This paper provides an overview on our recent investigations on the consolidation of hierarchy-structured nanopowder agglomerates and related applications to net-shaping nanopowder materials. Understanding the nanopowder agglomerate sintering (NAS) process is essential to processing of net-shaped nanopowder materials and components with small and complex shape. The key concept of the NAS proces...

The alpha and gamma phases of aluminum oxide were fingerprinted using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) with an energy resolution of 0.4 eV. Electron diffraction and powder x-ray diffraction were used to determine the phase of micron and nanopowder alumina samples. The results from indexing peak and ring diffraction patterns proved to be ambiguous and were resolved by comparing EELS spec...

Zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) is of growing importance in a wide variety of fields exemplified by ZTA prosthetic implants. Unfortunately, ZTA composites are generally difficult to process because of the need to preserve the tetragonal zirconia phase in the final dense ceramic, coincident with the need to fully densify the a-Al2O3 component. We report here that liquid-feed flame spray pyrolys...

Si and its oxide are nonpoisonous materials, and thus, it can be taken for medical effects. We have developed a method of generation of hydrogen by use of reactions of Si nanopowder with water in the neutral pH region. Si nanopowder is fabricated by the simple bead milling method. Si nanopowder reacts with water to generate hydrogen even in cases where pH is set at the neutral region between 7....

Gallium nitride (GaN) nanopowder used as a blue fluorescent material was synthesized by using a direct current (DC) non-transferred arc plasma. Gallium nitrate hydrate (Ga(NO₃)₃∙xH₂O) was used as a raw material and NH₃ gas was used as a nitridation source. Additionally, melamine (C₃H₆N₆) powder was injected into the plasma flame to prevent the oxidation of gallium to gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃). Argo...

Low-temperature reactive mixing of controlled electron beam modified Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanopowder with Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Monomer (EPDM) rubber produced PTFE coupled EPDM rubber compounds with desired physical properties. The radiation-induced chemical alterations in PTFE nanopowder, determined by electron spin resonance (ESR) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscop...

A computational investigation using a unique model and a solution algorithm was conducted, changing only the saturation pressure of one material artificially during nanopowder formation in thermal plasma fabrication, to highlight the effects of the saturation pressure difference between a metal and silicon. The model can not only express any profile of particle size-composition distribution for...

Highly sinterable alumina nano-powders have been synthesized by a sol-gel combustion method with glycine asfuel. The preparation involved the thermal decomposition of a chelating agent (fuel)-nitrate gel and theformation of amorphous precursors. The nanopowders calcined at 1100°C were characterized by X-ray powderdiffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It was found that the ch...

We report that hydrogen gas can be easily produced from water at room temperature using a Mg nanopowder (30-1000 nm particles, average diameter 265 nm). The Mg nanopowder was produced by dc arc melting of a Mg ingot in a chamber with mixed-gas atmosphere (20% N2-80% Ar) at 0.1 MPa using custom-built nanopowder production equipment. The Mg nanopowder was passivated with a gas mixture of 1% O2 in...