds to a single layer of a dyed mesoporous semiconductor with an electrolyte and regenerative counter electrode (typically Pt). A two junction device increases theoretical efficiency to ~43%. With respect to DSSCs, this can be made by replacing the inactive Pt counterelectrode with a photoactive cathode of a p-type semiconductor, such as NiO. It is hoped that through an increase in the photovoltage produced (and eventually overall efficiency) these devices will become a viable option.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
5.25pm - Devin Ramdutt, ANU Mr Devin Ramdutt
PhD Student
Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Space Plasma and Plasma Processing Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200
Research Activities: Plasma sputter deposition of platinum for hydrogen catalysis in PEM Fuel cells. Plasma deposition of low energy, 'hydrophobic', polymers for biological adhesion.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Developments in plasma based fuel cell research at the Australian National University"Devin Ramdutt, Amael Caillard, Orson Sutherland, Cormac Corr, Rod Boswell and Christine Charles.

Space Plasma, Power and Propulsion (SP3) Group, Research School of Physical Science and Engineering, The Australian National University

Research into alternate energy sources has gained a boost in the last decade or so as some governments around the world become more environmentally aware of the hazards of CO2 emissions and the depleting stocks of fossil fuels. One such alternate energy source is hydrogen and it’s use a source of electrical current in a PEM fuel cell. I will present here some of the work we are doing at the ANU on developing new fuel cell technologies in particular the sputter deposition of platinum nano-particles on porous carbon/PTFE supports for PEMFC electrode. I will also describe our goal to develop a ‘plasma fuel cell’; a fuel cell entirely developed using plasma processing techniques.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Workshop Dinner
from 7pm

Day 3 - Friday 30th June 2006
Session 12: Plenary Addresses 6 & 7
Session Chair: Mark Hoffman
8.30am - Keith Bowman, Purdue, USA
Professor Keith Bowman
Professor of Materials Engineering/Head of School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University

Research Activities: • texture and microstructure effects on properties and property anisotropy in structural and electronic ceramic materials
• mechanical properties of materials
• failure analysis of materials
• fracture of materials
• processing of materials
• patents on materials processing

The Bowman research group has lead efforts to quantify and model preferred orientation and property anisotropy in metals, ceramics and composites. Coupled with this research has been the development of the processing approaches to introduce texture and anisotropy in a range of materials. Ceramics research has included elastic and fracture properties of structural materials as well as functional properties of electronic materials. This research has included the use of several different neutron and synchrotron sources to complement x-ray texture research using area detector diffraction. Professor Bowman has given plenary, invited and contributed research presentations in fifteen countries and has ongoing international collaborations with colleagues in Germany and Australia. Current research includes correlating crystallographic texture with domain orientation in poled, depoled and cyclically poled piezoelectric materials.
"Microstructure and Anisotropy Relations in Functional Materials"Keith J. Bowman - Purdue University

Inherent to the microstructure of a polycrystalline material are orientations, orientation relationships and directional characteristics on multiple size scales. In functional materials that rely upon cross-property relationships the combination of microstructure and directional properties can enable dramatic improvements in properties. Cross-property relationships are essential to applications for sensors, actuators and power generation systems that rely upon electro-optic effects, magnetostriction, electrostriction, thermoelectricity, and piezoelectricity. In this presentation, critical aspects of the microstructure-property relations of these materials will be discussed.
9.15am - John Dell, UWA
Associate Professor John Dell

Office: 1.68 Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering The University of Western Australia NEDLANDS, WA, 6907 AUSTRALIA
Research Activities: Associate Professor Dell has had extensive experience in silicon, GaAs, and HgCdTe semiconductor device design and processing. He has worked in a number of fields of semiconductor research including MBE growth, optical material and device characterisation, optoelectronic integrated circuit design, and radiation effects in semiconductors. Associate Professor Dell's current activities are in the areas of semiconductor growth and characterisation, and semiconductor device technologies for optical detectors. He has recently commenced aproject in Micro Electro-mechanical Systems (MEMS) for optical detectors which are wavelength selective and tuneable. He has one international and two Australian patents in the optoelectronics field as well as more than 80 refereed journal and conference publications.
"Materials for Low Temperature MEMS Fabrication Processes"John M. Dell, Charles A. Musca, Jarek Antoszewski and Lorenzo Faraone -

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have become common place in a wide variety of applications, including accelerometers for air bag deployment, digital light switches, even as RF resonators in mobile phones. The common feature of all commercial MEMS applications is the use of silicon as the working substrate. MEMS on other substrates are far less common, but have an enormous potential application base, integrating optoelectronics, electronics, microfluidics and micro mechanical systems in a single, low-cost package. The primary difficulty in realising MEMS on substrates other than silicon has been the issue of maximum process temperature. While myriad solutions have been developed, none have demonstrated commercial viability. A key reason for this is that the technologies developed are substrate specific and not generic. The work presented in this talk will investigate the development of a generic, low temperature (T < 250C) MEMS process. Results indicate that successful MEMS operation can be achieved in a process with a thermal budget as low as 2 hours at 125 C. While such devices require hermetic packaging, results indicate that a generic, robust, environmental stable MEMS process is possible using maximum process temperatures <200C.
Morning Tea Break - ˝ hour
10.00am - 10.30am
Session 13: Materials Analysis
Session Chair: Simon Ruffell
10.30am - Yuantong Gu, USyd Dr Yuantong Gu
ARC-APD
School of Aerospace, Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering the University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Research Activities: Multi-scale technology, nanotechnology, Molecular dynamics, Advanced Finite Element Method, Meshless methods

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "A new method for multiscale analysis of materials and structures"Y. T. Gu and L. C. Zhang

School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia

This paper presents a concurrent simulation technique for analysing the deformation of systems that need the integration of material properties from nanoscopic to macroscopic dimensional scales. In the continuum sub-domain, a weak-form meshfree method using the radial basis function interpolation was employed, but in the atomic sub-domain, molecular dynamics was used. The transition from the atomic to continuum domains was realized by transition particles which are independent of either nodes in the continuum sub-domain or atoms in the atomic sub-domain. A simple penalty method was used to ensure the compatibility of displacements and their gradients in the transition. A virtual cell algorithm was developed using a local quasi-continuum approach to obtain the equivalent continuum strain energy density based on the atomic potentials and Cauchy-Born rule. Numerical examples showed that the present method is very accurate and stable, and has a promising potential to a wide clas! s of multiscale systems.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
10.50am - Julie Cairney, USyd Dr Julie Cairney
Research Fellow
Electron Microscope Unit Madsen Building F09 The University of Sydney NSW 2006
Research Activities: advanced electron microscopy (TEM, SEM, FIB etc), hard coatings, thin films, nanoindentation, intermetallics, thermal barrier coatings, physical metallurgy.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "New Approaches to Understanding Grain Boundary Chemistry"Julie Cairney

Key Centre for Electron Microscopy, University of Sydney

Atom probe tomography (APT) is powerful tool for investigating the grain boundary regions in alloys, especially where any variation in the level of solute is either below the resolution or detection limit of beam-based analysis techniques such as energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) or electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Unlike conventional techniques, APT also provides a means to directly determine the interfacial segregation in three dimensions. However, fabrication of the required needle-shaped specimens specifically from the grain boundary regions has always limited these types of studies. A new method is presented to manufacture atom probe tips using a dual beam focused ion beam (FIB) / scanning electron microscope (SEM). With this method, specimens are pre-thinned using a tenupol twin-jet electopolisher. These samples are firstly used for detailed TEM analysis of the boundaries and then used to prepare needles for APT from selected grain boundaries. The TEM and APT data to be presented will contain compositional information about the microstructural features in grain boundary areas, where the data is represented in three dimensions.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.10am - Soodkhet Imlao, UNSW Mr Soodkhet Imlao
PhD. student
School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW, Sydney, NSW, 2052
Research Activities: Investigate the change of domain texture and domain oreintation of Piezolectric ceramics due to cyclic loading by using Raman scattering, x-ray and neutron diffraction.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Analysis of Domain Switching in Piezoelectric Ceramics by Raman Spectroscopy"Soodkhet Imlao, Jacob Jones, Mark Hoffman

School of Materials Science and Engineering The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

In this work, domain switching is observed by Raman scattering. The use of Raman for quantitative analysis of local texture such as domain switching orientation is presented. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate the domain orientations of unpoled and poled lead zirconate titanate (PZT) samples. Raman spectra were obtained at varying orientations relative to the polarization direction of the Raman laser. The area intensity ratio of the spectra at the high frequency mode (750 cm-1) of the poled sample exhibit a 90ď‚° periodic pattern as a function of the rotation angle while that of the unpoled sample were comparatively unaffected by rotation angle. Because of the small spot size attainable with Raman microscopy, it is expected that ithis technique will be adopted to describe domain switching in geometries where such a small spatial resolution is required (e.g., near propagating cracks and micro-indentations.)

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.30am - Byron Villis, UniMelb Mr Byron Villis
Melbourne University, Physics PhD Student
Rm 212, School of Physics, Melbourne University. Parkville, Victoria 3010. Australia
Research Activities: Defect analysis of Silicon/MOS devices using DLTS techniques.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Angle Dependent Defect Profile of H Implanted Si Using Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy"B. J. Villis, J. C. McCallum, M. D. H. Lay

University of Melbourne

Channeling implantation of ions strongly effect the depth range of the implanted ions and the depth profile of the defects generated in the collision cascade. It is therefore interesting to study the dependence of the stable defects formed by channeling implantation on parameters such as the implantation angle. This allows a greater ability to explore the properties behind the formation of stable defect centers. There have been only a small number of previous Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) studies of the stable charge traps introduced by ion channeling and hence the factors which determine the stable defect type are currently poorly understood. In this research, DLTS has been used to profile the vacancy related defects created in the implantation of H ions at 70keV both at and away from the channeling angle of n-type 0.7-1.1ohm.cm Cz-grown (100) Si. An annealing study has also been performed showing the varying concentration and depth profile of these defects as the annealing temperature is increased.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.50am - Anna Ziara-Paradowska, Monash Anna Ziara-Paradowska
MSc
Mechanical Engineering Department, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia
Research Activities: The aim of my PhD research is to develop the use of non-destructive testing methods of residual stress measurements and to relate this to manufacturing procedures and integrity requirements for various types of steel welds. Additionally, we would like to develop numerical techniques (e.g. ANSYS, SYSWELD) to estimate residual stresses and test correlation between theory and experiment even on complex weld geometries. The area of research includes: examination of steels, welding and non-destructive testing. Some of the tasks started include the use of electron microscopy, metallurgical specimen preparation and examinations as well as study of residual stress measurements. The research evaluates various residual stress measurement techniques including hole drilling and surface x-ray stress measurements using a laboratory and synchrotron Xray With the assistance of AINSE, measurements are being made using the neutron diffraction at ANSTO, Lucas Heights.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "RESIDUAL STRESS EVALUATION IN STEEL WELDMENTS USING SYNCHROTRON AND NEUTRON DIFFRACTION"A. Ziara-Paradowska (1), J.W.H. Price (1), T.R. Finlayson (2), U. Lienert (3), R. Ibrahim(1)

(1)Mechanical Engineering Department, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

(2)School of Physics, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

(3) Advance Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Ave. Argonne, IL 60439 , USA

Residual stress remains the single largest unknown in industrial damage situations. Residual stresses have a significant effect on corrosion, fracture resistance, creep and corrosion/fatigue performance and a reduction of these stresses are normally desirable.

In this research the synchrotron and neutron diffraction techniques were used to investigate and compare the residual stress characteristics in fully restrained samples with different numbers of beads. The aim of the research was to characterize the residual stress distribution which arises in a welded component with increasing number of beads.

The number and resolution of the measurements carried out in this work reveal significant features of the residual stress pattern in multi-bead welding. The intention is to provide key data for the validation of design, fitness-for-purpose methodologies and finite-element tools.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
12.10pm - Michael Went, ANU Dr Michael Went
Post Doctoral Fellow
Atomic and Molecular Physics Laboratories Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering Australian National University Canberra
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Electron Rutherford backscattering as a new material analysis technique"M.R. Went and M. Vos

Atomic and Molecular Physics Laboratories, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 0200

Electrons scattered from nuclei over large angles and at keV lose energy in the same way as ions do in a Rutherford backscattering (RBS) experiment, albeit with smaller relative energy loss. Recently we have demonstrated that our electron spectrometer has sufficient resolution to separate heavy elements from light. At 30 keV and 45 degrees scattering angle the signal from carbon and germanium is separated by 0.6 eV. Only electrons which have not scattered inelastically contribute to the signal, thus the technique is surface sensitive. Due to the energy of the electrons used the technique offers a probing depth larger than XPS or Auger spectroscopy. The width of the peak contains information about the vibrational amplitude of the atoms in the substrate. In this paper we demonstrate the method by deposition of a heavy element layered systems (Ge and Au) on a carbon film. Before deposition, only one peak is observed but after deposition a second peak appears at slightly lower energy loss. The intensity of the two peaks depends very much on the sample geometry and amount of material deposited. We will demonstrate how these spectra may be used to obtain values for the inelastic mean free path in matter and elastic scattering cross sections. Changes in the collision geometry will allow us to increase the energy separation fivefold. This will make the study of a larger range of targets possible. This technique has the potential, especially when integrated with electron microscopy, to become an important tool in advanced materials research.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Session 14: Sustainable Materials - Energy Storage and Production
Session Chair: Rachel Caruso
10.30am - Quansheng Song, UNSW Dr Quansheng Song
Associate Professor
Visiting Research Fellow
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Research Activities: Ř Nickel Hydroxide Materials and Their Applications in Rechargeable Alkaline Nickel Batteries (Ni-MH, Ni-Zn and Ni-Fe Batteries) Ř Nanostructured Nickel Oxide for Uses in Electrochemical Capacitors Ř Hydrogen Evolution Cathode Materials for Electrochemical Hydrogen Production

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Nanocrystalline Nickel Hydroxide as an Electroactive Material for Rechargeable Nickel-based Batteries"Q.S. Song*, ‡, C.H. Chiu†, S.L.I. Chan‡

*Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P.R. China †Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan ‡School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia *Corresponding author.

Nanocrystalline nickel hydroxide powder was modified by the planetary ball milling (PBM), and the physical properties of both ball-milled and un-milled nickel hydroxides were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, specific surface area (BET), particle size distribution and X-ray diffraction. It was found that the ball milling processing could obviously increase the surface area, break up the agglomeration, decrease the particle and crystallite size, and reduce the crystallinity of β-Ni(OH)2, which were advantageous to the improvement of the electrochemical activity of Ni(OH)2. The ball-milled nanocrystalline Ni(OH)2 was then used to alter the microstructure of pasted nickel electrodes and improve the distribution of the active material in the three-dimensional porous electrode substrate. Electrochemical performances of pasted nickel electrodes with an addition of ball-milled Ni(OH)2 to spherical Ni(OH)2 as the active material were investigated, and were compared! with those of the pure spherical Ni(OH)2 electrodes. Charge/discharge tests showed that the addition of ball-milled nanocrystalline Ni(OH)2 could enhance the charging efficiency, specific discharge capacity, discharge voltage and high-rate capability of pasted nickel electrodes. This performance improvement could be attributed to a more compact electrode microstructure and lower electrochemical impedance, as indicated by scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Thus, it was an effective method to modify the microstructure and improve the electrochemical properties of pasted nickel electrodes for rechargeable nickel-based batteries by adding an appropriate amount of ball-milled nanocrystalline Ni(OH)2 to spherical Ni(OH)2 as the active material.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
10.50am - Matthew Lindsay, ANSTO Dr Matthew Lindsay
Research Associate
Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization Institute of Materials and Engineering Sciences PMB 1 Menai, NSW 2234 AUSTRALIA
Research Activities: New anode materials for lithium ion batteries including intermetallics (previous) and titanium oxides (present).

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Effect of anodising parameters for titanium on the electrochemical performance of the resultant oxide films employed in lithium batteries."M. J. Lindsay (a), D. J. Attard (a), C. S. Griffith (a), M. Skyllas-Kazacos (b), V. Luca (a)

(a) Institute of Material and Engineering Sciences, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Private Mail Bag 1, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia (b) School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry, Applied Science Building - University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

Titanium dioxide principally in the anatase form has been widely examined as a potential anode material for lithium ion batteries. Traditionally electrodes used in such cells are prepared via coating a copper substrate with a slurry and subsequent drying at elevated temperature typically under vaccuum. In the anodising process a titanium metal or alloy is oxidised to an oxide and whilst anodising is a common process, electrodes prepared by this method, have not previously been examined as potential anode materials for lithium batteries. This method could however offer a simple one step process for the production of such electrodes. There are however a large number of process parameters in anodising that can be altered which affect the structure and hence properties of the resultant films. This offers considerable opportunity for the optimisation of the electrochemical performance through the variation of the process parameters. Variation of such parameters can produce films with a variety of structures (including amorphous, anatase, rutile and brookite) over a thickness range from a few nanometers to at least 60 microns. A number of films has been produced through galvanostatic based anodising in sulphuric acid electrolytes with various process parameters and large differences in electrochemical performance were observed. Some of the electrodes examined demonstrate a good cycle life along with capacities much greater than 160 mAh/g, a capacity that is generally acknowledged as the limit of reversible insertion of lithium into anatase structures at room temperature.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.10am - Chi Li, USyd Miss Chi Li

School of Materials Science and Engineering University of New South Wales Kensington, Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Improved high rate charge-discharge capabilities of metal hydride electrode of Ni-MH battery with carbon nanotubes"Humara Sultana, Sammy Chan, Q.S. Song

School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney

In the global search for renewable source of energy, hydrogen is a promising candidate in transportation and electronic applications. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have the biggest hydrogen storage capacity among the hydrogen storage materials at present. Due to high surface area and abundant pore volume, CNTs are considered to absorb a large amount of hydrogen. With the addition of CNTs, electrochemical characteristics of the Ni-MH battery can be improved to achieve better performances. The electrochemical hydrogen storage performances of metal hydride electrodes with 20-40nm multi wall carbon nanotubes (20%, 15%, 10%, 5% and 2% of Ni-MH battery’s active materials), therefore, has been investigated under similar charge-discharge conditions. A single hydrogen storage negative electrode sandwiched between two NiOOH/Ni(OH)2 positive electrodes and 6M aqueous KOH solution as the electrolyte comprised the electrochemical test cell. Electrochemical performances such as activation chara! cteristics, specific discharge capacity and high rate charge-discharge capability have been investigated. The morphology and structure of the negative electrode alloy and CNTs were examined by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. It was observed that presences of CNTs significantly enhanced electrochemical properties of the Ni-MH battery. Maximum specific discharge capacity of 5% CNTs electrode could reach 243 mAh/g, whereas 0% CNTs could only reach ~229 mAh/g. High rate charge and discharge capabilities of 5% CNTs electrode were ~ 241% and 250% higher than that of 0% CNTs electrode. It was found that 5% CNTs negative electrode showed the best electrochemical properties of the Ni-MH battery system.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.30am - Nicholas Milne, UNSW Mr Nicholas Milne
PhD Candidate
c/o School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering University of New South Wales UNSW 2052 Sydney AUSTRALIA
Research Activities: Lithium Battery Elecrode Materials. Electrodeposition of titanates and mixed oxides.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Microporous titanosilicate sitinakite as a potential lithium ion battery anode"Milne, N. A. [1]; Griffith, C. S. [2]; Hanna, J. V. [2]; Skyllas-Kazacos, M. [1]; Luca, V. [2]

[1] Centre for Electrochemical and Mineral Processing, School of Chemical Engineering and Industrial Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney AUSTRALIA [2] Institute for Material and Engineering Sciences, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights AUSTRALIA

The increasing demand for high capacity, mobile energy storage systems and the general attractiveness of lithium ion batteries for such a role suggests that new electrode materials should be investigate for their abilities to perform in these batteries. The microporous titanosilicate sitinakite (nominal formula Na2SiTi2O7) with active TiIV/TiIII couple and open structure respresents one such possible anode material. With a structure based around what are essentially titania nanowires running parallel to the main microporous channel sitinakite has shown good lithium intercalation ability. However the sharp drop in capacity over cycling and the lack of a usable voltage plateau detract significantly from its the overall performance of the unoptimized material. A detailed structural and electrochemical characterization of the sitinakite electrode system has been undertaken. Both XRD and titration data have shown two levels of intercalation. These intercalation events do not result in significant structural changes although major changes in lattice parameters are observed in the lithiated material compared with the parent sitinakite. Overall the sitinakite offers some promise as a potential anode material in lithium ion batteries in spite of its drawbacks and a greater understanding of its changes during intercalation could provide guidance in optimizing the material.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
11.50am - Rocio Seltzer, USyd Miss Rocio Seltzer
PhD student
Centre for Advanced Materials Technology School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering Faculty of Engineering The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Research Activities: Bulk and surface mechanical behaviour of polymer nanocomposites

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "Mechanical and morphological characterization of injected nylon 66/organoclay/SEBS-g-MA nanocomposites"R. Seltzer1, A. Dasari1, Z-Z Yu1, P. M. Frontini2, Y-W Mai1

1 Centre for Advanced Materials Technology (CAMT), School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering J07, University of Sydney,Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 2 Institute of Materials Science and Technology––INTEMA, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, J.B. Justo 4302, B7608 FDQ, Mar del Plata, Argentina

Polymeric composites consisting of inorganic nano-particles and organic polymers represent a new class of materials which are said to exhibit better performance when compared with their micro-particle counterparts. However, despite large improvements in stiffness and tensile strength, the toughness and ductility of some polymer nanocomposites show reductions. To enhance toughness and ductility of nylon 66/clay system, the clay was organically modified and rubber particles were added in different quantities (10-20-30%). The bulk and surface mechanical properties of nylon 66/organoclay/SEBS-g-MA nanocomposites were determined and then evaluated as a function of composition and phase structure.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
12.10pm - Roland Goh, Mr Roland Goh
Student
School of Engineering Systems Queensland University of Technology GPO box 2434 Brisbane, Australia, 4001
Research Activities:

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au - "New materials for organic solar cells: microscopic studies of nanotube-polymer composites"Roland G. S. Goh*, Nunzio Motta*, John M.Bell*, Eric R.Waclawik†

*School of Engineering Systems, Queensland University of Technology, GPO box 2434 Brisbane, Australia 4001 †School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, Queensland University of technology, GPO Box 2434 Brisbane Australia 4001

Power production with zero greenhouse gas emission is desirable economically and environmentally. Direct photovoltaic conversion of sunlight into electricity is therefore one highly attractive alternative energy source. We are exploring the use of advanced materials for photovoltaic energy production and the mechanism of photovoltaic action in a new class of solar cell, heterojunction photovoltaics. These are constructed from a thin film of a composite material, a mixture of carbon nanotubes and conductive polymer. Wrapping polymers around nanotubes is expected to improve the polymer mixture ordering, and the overall electrical conductivity. We are investigating the microscopic structure of the mixture and the mechanisms that control the light-electricity conversion and carriers transport in the material. We present a detailed TEM and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy study of poly(alkylthiophene) self-assembly and organization on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Monolayers of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (rrP3HT) adsorbed on SWNTs have been imaged at high resolution, revealing a high a degree of rrP3HT polymer chain organization, i.e. polymer wrapping, along the entire tube axis. Our results show that the rrP3HT interchain distance is greater for rrP3HT monolayers adsorbed onto the curved surfaces of SWNTs than on the flat surfaces of highly ordered pyrolytic graphite samples.

Please send any changes or corrections to elena.nobleza@materials.com.au
Lunch Break - 1 hour
12.30pm - 1.30pm
Closing Remarks and
Prize Presentations
1.30pm - 2.30pm