5^th World Congress on Materials Science & Engineering June 13-15, 2016 Alicante, Spain

Biography:

Maria del Pilar de Miguel Ortega has received her PhD in Chemistry from Complutense University of Madrid in 1992. She worked as a Assistant Professor in Complutense University of Madrid from 1992-1996. Now, she is working in The Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) from past 4 years.

Abstract:

The Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) is a Public Business Entity, answering to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, which fosters the technological development and innovation of Spanish companies. It is the entity that channels the funding and support applications for national and international R&D&i projects of Spanish companies. The CDTI thus seeks to contribute to improving the technological level of the Spanish companies by means of implementing the following activities: • Financial and economic-technical assessment of R&D projects implemented by companies. • Managing and fostering Spanish participation in international technological cooperation programmes. • Fostering international business technology transfer and support services for technological innovation. • Supporting the setting up and consolidating technological companies. CDTI provides companies with its own funding and facilities access to third-party financing (Bank Line for Funding Technological Innovation and Subsidies of the EU R&D Framework Programme) for national and international research and development projects. In addition, the CDTI is empowered as the competent entity to issue binding motivated reports of the projects funded by any of its lines (Royal Decree 2/2007). These documents will provide greater legal security to Spanish companies with an approved project and funded by the CDTI when seeking tax rebates for costs incurred in the R&D activities of those projects.

Biography:

Dr. O.J. Dura completed his PhD in 2009 from University of Castilla-La Mancha. Then he performed postdoctoral stays at Technical University of Vienna and University Complutense de Madrid. Actually he is lecturer with the Applied Physics department of Castilla-La Mancha. His research interest focuses on transport properties and synthesis of nanostructured ceramic materials.

Abstract:

The presence of interfaces and grain boundaries in ceramics materials affects both thermal diffusion and charge transport among others properties. However, these effects are not completely understood and more efforts from a theoretical and from an experimental point of view must be addressed. Here, we report on the grain boundary and size effects on thermal, electric and thermoelectric properties of different ceramic oxides obtained by mechanical alloying or milling. We will discuss these effects on the ionic conductivity of YSZ, which is extensively used as electrolyte in SOFC, by complex impedance measurements. Our results are discussed in terms of the presence or absence of an space charge layer along boundaries. Regarding the thermal transport, it's shown an strong depression of the thermal conductivity due to the presence of boundaries in nanocomposites of YSZ/STO among others oxides materials. This effect is interpreted in terms of an strong enhancement of the phonon scattering at grain boundaries. Finally we present the interesting behaviour of the thermoelectric properties of cobalt oxides due to the effect of the grain size reduction. The influence of the grain size on the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) and the compromise between electrical and thermal transport in cobalt oxides will be discussed.

Biography:

Jorge Pedrós received his PhD degree from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) in 2007. After being a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (UK), he returned to UPM in 2012. He currently works on the growth of graphene by CVD and the development of graphene devices for electronic, plasmonic, and energy-storage applications. He has coauthored more than 30 publications and is the PI of 2 research projects.

Abstract:

Graphene stands out by many different properties (electrical, optical, structural, mechanical, thermal, etc.), which combinations allow to improve device performance or enable new applications. Perhaps, energy storage by means of supercapacitors and batteries is the main short-term field in which graphene will be exploited. Graphene can be prepared by several techniques. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using catalytic metal foils or films has demonstrated very good results for quality single or few-layer 2D graphene. Similarly, 3D graphene structures are grown by CVD on Cu or Ni metal foams or sponges, showing a high surface useful for supercapacitor electrodes. The graphene foam (GF) processing involves material growth, substrate removal and, eventually, functionalization. We are using plasma enhanced CVD to grow the graphene coating on a metal foam acting as a catalytic mesh. The coating thickness depends on the metal substrate and the growth conditions (gases ratio, growth time, etc.). A free-standing GF is obtained by wet etching the metal substrate. Finally, the GF may be functionalized by different techniques and materials (polymerisation, electrodeposition, sol-gel), either to modify the graphene properties and/or to provide robustness to the 3D structure. In this work we will discuss several demonstrations of GF-based electrodes for supercapacitors, either by filling the GF with a hierarchical polymer nanostructure, or different oxides by electrodeposition or sol-gel. GFs can also be exploited to enhance the properties of batteries or other energy applications.

Biography:

Yongmei Zheng, PhD, is a Professor at the School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University. Her research interests are focused on bioinspired surface materials with gradient multi- structures for functions including water collection, transport of the condensed droplet, low- temperature superhydrophobicity, anti-icing, anti-frosting at interfaces and so on. Her publications are included in Nature, Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., ACS Nano, Adv. Funct. Mater., Small, Chem. Commun., J. Mater. Chem. A, Nanoscales, etc., with 12 Cover stories. She has published 1 book - titled “Bioinspired wettability surfaces: development in micro- and nanostructures”.

Abstract:

Inspired by the roles of micro- and nanostructures in the water collecting ability of spider silk, a series of functional fibers are designed by using nanotechnology-related methods. The “spindle- knot/joint” structures demonstrate the cooperation of multiple gradients in driving tiny water drops to collect water at micro- and nano-level. The geometrical-engineered thin fibers display a much higher water capturing ability than normal fibers in fog flows; the bead-on-string heterostructured micro-fibers are capable of intelligently responding to environmental changes in humidity; the tiny water droplets can be controlled the transport in directions by designing the temperature, photo, rough-responded surfaces on fibers; the continuous size spindle-knots fiber can realize the droplet transport in a long distance for water collection in efficiency. By integrative gradient features of surfaces between spider silk and beetle back, a kind of wettable star-shape pattern surface also realizes the effect of water repellency rather than others. To develop the functional surface, the wettable gradients in different modes are fabricated onto the high adhesive surfaces, thus the high adhesive surface realize the controlling of droplet spreading in directions. Otherwise, learning from butterfly wing and plant leaf display water repellency and low-temperature superhydrophobicity, bioinspired surfaces with optimal micro- and nanostructures display distinctly anti-icing, ice-phobic and de-ice abilities. It also demonstrated further that the oriented or asymmetric features on geometries at micro- and nano-level can generate the driving of droplets and directional transport of drop, etc. These studies are greatly significant to help to design the novel functional engineering wettability-controlled surfaces.

Biography:

J J Vegas Olmos received the BSc and the MSc in Telecommunications and Electronic Engineering, respectively, in 2001 and 2003. He obtained the PhD degree from the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, in 2006. He also holds a MA in East Asian Studies, a BEc in Business Administration, and an MBA. He was a Research Fellow at Osaka University, Japan, from 2006 to 2008, and a Research Associate at the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd. Since 2011, he is with the Technical University of Denmark, where he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Photonics Engineering.

Abstract:

As the need for higher connectivity is pushing to open up higher frequency bands for communications, entering the micro and millimeter wave bands (>10 GHz), we are facing the need to develop new antennas to cope with two main requirements: low cost and reconfigurability. Low-cost is a must as the band from 28 to 40 GHz is seriously considered to bridge end mobile users, and this implies large deployments, inherently cost sensitive. Reconfigurability is a must as once deployed, such systems need to be able to adjust to the peculiarities of their environment and traffic needs. Horn antennas based on metal drilling and milling are technology and cost intensive, while not allowing reconfigurability once fabricated. In this paper, we will review our recent work in using advanced materials for antenna reconfigurability and fabrication. The results enable advanced functionalities such as frequency switching and beam forming.

Biography:

Dorian Martin is a member of NFFA-Europe, France. He has attended several conferences and delivered speech on NFFA-Europe and its benifits

Abstract:

NFFA-Europe sets out a platform to carry out comprehensive projects for multidisciplinary research at the nanoscale extending from synthesis to nano-characterisation to theory and numerical simulation. NFFA-Europe is enhancing European industry competitiveness at two levels: • Providing firms a simple, coordinated access to large scale facilities and instruments for proprietary work: this fee based access is an ad-hoc approach, depending on the level of complexity of the expressed need. • Giving industry opportunities to access for free the NFFA-Europe platform: this funded access requires the results of the project to be published. Approved user projects will have access to the best suited instruments and support competences for performing the research, including access to analytical large scale facilities, theory and simulation and high-performance computing facilities. The user access includes several “installations” and is coordinated through a single entry point portal allowing the user/client to build up a personalised access programme with an increasing return on science and innovation production. NFFA-Europe is also doing its own research to address key bottlenecks of nanoscience research: nanostructure traceability, protocol reproducibility, in-operando nano-manipulation and analysis, and open data.

Biography:

B.S., Leningrad State University, 1959 M.S., Leningrad State University, 1961 Ph.D., Moscow State University, 1964 Dr.Sci., Mathematics Institute Academy of Science,Minsk, 1972

Abstract:

The theory of electromagnetic (EM) wave scattering by one and many small impedance particles of arbitrary shapes is developed. The basic assumptions are: a  d  , where a is the characteristic size of particles, d is the smallest distance between the neighboring particles,  is the wavelength. The impedance boundary condition is: [N; [E;N]]jSm = m[N;H]jSm, where m, Rem  0, is the boundary impedance of the mô€€€th particle Dm, Sm is the smooth surface of Dm, N is the outer unit normal to Sm, [A;B] is the cross product of two vectors, E and H are electric and magnetic elds satisfying the Maxwell's equations, the impedance boundary conditions on Sm, 1  m  N; and the radiation condition at innity. Here N is the total number of particles. An ecient computational method is given for solving the wave scattering problem by one and many, 1  m  N, particles under the assumptions a  d  . The particles are distributed in an arbitrary nite domain in R3. If N is very large and a is very small, then the eective eld in the medium, where the small particles are distributed, is proved to be a solution of a linear integral equation. This theory allows one to give a recipe for creating materials with a desired refraction coecient. One can create material with negative refraction: the group velocity in this material is directed opposite to the phase velocity. One can create a material with a desired permeability. The theory presented in this talk is developed in monograph and in papers cited.

Biography:

Hamouda Ghonem has completed his PhD from McGill Uninersity, Montreal, Canada. He is a Distiguished Professor of Engineering and directs the Mechanics of Materials Research Laboratoy at the university of Rhode Islanad, USA. He has published more than 150 papers in areas related to materials deformation mechanisms at elevated temperatures.

Abstract:

Microstructural changes in grain boundary carbide precipitates have been correlated with stress during creep of solid solution strengthened by nickel based superalloy, alloy 617, at 950°C. The observed redistribution of carbides and carbide migration is explained in terms of dissolution of carbides under compressive stress and coarsening along boundaries subjected to tensile stress. The role of carbide, size, volume fraction and distribution on the deformation response has been examined on 3 microstructure variants of alloy 617 subjected to low cycle fatigue testing under strain controlled loading conditions at 760°C. The 3 microstructures are (1) as-rolled microstructure with uniform distribution of discrete carbide precipitates along all grain boundaries in addition to the presence of carbides in the matrix, (2) solution treated microstructure (1200°C for 2 hours and water quenched) with no carbides in the matrix or along grain boundaries, and (3) solution treated microstructure (1200°C for 2 hours and water quenched) subjected to creep testing at 950°C. This sequence results in redistribution of carbides, localized along boundaries perpendicular to creep load direction which are subjected to tensile stresses. Hysteresis loops associated with complex low cycle fatigue testing were used to determine the isotropic hardening, in terms of yield strength and cyclic hardening/softening, as well as, the kinematic hardening (long- and short-range) as a function of grain boundary carbide size and volume fraction. Results of this analysis are incorporated in a non-linear kinematic, internal state variable model to simulate the cyclic stress-strain response of alloy 617 as a function of the microstructure state with respect to the carbide distribution.

Biography:

M Guerdane has completed his PhD at the Goettingen University and Post-doctoral studies from Karlsruhe University in Germany. Since 2012, he is a senior researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Applied Materials, Computational Materials Science.

Abstract:

One of the central challenges in multiscale modeling consists of how to bridge the gap among atomistic and macroscopic approaches in order to ensure that the descriptions at all levels are quantitatively consistent with each other. In our work, we carry out this task for the hierarchical coupling approach that combines molecular dynamics (MD) with phase-field (PF) modeling. The consistency analysis is achieved by detailed comparisons of quantitative predictions of the considered modeling methods for the growth kinetics. The latter is a typical multiscale problem in material physics. The MD simulations provide the physical quantities needed for the construction of the multiscale models. Of central importance are the bulk free energy and the solid-liquid interfacial free energy. We consider the monatomic system Fe and the binary alloy NiZr. We discuss in particular the solid-liquid interface diffusion, the interfacial thickness anisotropy, and their determining influence on the growth kinetics.

Biography:

Raja Rizwan Hussain received his PhD and MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan, for which he was ranked as outstanding and was awarded the best research thesis, prize and medal from the University of Tokyo. He has authored more than 165 publications with reputed publishers in the past 7 years of his post PhD tenure and has received several awards, prizes and distinctions throughout his research and academic career. His research interest is in the corrosion of steel reinforced concrete.

Abstract:

Corrosion of RC (reinforced concrete) structures is a major durability concern throughout the world. Chloride attack is the main cause of deterioration in steel reinforced concrete structures. Chloride ions break the passive film developed on steel bar embedded in concrete protecting the steel from corrosion. This situation is further aggravated by the hot weather conditions. The passive layer is believed to be a few nanometers in thickness and primarily composed of iron oxides; however, little is known about its chemical composition and structure as well as the passive film breaking process. This makes it difficult to characterize corrosion which is highlighted by the fact that the chloride threshold value of steel reinforced concrete measured by conventional electro-chemical techniques can vary greatly. While these techniques measure corrosion in a macro scale, the growth and deterioration of passive film actually take place at the nano-scale and is governed by the elemental compositions and nano-microstructure of the steel as well as the chemistry of the concrete and the environment around the rebar which has been incorporated in this paper. This research paper focuses on characterization of passive layer at the nano-scale as well as on finding out what happens when the film breaks down especially due to chloride attack under hot weather. To address these key issues, advanced nano-techniques (such as SEM, FEG-SEM, XRD, EDS/EDX, XRF, XPS, AFM, Raman Spectroscopy, Photo Electron Spectroscopy etc.) and electrochemical measurements have been used. Electro-chemical techniques have been used to conduct research on the growth and breakdown mechanisms of passive film in aggressive environments, particularly chloride contaminated environments and hot weather conditions prevailing around the world. It was found that the chemical composition and surface treatment of various steel bar sources available differ considerably from each other and also have significant difference in the development of passive layer as well as the corrosion rates respectively. An interesting sequence of reactions taking place during the formation of passive film on steel rebars is revealed. Role of changes in parameters surrounding the steel reinforcement bars exposed in concrete pore solution on nature of passive film is established. A wide variation in corrosion and pitting tendency of rebars in different conditions is caused due to changes in nature of the passive film on steel surface. A subtle change in nature of film in contact with chloride ions occurs before its complete breakdown. A rise in temperature transforms the nature of the passive film resulting in acceleration in corrosion rate. Presence of lime in pore solution significantly improves the protective properties of the film. Comparison of multi-scale experimental analysis shows a direct relationship among the macro, micro and nano scale results obtained in this project. A nano-scale model for the transformation, breakdown of passive film, initiation and propagation of corrosion under severe environment has been suggested and experimentally verified in this paper

Biography:

Abstract:

The currently used high-performance micro-fiber fabrics for soft body armor have very low surface friction and this has become an issue in the effectiveness of ballistic energy absorption. In this study, non-polymerizing reactive plasma gas H2, Ar, N2 and air were employed to modify micro-fiber polyester fabric surface for the application of ballistic impact material. Capillary rise method observations yield information about the surface effect of the fabrics after plasma treatment. The surface morphology of the treated fabrics was studied. Fabric tailor ability analysis was used to analyze the surface properties of the treated samples. The yarn pulling-out test shows that the resistance to pulling out yarns from fabrics plasma-treated treated with N2 and Ar, plasma-treated fabric is increased 18% and 30% respectively, compared with the untreated fabric.

Biography:

Mohamed M Blaow received his BSc degree in Materials Engineering from University of Tripoli, in 1990. He got his MSc degree in Materials and Mechanical Engineering the University of Newcastle/UK in 2000. Moreover, he got PhD degree in Materials Engineering and Nondestructive testing from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne/UK in 2005. Currently, he is Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Engineering at the University of Misurata/Libya. His research field is in steel processing and non-destructive testing.

Abstract:

Magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) measurements were performed using two low carbon steel plates of 1 mm thickness. A full annealed, temper rolled and a cold rolled plates of 400 mm2 area were tested. The measurements were conducted along the rolling direction and transverse to it in both plates. The detection search coil was initially placed at the magnetizing yoke and then it was displaced away from the yoke in predetermined steps. The intensity of the Barkhausen signals decreased as a function of detection distance from the magnetizing yoke in both directions. However, the Barkhausen noise profile shape changed from a single peak when the detection coil between the yoke legs to two peaks profile as soon as the detection search coil was displaced from the yoke in the temper rolled plates. The result indicated also that the two peaks profiles in the temper rolled plate were sharper along the transverse direction than in the rolling direction. The appearance of two peaks profile in the temper rolled plate may be attributed to different magnetisation directions the temper rolled plate which were detected by distorted profiles. The single peak Barkhausen noise decreased linearly as a function of detection distance in both directions in the cold rolled plate, which may be attributed to the high dislocation density. The result indicates that the magnetisation process in the steel plates is strongly affected by dislocations within the magnetized landscape.

Biography:

Mohammad Masoumi holds a PhD degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (Physical and mechanical properties of materials) from Universidade Federal do Ceará of Brazil. His research interests are focused on the study the role of microstructural parameters such as, microstructure, crystallographic texture and grain boundary distributions on mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.

Abstract:

The texture evolutions in duplex stainless steels are affected by two mechanisms, plastic deformation and martensitic phase transformation. In this work, the texture evolutions during hot and cold rolling was investigated as a function of thickness reduction in an experimental duplex stainless steel to describe the phase transformation and crystallographic orientation changes for a better understanding of the interaction between the phase transformation and deformation texture. The bcc martensite showed the dominant {100}//ND and {110}//ND components. The dominance of the {100}//ND components were ascribed mainly to martensitic transformation following Bain's model. Also, kernel average misorientation increases significantly due to the increase in strain and a decrease in deformation temperature. Also, the internal grain structure becomes more inhomogeneous with the dislocation piles up and preventing dislocation movements.

Biography:

Abstract:

Dependence of the materials properties on neutron irradiation intensity (flux) is a key problem while usage data of the accelerated materials irradiation in test reactors to control and forecast their capacity for work in realistic (practical) circumstances of operation. Investigations of the reactor pressure vessel steel radiation degradation dependence on fast neutron fluence (embrittlement kinetics) at low neutron flux reveal the instability in the form of the scatter of the experimental data and wave-like sections of embrittlement kinetics appearance. Disclosure of the steel degradation oscillating is a sign of the steel structure cyclic self-recovery transformation as it take place in self-organization processes. This assumption has received support through the discovery of the similar “anomalous” data in scientific publications and by means of own additional experiments.

Biography:

Abdullah Qaban has started his PhD program at City University London in March 2015. He is specialised in the materials science and engineering. His PhD focuses on the behaviour of steel at different alloying compositions and different heat treatment processes. The Master research project was to study the behaviour of thermoplastic composites at Teesside University in 2014 while the Bachelor research project focused on the thermoset composites for wind turbine applications at the University of Surrey in 2012. He aims to publish his first paper in the Materials Science & Engineering Conference organised in Spain in June 2016.

Abstract:

Control rolled steels are characterized by their excellent mechanical properties and are employed in many tough engineering applications. However, the cost factor and the unavailability of the control rolling facilities in most of the small steel plants make it necessary for researchers to explore alternative options. Hot rolling is cheaper than control rolling but the mechanical properties are poor giving inferior impact resistance and often lower strengths. The mechanical behaviour of hot rolled steels are affected significantly by their chemical compositions, thus understanding the role of alloying elements in steel and specifying their optimum quantity in the composition may give competitive steels which can replace the control rolled steels. In many cases, the improvement of strength is at the expense of impact behaviour and vice versa, and the key factor in balancing both properties is the chemical composition. Currently, many researchers have focused on Al as an addition to play a major role in improving both strength and impact behaviour. The work presented in this paper examines the effect of low and high Al content on microstructure and mechanical properties of hot rolled steel. The influence of control rolling has also been examined. In addition, the work will explore any additional benefits that can be achieved by the addition of Nb to the chemical composition. Previous works have found that a high Al addition to steels is beneficial to both strength and impact behaviour. In the current paper, high and normal low Al containing steel were examined to determinethe influence this higher Al addition has on the mechanical behaviour. Two rolling conditions were studied, hot rolled and control rolled. Nb was also added to the high Al containing steel to enable higher strengths more typical to that pertaining to control rolled steels. For the steels, a high N content was chosen so as to increase AlN precipitation and hopefully gain more grain refinement. It was found that high Al steel gave the best impact behaviour with an ITT of -90°C. This gave the lowest LYS of 290 MPa. The improvement of impact behaviour can be attributed to AlN precipitation and refinement of both grain boundary carbides and ferrite grain size. The present work shows that the addition of Nb to the high Al containing steels is very beneficial to strength giving a LYS of 385 MPa close to that given by someof the control rolled steels. However, poor impact behaviour was obtained and has an ITT of only 10oC. The improvement of strength is due to grain refinement and precipitation hardening by Nb while the deterioration of impact behaviour might is due to the martensite and bainite formation.

Biography:

Abstract:

Shot peening increases the fatigue resistance of steels due to the accumulation of compressive residual stresses in the surface layers. In porous sintered steels, an additional effect is due to surface densification. Surface densification is inversely proportional to the resistance of the steel to plastic deformation. In the present work, two sintered steels having different Mo content were gas carburized and shot peened. The effect of shot peening on the surface densification and on the residual stresses was investigated, Surface densification was investigated by image analysis, to measure the residual porosity along the distance from the surface. Through the analysis of the pore morphology, the fraction of the load bearing section profile was calculated using a model that correlates it to the fractional porosity and the parameter fcircle. The effect of the resistance to plastic deformation of the carburized steels on the surface densification and on the residua stress profile was this way investigated and discussed.

Biography:

Dr. Elena Cerro-Prada received her PhD in Physics from Autónoma University of Madrid (UAM). She lectured at the University of Birmingham, UK, and worked at CERN, among other research and academic positions. Dr Cerro-Prada currently serves as Lecturer and Head of the Physics Department at the Technical University of Madrid. Dr. Cerro-Prada has contributed greatly to the understanding of cementitious materials microstructure by applications of nanotechnology and nanomaterials. She is currently involved in the development of titanium dioxide nanoparticles to provide cement-based materials with photocatalytic properties, as well as agent-based modelling for cementitious material microstructure.

Abstract:

Incorporation of nanostructured chemically inert semiconductors with photocatalytic properties into cementitious materials is an important development in the field of heterogeneous photocatalytic pollution mitigation. Here we report a new composite material consisting of TiO2 nanocrystals grown via sol-gel method at ambient temperature and undergone calcination in order to increase their crystallinity. On gelation of the ambient temperature prepared sols, dispersed nanoparticles of amorphous TiO2 were obtained by titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) route. The amorphous materials obtained transformed to fully crystalline titania at 400 °C. The effect of calcination temperature was evaluated. The high temperature thermal stabilities of this novel material were also studied. The prepared TiO2 photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The contents of anatase and rutile phases in the TiO2 sols have been successfully controlled by simple thermal annealing. The active photocatalytic sites related to the surface area of TiO2 are the key factor in determining the photocatalytic activity [1]. The as-prepared nanoparticles are expected to show an enhanced photocatalytic activity under UVlight irradiation, which can be attributed to the porous structure, large BET surface area, bicrystalline, and small crystallite size.

Biography:

Alexander Axelevitch has completed his PhD in 2002 in Physical Electronics from Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Since 1995, he has been with Holon Institute of Technology (HIT). He currently leads the Nanotechnology and Microelectronics Branch of the Engineering Faculty, the Laboratory of Microelectronics and Thin Films and works as the Senior Lecturer in faculty of Engineering in HIT. His main research interest includes thin films deposition methods, transition metal oxides, alternative energy sources, solar cells, plasmonic effects. He has eight patents, 65 referred articles and more 150 papers presented on scientific meetings.

Abstract:

The ability to different various neuropeptides in human organism and evaluation of their amount are very significant in neuropsychology and physiology. Last time, the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) was widely introduced into biosensing. Sensitivity of optical biosensors was significantly improved using metal nanostructures based in general on the application of gold and silver. Nanostructures prepared from these metals appear LSPR in the visual and near infrared spectrum. However, the difference in the neuropeptides come out in the middle and deep ultraviolet spectrum where gold and silver are inapplicable. It is known that aluminum nanostructures can display the LSPR in the ultraviolet spectrum. However, there are some difficulty in the aluminum nanostructure preparation due to its easily oxidation and good adherence to the glass. In this work, we present a simple method for preparation the aluminum nanostructures consisting of aluminum nanoparticles surrouned by a thin layer of aluminum nitride.

Biography:

Nekane Guarrotxena has completed PhD from the University of Complutense, Madrid-Spain and Post-doctoral researcher at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d´Arts et Metiers (ENSAM), Paris (France) and the University of ScienceII, LEM-Montpellier (France). From 2008-2011, she was visiting Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA) and the CaSTL at the University of California, Irvine (USA). She is currently Research Scientist at the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP), CSIC-Madrid (Spain). Her research interest focuses on the synthesis and assembly of hybrid nanomaterials, nanoplasmonics, and their uses in nanobiotechnology applications (bioimaging, biosensing, drug delivery and therapy).

Abstract:

An important number of applications has arisen reporting the use of nobel metal nanoparticles (NPs) as optical markers in single-molecule assays, as molecular rulers, as local orientation- or sensitive biochemical- nanosensors and enhance Raman scattering of surface-bound molecules (SERS). Assembly of several NPs has also been used to develop scalable fabrication of new nanodevices, just by playing with a controlled coupling chemistry. However, this rational clustering of two NPs (dimers or hot-spots with high electromagnetic enhancements in SERS application) by solutions methods has been a notable challenge, since nanoassembly´s dissociation or aggregation must be avoided during performance or application. In this talk, we will present our alternative approach based on a postsynthetic purification method which ahs overcome this difficulty yielding highly desirable optical SERS active nanoassemblies for nanosensors.

Biography:

P V Ashrit is a Professor of Physics and the Director of Thin Films and Photonics Research Group (GCMP) at Université de Moncton in Canada. He has been working in the area of thin films, especially of chromogenic (electrochromic, photochromic, thermochromic) materials for over 25 years. His present interest is in inducing various types of nanostructure in these films in order to enhance their chromogneic performance. He has been awarded the prestigious R3 Innovation Award for Excellence in Applied Research by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF).

Abstract:

Transition metal oxide thin films showing very efficient electrochromic properties have become increasingly popular due to their application potential in various forms of smart systems. The reversible coloration that can be induced in these materials, especially in thin film form, via the application of a small electric field provides a facile and interactive way to control the coloration. Tungsten trioxide (WO3) thin films are by far the best known candidates for these applications.The electrochromic coloration occurs through a reversible reaction such as the one shown below: WO3 + xe- + xLi+  LixWO3 (Transparent) (Blue) Upon the application of a small electric field x number of ions (lithium, for example) and electrons are injected into the transparent WO3 to transform it into blue colored bronze (LixWO3) thus giving the electrochromic coloration. There are stringent requirements on the optical and electrical properties of these films for their efficient and stable electrochromic (EC) operation. These thin films need to show high efficiency coloration under ion intercalation as well as a high mixed ion/electron conductivity. In this work we have carried out the preparation of the thin films of WO3 with the specific goal of controlling their nanostructure to optimize their mixed conductivity. High pressure sublimation and condensation as well as the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) methods have been used to induce a controlled nanostructure. Lithium ion diffusion is measured by electrochemical methods. The optimum nanostructure that is apt for the EC application of these films is reported.

Biography:

Sónia A C Carabineiro has completed her PhD in 2001 at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal) and Post-doctoral studies from Leiden University (The Netherlands) and Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal). In December 2007, she joined the University of Oporto (Portugal) as an Assistant Researcher and became Principal Researcher by December 2013. She has published more than 90 papers in reputed journals and 19 book chapters. She has an h index of 24 and over 1400 citations (Scopus, May 2016). She is particularly interested in catalysis by gold, (mixed) metal oxides, carbon materials and in heterogenisation of homogenous materials for oxidation reactions.

Abstract:

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases with a high global warming potential (approximately 300 times higher than CO2). N2O is responsible for the depletion of stratospheric ozone layer due to its long lifetime in atmosphere (~150 years). The present work aims to explore the effect of the support (Al2O3, CeO2, Fe2O3, TiO2 and ZnO) on the catalytic decomposition of N2O (deN2O) over Au-based catalysts prepared by a deposition-precipitation method. The following activity order was recorded: Au/Fe2O3 > Au/CeO2 > Au/ZnO > Au/TiO2 > Au/Al2O3. An inferior deN2O performance was obtained for bare supports, following, however, the same order as the gold loaded materials. A close correlation between the deN2O performance and the redox properties of oxide carriers was found, on the basis of a redox type mechanism. The addition of gold further enhanced the surface oxygen reduction, facilitating the deN2O process. Moreover, the low gold nanoparticles size (~2 nm) and the Au+ oxidation state of Au/Fe2O3 sample can be further accounted to explain the superior performance of this material.

Biography:

Juan Antonio Madrid is MSc in Chemistry and has 20 years of experience on Chemical R&D and Vocational Education and Training (VET). He is completing the Doctorate. Since 2015, he is the Director of the National Center of Reference for Chemical VET (Spain). From 2004 to 2015, he worked as a Professor of Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Analysis. From 1998 to 2004, he was working at General Electric Plastics in the R&D department. Before that, he worked in a pharmaceutical company during 2 years.

Abstract:

The use of alcoholic suspensions of calcium hydroxide nanoparticles as consolidant for natural stone is widely accepted, mainly in Cultural Heritage Conservation. In the present experimental work, two easy synthetic procedures leading to pure Ca(OH)2 nanoparticles in 2- propanol are compared. CaCO3 and Ca(OH)2 were used as starting materials to obtain CaO following two different paths using the same calcinations temperatures. In both cases, CaO was used to obtain suspensions of Ca(OH)2 nanoparticles by addition to 2-propanol while sonicated. The nanoparticles were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the stability of suspensions was monitored by Nephelometry (NM). The proposed methods can be implemented in industry because they are fast and easy to scale up. On the other hand, the methods yield pure Ca(OH)2 and avoid the production of by-products, such as NaCl that require additional purification treatments.

Biography:

Nekane Guarrotxena has completed PhD from the University of Complutense, Madrid-Spain and Post-doctoral researcher at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d´Arts et Metiers (ENSAM), Paris (France) and the University of ScienceII, LEM-Montpellier (France). From 2008-2011, she was visiting Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA) and the CaSTL at the University of California, Irvine (USA). She is currently Research Scientist at the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP), CSIC-Madrid (Spain). Her research interest focuses on the synthesis and assembly of hybrid nanomaterials, nanoplasmonics, and their uses in nanobiotechnology applications (bioimaging, biosensing, drug delivery and therapy).

Abstract:

The morphology- dependent tunable optical, magnetic, and electronic properties of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) make them key building-blocks in nanomaterials science, opening interesting pathways to fundamental research, and technological applications (bio- and device-technology). By definition, a smart- or stimuli responsive- polymer is a high performance polymer that change according to the environment they are in. They can be sensitive to temperature, humidity, pH or an electrical or magnetic field and respond in various ways, like varying colour or transparency, becoming conductive or permeable to water, etc. And usually only slight changes in the environment are neccessary to induce large changes in the polymer´s properties. The combination between inorganic NPs and stimuli-response polymers yields smart nanohybrids and nanocomposites with improved and even novel properties, besides to stabilize and control their assembly. In this sense, polymer-stabilized NPs in organic solvents offer a great chemical playground for directed self-assembly, by simply changing the composition of the solvent; which expands their potencial applications. Despite the great interest in the scientific community, as reported by the wide literature on the subject, the establishment of new and simple protocols for polymer-coating of inorganic NPs is still needed. This talk will highlight recent development in the area of multifunctional organic-inorganic hybrid nanostructures, laying focus on the improved, optical response of nanohybrids depending on the impact of pH and temperature external stimuli. This research requires a good understanding of structure-property relationships that guide the design and generation of novel smart materials with well-controlled stimuli-responsive features for specific applications.

Biography:

Nagamalai Vasimalai obtained his PhD in Chemistry at Gandhigram University, India in 2013. Subsequently, he did a Post-doc in National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan (2014). Since March 2015, he is working in the Nanoparticles for Bioanalytical Applications research group at INL as a Marie Curie Co-Fund Fellow under the supervision of Maria Teresa Fernández-Argüelles. His field of expertise is luminescent nanomaterials for bioanalytical and theraputic applications.

Abstract:

Nanocarbon dots (C-dots) are a new class of nanomaterials that has gained momentum because of their aqueous solubility, chemical inertness, poor photobleaching, low toxicity, biocompatibility etc. Hence, C-dots are used in fields including bioimaging, drug delivery, catalysis, optoelectronics, biosensors etc. Nowadays, there are described multiple routes and carbon sources as alternative for graphite to obtain C-Dots. Among them, foodstuffs have recently attracted considerable attention as starting materials, because they can be used in simple and cost-effective synthetic routes, and are environmental friendly. Besides these advantages, foodstuff-based C-dots present higher fluorescent quantum yield than those obtained with other routes, and some of them have anti-cancer properties, features that strongly depend on the material employed for the synthesis. Black pepper is a well-known spice due to its anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-arthritic effects, and it has been reported that it is capable to reduce cancer cell proliferation. Therefore, in this work, black pepper was selected as source to perform a one-pot green synthesis of C-dots, and its anticancer potential has been evaluated through in-vitro studies. The synthesized C-dots have been deeply characterized (UV-Vis, fluorescence and raman spectroscopy, photostability, quantum yield, FT-IR, XRD, TEM etc.,). They have shown an excellent fluorescence quantum yield and narrow size distribution. Bioimaging studies have been performed to evaluate the in-vitro anticancer potential. Localization of the C-dots mainly in the cytoplasm and cell membrane has been observed, and viability studies indicate that the growth of human glioblastoma cells is suppressed up to 75% after 24 h incubation.

Biography:

Alex T Kuvarega completed his PhD in 2013 from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and continued with Post-doctoral studies at the same University until January 2015. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability Research Unit at the University of South Africa. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

The photocatalytic performance of a number of non-metal, metal co-doped TiO2 for the degradation of a dye under simulated solar radiation was investigated. The synthesised materials were characterised by FTIR, Raman Spectroscopy, XRD, DRUV-Vis, SEM and TEM. The N, metal co-doped TiO2 containing 0.5 wt.% of the metal consisted mainly of the anatase phase, with a particle size range of 15 - 28 nm. The TiO2 particles were largely spherical with some showing metal clusters dispersed on their surfaces. Co-doping shifted the material absorption edge well into the visible region. Band gap reduction was more pronounced for the N, PGM co-doped TiO2 compared to N, base metal co-doped samples. Co-doping led to an enhancement in the photocatalytic activity of the materials for the degradation of eosin yellow. N, Pd co-doped TiO2 was the most effective photocatalyst (99.9% dye removal) while N, Cu co-doped TiO2 showed the least activity (25.5% dye removal). The mechanism for the photocatalytic enhancement was proposed on the basis of formation of an electron deficient Schottky barrier at the semiconductor-metal interface, which act as an electron sink and thus retards electron-hole recombination. It was shown that the ability of the photocatalyst to degrade the dye depends on the nature and type of the metal dopant in co-doped TiO2 system.

Biography:

Antonio Riul Jr has graduated in Physics with PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Universidade de São Paulo (USP). He has experience with conducting polymers, nanostructured thin films (LB and LbL), e-tongues, and has published more than 60 papers (h-factor 21), with interest in emerging tecnologies to the development of sensors.

Abstract:

The layer-by-layer (LbL) technique is an easy, flexible an elegant bottom-up strategy that has been widely used to promote surface modification at nanoscale level, as well as for multilayer formation of advanced fuctional materials. We will show LbL films in sensor and fuel cell applications, exploring as well microfluidics and 3D-printing technologies. Microfluidics deals with the precise control and manipulation of liquids at the submillimetre scale, integrating research fields with emergent technologies in a cost-effecive manner. 3D printing is a fully automated process offering rapid prototyping to built complex structures with high resolution without experts, with the addtitional potential of using materials beyond polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) realms. The 3D printing technology can be used to facilitate the integration and fabrication of microfluidic devices, and here an e-tongue set-up was printed in less than 1h, being able to distinguish tastants below the human threshold. We also show the use of LbL films of graphene nanoplatelets in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs). Briefly, DMFC are promising devices for clean energy generation, however, the major impedment to commercial applications is the methanol crossover from anode to cathode. Graphene nanoplateles of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide stabilized in poly(styrenesulfonic acid) sodium salt (GPSS) were LbL assembled onto Nafion® membranes in order to serve as a barrier to hamper the methanol permeation. The characterization of the modified LbL modified membranes indicated positive barrier property of the graphene nanoplatelets to the methanol permeation in a DMFC setup.

Biography:

Núria Ferrer-Anglada is a professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. She obtained a PhD on Solid State Physics at the University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France) and a PhD on Physics at the University of Barcelona, Spain. She worked on conducting polymers. More recently her field of research was focused on the spectroscopic and electrical characterization of carbon nanotubes, in particular flexible and transparent electrodes. Actually she works on graphene and other low dimensional materials, as MoS2. She published more than 35 papers in indexed journals.

Abstract:

In the increasing research field of 2D materials such graphene, Molybdenum disulfide MoS2 attracted a great interest due to potential applications as thin film transistors, light-emitting diodes or or photodetectors. Differently than graphene, the existence of a direct bandgap in monolayer MoS2, gives the possibility of performing MoS2 field-effect transistors or optoelectronic devices. We analyzed by THz-Time Domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS) of CVD obtained MoS2 deposited on a sapphire substrate. The advantage of THz-TDS method is that we can get significant parameters related to the sample quality like conductivity, permittivity or attenuation, without the need of depositing any electrical contacts or sample preparation.

Biography:

Metwally Madkour received his PhD degree in Inorganic Chemistry from Menoufia University in 2015. He is working as a teaching assistant at Kuwait University. His research interests include synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials, nanophotocatalysis, and wastewater treatment. He published 6 research papers since 2011.

Abstract:

Semiconductor quantum dots are promising candidates for the future optoelectronic applications and energy applications. Doped semiconductors with noble metals such as Au and Ag are called a plasmonic photocatalyst. In this study, eco-friendly well dispersed undoped ZnS quantum dots, QDs, and noble metal doped ZnS QDs (loading amount 4 wt.%) were successfully synthesized on large scale via a green aqueous route at room temperature. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized via different techniques such as: XRD, XPS, TEM and SEM. The synthesized nanoparticles with its small particle size of 4.5 nm revealed quantum size effect in terms of blue shift in the absorption behaviour with optical band gap, Eg, of 5.06 eV. The photocatalytic activities of bare and doped ZnS QDs were assessed toward the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye. The results revealed a superior photo-efficiency upon doping with noble metal nanoparticles. This superior photocatalytic behaviour of the noble metal doped ZnS QDs photocatalysts could be mainly attributed to Schottky barrier of noble metals which prevents the recombination of the charge carriers and prolongs the lifetime of the photogenerated electrons.

Biography:

Muataz A Atieh is a senior scientist at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) and Associate Professor at College of science and Enginering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from University Putra Malaysia in 2005. His research focuses on design and fabrication of different types of CVD reactors for production of micro and nano materials for different applications. He produced different materials from nanostructure materials such as carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, nanocatalyst and graphen to. He published more 100 journal papers and confernces.

Abstract:

The development of new classes of fluids with enhanced heat transfer capabilities has been the subject of significant research. One area of interest in this field involves the use of additives to improve the properties of heat-transfer fluids. Metal and metal oxide additives are of particular interest in heat-transfer fluid applications, especially when they are manufactured on the Nanoscale. Since then, the suspension of nanoparticles in conventional heat-transfer fluids has been shown to improve the thermal conductivity and convective heat-transfer performance by an order of magnitude over the traditional base fluids (ethylene glycol, water, oils). A key consideration in using nanoparticles in heat-transfer fluids to produce nanofluids that yield reliable results is to ensure that the nanofluid is stable.By incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in fluids, it is expected that such nanofluids would exhibit major improvement in thermal conductivity due to the very high thermal conductivity of CNT. To the best of our knowledge, there is no published work on the thermo-physical properties of nanofluids using water as base fluid containing modified CNTs and their behavior as a heat-transfer fluid in turbulent flow regimes, where most of practical flows fall. Therefore, this study focuses on the measurement of the basic thermo-physical properties of CNTs impregnated with iron oxide on their surfaces, such as specific heat capacity (Cp), and thermal conductivity.

Biography:

Anna Stavitskaya received her PhD in 2015 from Gubkin State University of Oil&Gas and has 12 publications in petrochemistry.

Abstract:

Halloysite nanotubes are formed by 10-15 revolution of kaolin aluminosilicate sheets and have diameter of 50 nm, a lumen of 15 nm and length 500-1000 nm. It is environmental freindly, natural and cheap tubule nanomaterial available in thousand tons. Halloysite surface is SiO2 and the tube inside is Al2O3 which are oppositely charged at pH range 3-9. Due to this, halloysite may be considered as efficient divalent nanoadsorbent both for cations and anions. It is possible to load metal ions selectively into 15 nm diameter halloysite lumens and synthesise nanorods or peapod-like packing of metal nanoparticles, as demostrated for silver, gold and magnetite; heavy metal ions, however, do not penetrate into 0.7-1.0 nm interlayer space of the roll. Halloysite tubes have surface area of 60 m2/g, but enabling access to the interlayer space increases its adsorption capacity to 500-900 m2/g. Some polar organic compounds such as ethyleneglycole, acetonitryle, dimethylsulfoxide intercalate the tube wall interlayer. Furfural has shown especially good intercalation abilities providing further formation of organic ligands of different types. In particular, Schiff bases are provided for Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, Ni, Cu, and Au ion nucleation from aqueous or alcoholic solutions at elevated temperatures. This allowed for simple exclusion of metal ions from solutions. Reducing the sample resulted in formation of metal nanoparticles in the nanotube interior and freeing the ligands which allows for repetition of the process. Heavy metal nanoparticles of 1-5 nm were formed both in the lumen and in the interlayer space of the tube walls.

Biography:

Ahmad Kayvani Fard is pursuing his PhD in Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and is a Research Associate at Qatar Environmental & Energy Research Instituye (QEERI) School of Science and Engineering. He has published more than 5 papers in reputed journals and his main focus is on water desalination and water treatment using membrane and nano materials.

Abstract:

Water with oil contamination is one of the challenges in water resources management. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have caught a lot of attention as a new type of adsorbents due to their exceptional capacity for oil adsorption. In this work, we report on the synthesis and laboratory evaluation of multiwall carbon nanotubes decorated with different loadings of Fe2O3 and Al2O3 nanoparticles for oil-water separation. Pristine and modified CNTs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), The Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) technique, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The effect of adsorbent dosage, contact time, and agitation speed were examined on the oil spilling efficiency using batch adsorption experiments. The sorption capacities of modified CNTs were found to be greater than 7 g/g for gasoline oil. The modified CNTs due to their hydrophobic nature do not absorb water and has superior selectivity for organic compounds such as oil and organic solvents. These interesting materials show practical solution for water treatment especially in oil and gas industries.

Biography:

Soon-Uk Yoon is studying as a PhD candidate at INHA University, Incheon, Korea since 2014. He had a bachelor’s and master degree in environmental engineering in 2010 and 2012, respectively from INHA university, Korea. After graduation of academic working, he worked as a researcher at Korea Environmental Institute. He was in the water and environmental strategy research group. His area of interest includes, environmental engineering, water and wastewater treatment, biological treatment of soil/groundwater, and reduction of organic compound or sludge.

Abstract:

Use of treated wastewater can be a sustainable water resource management policy. However, high organic matters and pathogen load along with the array of emerging recalcitrant micro-pollutants, that escape the sewage treatment plant, requires expensive advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) before use. Utilization of treated waste water in managed aquifer recharge (MAR), either in the form of riverbank filtration (RBF), lake bank filtration (LBF) and artificial recharge (AR) are costeffective and have been shown to degrade recalcitrant pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Carbamazepine (CBZ) and diatrizoate (DTZ) are two such persistent pharmaceuticals not degraded in in sewage treatment process. CBZ is an antiepileptic drug prescribed in seizure disorder, bipolar disorder, neuralgia, schizophrenia and depression. DTZ is used as iodinated X-ray contrast agents. Objective of this study was to evaluate removal of CBZ, and DTZ in simulated MAR with functionalized iron oxide nanoparticle and biological treatment. A long cylindrical acrylic column was filled with sand (0.8 ~ 1.2 mm). Hydraulic conductivity, flow rate and retention time were calculated before injecting CBZ and DTZ containing artificial wastewater at estimated load of 7.89 μg/g and 10.62 μg/g, respectively. The effluent concentration at different sampling point on the column during the experimental period was analyzed by SPE-HPLC. When inoculated with a mixed microbial culture, previously known for its metabolic potential, 89.63% of CBZ and 83.66% of DTZ were removed. Because the degradation capacity of pharmaceutical substances was more than 70% in the long-term operation in the soil layer, it will be combined the adsorption and bio-degradation process. This study not only confirmed the ability of MAR to treat the CBZ and DTZ in physicochemical and biological process, but also envisioned the possibility to treat the effluents from sewage plants.

Biography:

David A Jackson has a PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of London. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Applied Optics University of Kent UK. He is responsible for many important innovations in the field of optical sensing including laser Doppler velocimetry, non-contact vibration and displacement measurements and fibre optic sensors. His interests in fibre optic sensors include intrinsic and extrinsic single mode optic sensors based upon optical interferometers and fibre Bragg gratings He has researched optics for medical applications such as OCT, miniature temperature and pressure probes He has authored or co-authored over 300 journal and 300 conference papers.

Abstract:

A multichannel fibre laser Doppler vibrometer was demonstrated with the capability of making simultaneous non contact impacts at 4 different locations. The optical source was a single frequency laser diode at 1500 nm, where the output power was coupled into a single mode fibre and transferred to a specially designed power distribution unit that contained 4 independent heterodyned interferometers with transceiver fibre links with autocollimators. The targets were either aluminium or carbon composites. Two sets of measurements were performed the first using small ball bearings (1-5.5 mm) falling under gravity, the second with small projectiles (micron to 1 mm) fired from an extremely high velocity light gas gun at speeds in the range 1-8 km/s, digital processing was used to recover and process the data. In addition the results of a previous experiment where fibre Bragg gratings strain sensors attached to the target are compared. Determination of impact damage is important for industries such as aerospace, military, auto, where the effect of an impact on the structure can result in a major structural damage. To our knowledge the research reported here demonstrates the first trials of a multichannel fibre laser Doppler vibrometer being used to detect hypervelocity impacts.

Biography:

Dr. María Teresa Pérez Prior received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Salamanca. She did a stage at the Fakultät für Chemie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany and a Postdoctoral stage at the Polytechnic School of Albacete, University of Castilla-La Mancha. Dr. Pérez-Prior currently serves as Lecturer in the department of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering at the University Carlos III of Madrid. In recent years, her main research is focused in the synthesis and characterization of polymeric materials for Energy applications.

Abstract:

In the near past decades, there has been increasing interest in the development of anion-exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) because of their advantages such as faster oxygen reduction reaction kinetics or desirable applicability of non-precious metals as catalyst compared to proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Anion-exchange membranes (AEM) are one of the key components in a fuel cell. Polysulfone derivatives are considered as good candidates for the preparacion of this type of materials. The efficiency of the AEM can be discussed in terms of polymeric backbone, responsible for the mechanical properties, and also the anion-exchangeable group. In this work, 1,4-diazabicyclo octane (DABCO) was used as quaternization agent and a series of DABCO-functionalized polysulfones were prepared. In the DABCO structure the imposibility to reach an antiperiplanar conformation minimizes the Hofmann elimination. In addition, the presence of two nitrogen atoms in the rings can stabilize the positive charge, preventing the polymer degradation. Thus, the resulting membranes showed high thermal stability for typical fuel cell operation temperatures below 100 ºC and good alkaline stability after being treated in a 1M KOH solution for 96 h. When DABCO groups were inserted into the polymer backbone, the glass transition temperature of the functionalized membranes increased due to the incorporation of bulky substituents which decreases the mobility of the polymer chain. The ionic conductivity of these membranes is the same order of magnitude that of AEMs commonly used for this purpose. Therefore this material could be used as solid electrolyte in low temperature fuel cells.

Biography:

J J Vegas Olmos received his BSc and the MSc in Telecommunications and Electronic Engineering, respectively, in 2001 and 2003. He obtained the PhD degree from the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, in 2006. He also holds a MA in East Asian Studies, a BEc in Business Administration, and an MBA. He was a Research Fellow at Osaka University, Japan, from 2006 to 2008, and a Research Associate at the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi Ltd. Since 2011, he is with the Technical University of Denmark, where he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Photonics Engineering.

Abstract:

Optical links using traditional modulation formats are reaching a plateau in terms of capacity, mainly due to bandwidth limitations in the devices employed at the transmitter and receivers. Advanced modulation formats, which boost the spectral efficiency, provide a smooth migration path towards effectively increase the available capacity. Advanced modulation formats however require digitalization of the signals and digital signal processing blocks to both generate and recover the data. There is therefore a trade-off in terms of efficiency gain vs complexity. Polybinary modulation, a generalized form of partial response modulation, employs simple codification and filtering at the transmitter to drastically increase the spectral efficiency. At the receiver side, polybinary modulation requires low complexity direct detection and very little digital signal processing. This talk will review the recent results on polybinary modulation, comprising both binary and multilevel signals as seed signals. The results will show how polybinary modulation effectively reduces the bandwidth requirements on optical links while providing high spectral efficiency.

Biography:

Estíbaliz Aranzabe received a degree in Chemical Sciences in 1999 by University of the Basque Country. In 2000 she started working in IK4-TEKNIKER mainly involved in advanced fluids development and monitoring. From 2002 she worked in developing new sol-gel coatings and materials. Since 2012 she is the Head of Surface Chemistry Unit at Tekniker. She has broad international background and a large experience in being in-house Director of EU-FP7 Projects. Among others, she is in charge of the scientific coordination of the NANOPIGMY project.

Abstract:

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the total energy use and 36% of total GHG emissions within the EU. One of the ways of improving energy sustainability is increasing energy efficiency in existing buildings as annually just about 1% of the existing building stock is added as new buildings. Materials science offers solutions that when combined can offer energy savings in building sector. In this study, high reflectance coatings are combined with phase change materials with the aim of improving energy efficiency in buildings at an affordable cost. To solve this issue, a multifunctional pigment having a high total solar reflectance and a thermal storage capability has been manufactured. The high reflective property of the paint would reduce the amount of absorbed radiation while the thermal storage capability makes it possible to use the roof as an energy storage media. The thermal performance of the coating containing the multifunctional pigment was estimated an compared with a coating containing the unmodified pigment. For this issue a simulated experiment in which two boxes were covered with the coatings on their tops and heated with an infrared lamp was performed. The indoor air temperature and the interior temperature of the roof were monitorized obtaining differences of 4ºC.

Biography:

Fabien Sorin obtained his PhD from the department of Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge USA. After a three-year Post-doc at the Research Laboratory of Electronics still at MIT, he joined the company Saint-Gobain and work as a research scientist at the Saint-Gobain Research center in Aubervillers, France. In 2013, he joined the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérlae de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) as an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Materials, where he leads the Photonic Materials and Fiber devices laboratory.

Abstract:

The recent development of thermally drawn fibers that combine prescribed structures of materials with different optical and optoelectronic properties has enabled a novel path towards large area and flexible photonic systems. Complex optoelectronic functionalities can be achieved by combining all of the required materials into a macroscopic preform and using the thermal drawing process to stretch this preform into very long, thin and flexible functional fiber devices. Micro- and nano-structured devices with widely different optical and electronical properties, in prescribed position and with intimate interfaces, have been demonstrated with this approach. These include sub-hundred nanometers electrically connected semiconducting thinfilms that can act as light, heat, or chemical sensors, field effect structures, piezoelectric micro-domains and even extremely long nanowires and complex nano-spheres. In that regard, the thermal drawing technique represents a unique ability to tailor materials, structures and properties spanning the nanometer to kilometer length scales, making these fibers compelling candidates for applications such as remote and distributed sensing, large-area optical-detection arrays, energy harvesting and storage, innovative health care solutions, and functional fabrics. In this talk, we will present the materials and fabrication approach, and discuss various opportunities and fiber structure examples that has been achieved. We will also highlight some directions that the field may take in terms of new materials, structures and functionalities.

Biography:

N A Timofeeva has received the degree of MSc at R.E. Alekseev Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University, Russia. She is currently doing her PhD program at G.G. Devyatykh Institute of Chemistry of High-Purity Substances, Russian Academy of Sciences. The PhD focuses on the synthesis of polycrystalline zinc chalcogenides ZnSe and ZnS doped by iron for active medium of solid-state lasers. She has 7 publications in this field

Abstract:

ZnSe crystals doped by Fe2+ are used as an active medium of lasers operated in the 3.5-5 μm spectral range. The characteristics of the medium important for laser applications depend not only on the nature and concentration of the doping component, but to a great extent on the type of the intrinsic or impurity defects of material. Such defects are defined by the conditions of crystal growth and also by the subsequent high temperature treatment, employed for matrix doping by active impurities. In this work, the unique technique of doping was developed and CVD-ZnSe samples with different Fe2+ concentration profiles were manufactured. The effective concentration of Fe2+ ions was at the 1019 at/cm3 level. The two-photon confocal microscopy method was used for investigating the nature and character of changes in the distribution of band-to-band and defect-impurity photoluminescence (PL) centers directly in the bulk of Fe2+: ZnSe polycrystals. The two-photon excitation was realized by a laser operated in the 0.75-1 μm range at room temperature, the PL spectra were registered in the 425-725 nm range. As a result, the PL “volume” maps of Fe2+: ZnSe polycrystalline samples were recorded reaching a depth up to 1 mm with a step 25 μm and a size of plane area 1Ñ…1 mm. The investigation of the maps reveals the regularities of PL centers formation in the bulk and at grain boundaries in the polycrystalline CVD-ZnSe due to the concentration of Fe2+ ions. The work was supported by the RSF grant â„–15-13-10028.

Biography:

Mario Culebras obtained a degree in Chemestry from the University of Valencia in 2011. After he obtained a Master in Science and Technology in Colloids and Interfaces. He started his PhD studies in 2012 under direction of Andres Cantarero, about “Organic thermoelectric materials” in the University of Valencia. Currently, he has published several papers about thermoelectricity in polymeric and carbonaceous materials.

Abstract:

More than two thirds parts of the energy that is produced is lost as heat losses. In consideration of that, it is crucial to find effective ways to recover all this loss energy. The use of thermoelectric materials make possible to recover all this energy due to the Seebeck effect. In the last few years, several intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) have been successfully used in the field of thermoelectricity. The dimensionless figure of merit ZT (ZT=S2σT/κ) where S, σ and κ are the Seebeck coefficient, the electrical and thermal conductivities, respectively, has been improved several orders of magnitude, until values very close to those of inorganic materials. Polymers show, in addition, many advantages over inorganic materials, such as: non scarcity of raw materials, lack of toxicity, lower cost of production and many others. In this work, the focus is to provide several routes to increase the thermoelectric efficiency of conducting polymers such as: chemical and electrochemical de/doping or the incorporation of nanofillers to the polymer matrix. Using these methods it is possible to achieve a ZT > 0.2 for ICPs. In addition, a new method for the fabrication of thermoelectric modules (TEG) has been developed using only one type of ICP. As a proof of concept, we have developed a thermal sensor based on poly(3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanofilms as thermoelectric material.

Biography:

M Pourkashanian is the Head of the Energy research, Energ-2050, The University of Sheffield, and is the Director of PACT pilot scale UK national facilities. He holds a chair in Energy Engineering and has completed numerous major research projects on clean energy technology and received a substantial sum of grants from EPSRC, EU, NATO, and industry. His active research grants in 2015 relating to clean energy projects are in excess of £10M. He led a team of 11 research fellows and 34 PhD students. He has published over 460 refereed research papers. He is a member of numerous international and national scientific bodies including an invited member of the All Party Parliamentary Renewable Transport Fuels Group and Expert-Member in EU-GCC Clean Gas Energy Network. His research is in the field of future clean and sustainable energy technology with a focus on energy efficient materials, multi-scale energy process computational and CFD modelling. His active research areas include wind turbine aerodynamics and wind resources prediction, carbon capture and storage from power generation processes, pollutants formation prediction, and future power plant multi-scale and dynamic simulation.

Abstract:

Ash deposition, slagging and fouling on boiler tube surfaces is an inevitable, though undesirable, consequence of burning coal and biomass in power station boilers. The role of fuel characteristics in affecting the form and severity of the problem is significant. In recent years, biomass fuels have gained increasing popularity as an environmentally friendly source of energy in power plants all over the world. This study is based on experimental corrosion tests under controlled atmospheres and characterising the behaviour of four biomass fuels (pine wood, peanut shells, sunflower stalk and miscanthus) using ash fusion temperature (AFT) tests, simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) of fuel ashes, calculation of empirical indices and predicting ash melting behaviour with the help of thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. Corrosion test results indicated increased metal loss but the AFT results failed to show any clear trend between fusion temperature and high alkali content of biomass. STA proved useful in predicting the different changes occurring in the ash. Empirical indices predicted high slagging and fouling hazards for nearly all the biomass samples and this was supported by the possible existence of a melt phase at low temperatures as predicted by thermodynamic calculations.

Biography:

Axel Enders has completed his PhD in 1999 from the Martin Luther University and the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany. After collecting research experience at the Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Reserach in Stuttgart, Germany, he has become an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and the associate director of the Nebraska MRSEC. He has published about 100 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Low-dimensional functional organic materials are currently the subject of intensive research, due to their unusual, unique or superior electronic properties, and due to their potential applicability in all-organic electronics. Graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, molybdenum sulphide and other transition metal dichalcogenides are popular examples of atomically thin materials that show great promise for various applications. Interestingly, another class of materials, organic ferroelectrics, can also be synthesized as two-dimensional layers and even as one-dimensional chains, retaining their ferroelectric properties while being amenable to great level of structural and properties design, as will be shown in this talk. It is discussed how atomically thin structures of molecules from known hydrogen-bonded room-temperature ferroelectrics can be synthesized on crystalline surfaces through selfassembly. Those structures include 1D molecular chains, 2D homogeneous networks, and 2D cocrystals. Properly designed, cocrystals allow for asymmetric hydrogen bonds, to build materials with a hierarchy of barriers to proton transfer that could in principle exhibit multiple and complex polarization states. First principlses calculations were employed to study polarization behavior at the molecular level. Calculations based on density functional theory predict that polarization reversal in such chains can occur through proton tautomerization, where the substrate appears to determine the height of the barrier to intermolecular transfer of hydrogens along the hydrogen bonds. It is predicted that hydrogen-bonded organic ferroelectrics can be engineered into 2D and 1D structures while not only retaining their ferroelectric functionality, moreover, the substrate can act as an additional control parameter to control the ferroelectric properties.

Biography:

Aleksey Vasiliev has completed his PhD from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry & Petrochemistry in Ukraine. His main field of expertise is materials chemistry, in particular, chemistry of mesoporous and microporous materials. He continued his professional career in the National Technological University in Argentina, and further moved to Rutgers University. Currently, he is working as an Associate Professor in East Tennessee State University.

Abstract:

The objective of this work is the synthesis of a novel superacidic mesoporous adsorbent for immobilization of radioactive caesium-137 in contaminated waters and soils. The project is based on the hypothesis that heteropolyacid-containing porous materials can selectively adsorb caesium due to the presence of highly acidic adsorption sites in their structure. Silica gel containing embedded phosphotungstic acid was synthesized by co-condensation with tetraethoxysilane in acidic media using the sol-gel technique. Pluronic 123 was added as a pore-forming agent. Content of tungsten in the obtained sample was 7.7%. The material was mesoporous with BET surface area above 1000 m2/g, however, it also contained micropores. Presence of bands of Keggin’s structure in the FT-IR spectra at absence of XRD patterns of crystalline HPAs confirmed their fine incorporation into silica network. SAXS study and TEM imaging showed highly agglomerated particles with disordered porous structure at the average pore size of 16 nm. This material was studied in the adsorption of caesium ions from aqueous solutions. Isotherms of caesium adsorption were obtained at various temperatures. These data demonstrated a possibility to use the adsorbent in different climatic conditions. The selectivity of the adsorbent was studied at the competitive adsorption of caesium in the presence of potassium ions. High effectiveness of this material makes it potentially applicable for cleanup of contaminated areas after a nuclear incident.

Biography:

Suresh S Narine, named in 2011 as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Leaders, is Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Chemistry at Trent University; he also is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Lipid Derived Biomaterials, the Ontario Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering and the Director of the Trent Centre for Biomaterials Research. His work focuses on the creation of petrochemical replacements for pharmaceuticals, lubricants, polymers, adhesives, and high-value materials from vegetable oils. He is the author of nearly 200 peer reviewed publications and more than 30 patents.

Abstract:

The replacement of petrochemical feedstock with renewable carbon is a pivotally important aspect of the transformation to a climate-neutral, environmentally sound economy. In this effort, the use of vegetable oils such as canola, soy, palm and others as chemical substrates which are abundant and offer facile means for chemical transformation to produce monomers for polymers, lubricants, waxes, phase change materials and other high values chemicals has gained prominence. This talk will dicuss chemical transformation strategies, structure-funtion relationships, and a biorefinery approach to the utilization of lipids from vegetable oils as petrochemical replacements. The importantce of fundamental understanding of the physico-chemical functionality of specific structures and the use of cross and self metathesis as disruptive technology for the creation of a variety of useful structures will be discussed. Specific examples of commercially relevant phase change materials, polymers, waxes, lubricants and high value food feedstock will be examined.

Biography:

Marzieh Kishan has completed her master degree from Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. She works as work trainer at steel production company, NOMAC, in Norway. She has done many project concerned with corrosion.

Abstract:

In this study, the corrosion behaviour of alloys was explored as a function of time using the salt. Samples from two aluminium alloys from series 5xxx and 6xxx were prepared and tested in a salt spray chamber in the duration of 49 days. At speciffed intervals, two samples of each alloy were taken out from the chamber. The type of corrosion and the corrosion rate were investigated through this test. As pitting is the main corrosion process, the depth of ten deepest pits was measured using optical microscopy. Also, the cross section of the deepest pit was analysed to see if the alloy is susceptible to intergranular corrosion. Statistical analysis was carried out in order to investigate the variation of corrosion rate during exposure and to predict the lifetime of a component. In particular, the Extreme Value theory, the Gumbel distribution, was employed to plot the probability paper of the extreme pit depth occurrence. In addition, the open circuit potential transient technique was utilized to investigate the corrosion potential of alloys under study. The ability of alloys to form the passive layer and the corrosion parameters such as corrosion potential were determined using potentiodynamic polarization measurement. The corrosion behaviour of alloys was found to be linked to the chemical composition and microstructure. The Gumbel extreme value distribution fitted successfully to the data obtained for alloys exposed to acidified seawater solution.

Biography:

Zhong-Ting Hu is a PhD student from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He holds BSc in Applied Chemistry and an MSc in Environmental Engineering. He was a R&D researcher of NanoMaterials Technology Pte Ltd in Singapore (2007-2012). He has experiences in nanoparticle synthesis, surface modification, wet coating and nanomaterial production in pilot plant. He was a team leader of a research project for undergraduate students (chemical plating & H2 energy) and their paper won the 1st Prize of the 1st ZJNU Natural Science’s Academic Paper Competition. His current research interests are material and environment including advanced nanomaterials fabrication/optimization (morphology, self-assembly, nanocomposite, doping, synthesis), environmental photochemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, water treatment, solar energy, magnetic separation.

Abstract:

Nanoscaled material design is an efficient method to improve the drawback of the pristine material or fabricate a multifunctional material combining their individual functions. As many investigations have proved that semiconductor/metal composite can exhibit enhanced photocatalysis because of the plasmonic (enhance light harvesting) and electrical conduction (charge separation) properties of noble metal NPs. However, the efficiency of a photocatalyst is determined not only by the charge separation of photogenerated electron/hole pairs but also by that of the recombination effect. Herein, a novel ternary oxide (bismuth ferrite) is selected as the research subject and the corresponding cuboid-like Bi2Fe4O9/AgNP with graphene-wrapping tribrid nanoarchitecture was fabricated using a delicate multi-step synthesis process. It is designed to effectively enhance the performance of the pristine Bi2Fe4O9 in organic pollutants removal (up to 97% of methylene blue (MB) removal in 30 min under visible-light irradiation) through ternary collaboration among Bi2Fe4O9, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The challenges, such as mass transfer of pollutants in water treatment, recombination of electrons/holes and interconversion between Fe(III) and Fe(II) states within Bi2Fe4O9, could be addressed effectively. The resulting samples (i.e., Bi2Fe4O9/Ag/rGO, Bi2Fe4O9/Ag and Bi2Fe4O9) were characterized by various techniques and their differences in physical and chemical properties were investigated. Meanwhile, their applications in organic pollutants removal were assessed via photo-Fenton oxidation and photocatalysis under visible-light irradiation. The findings demonstrate the individual functions of AgNP (i.e., electrical conduction, enhanced interconversion of Fe(III)/Fe(II)) and rGO (i.e., anti-recombination of electrons/holes, enhanced mass transfer of organic pollutants) within the Bi2Fe4O9/Ag/rGO composite. The schematic illustration of the mechanism of organic pollutants removal using the multi-functional Bi2Fe4O9/Ag/rGO is proposed.

Biography:

E Igumbor is a PhD student at the department of Physics, University of Pretoria, South Africa. By 2016, he will be in his final year. He is a young scinetist and has published 2 articles in the course of his PhD.

Abstract:

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of XGe (X = Be, Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba) defects in germanium using the Heyd, Scuseria, and Ernzerhof hybrid functional were performed. The band structures and density of states calculations of the pristine Ge and XGe were presented. The formation energy of charges states −2, −1, 0, +1, and +2 and thermodynamic transition levels were calculated for the XGe . Among the XGe, the MgGe has the lowest formation energy. The XGe introduced deep transition levels in the band gap of Ge. Except the BaGe without double donor level, other XGe displayed the properties of both the double donor and acceptor levels. XGe exhibit the properties of negative−U.

Biography:

Dr. Xiang Zhang, the Royal Society Industry Fellow at University of Cambridge, is one of the leading biomaterials and medical devices experts in the world with combined academia (for 17 years) and industry (for 15 years) experiences. He constantly carries out fundamental but applied research and believes that fundamental research and understanding on scientific issues is the key to develop successful product for industry to benefit the society. Dr. Zhang undertook his PhD and postdoctoral research at Cranfield University where he studied materials physics of hybrid (organic and inorganic) materials. After spending a further four years on research for industrial applications, he was awarded an industrial fellowship at the University of Cambridge in 1995. Dr. Zhang’s industry experience was gained at Abbott in 1999, where, as Principal Scientist, his work covered almost all aspects of medical materials and devices from R&D and manufacturing. Further industrial experiences were gained with Cambridge NanoTech and Lucideon as Consultant Director and Principal Consultant.

Abstract:

Bare Metal Stents (BMS) and Drug Eluting Stents (DES) are the established technologies in cardiovascular therapy. There are, however, clinical complications associated with these technologies, such as, early stage restenosis, very late thrombosis and risk associated with revision surgery. In light of these challenges research focus has turned to the development of bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) technologies. Abbott has developed one PLLA biodegradable polymeric stent that is made from PLLA. One drawback of the PLLA is brittle because its glass transition is about 65 C. To overcome the problem, we firstly toughened PLLA then reinforce the materials by employing resorbable bioglass. Through a systematic study involving 14 organisations, we have successfully developed a family of toughened and reinforced polyesters with controlled degradation rate. This presentation will report the development of a reinforced resorbable therapeutic cardiovascular stent application to address the known limitations of cardiovascular technologies. We aim to deliver a bioresorbable stent with intrinsic toughness for handling and deployment via balloon angioplasty, radial strength, controlled drug-release technology to suppress restenosis and surface functionalisation to promote endothelialisation to reduce risk of thrombosis. We present the novel synthetic polymer-glass composites developed as candidate stent-core materials and describe both their preparation and the characterisation of their mechanical behaviour, in vitro degradation and cytocompatibility.

Biography:

Ignacio Martin-Gullon received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alicante in 1995, involved with adsorbent carbons. He worked thereafter as a Research Postdoc Associate in the University of Kentucky in the carbon fiber topic. In 1998, he moved to industry position as a R&D product development engineer in NORIT NV (now Cabot Corp), in Amersfoort (Netherlands). Finally, he came back to the University Alicante as a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department. He has written over 70 scientific papers in high-impact journals, in nanotechnology, material science, environmental and energy engineering. He was de advisor of 8 PhD students. He did a recent sabbatical period in the Pennsylvania State University. He is project evaluator in different programs, related to material science and technology. Very recently, he co-founded the spin-off company Applynano Solutions, to develop customized solutions to specialized SME based on nanomaterials on polymers.

Abstract:

This contribution analyzes the influence of functional groups on the surface of graphene oxide surface chemistry on its ability to reinforce an epoxy-carbon fiber system. We have reported a simple method to remove most of the oxidative debris from the as produced graphene oxide (aGO) sample, through an alkaline post-treatment, which yields sheets of higher size and lower oxygen content than parent graphene oxide, hence high size and partially reduced GO (prGO). Both GO and prGO fillers were incorporated in an epoxy matrix, and the mechanical properties of the nanocomposites and vaccumm infused carbon fiber laminates were studied. Nanocomposite results indicated that prGO offered better increases in flexural stiffness and flexural strength than aGO, but same results in mode I fracture toughness. On the other hand, prGO performed considerably better in both tensile and mode-I interlaminar fracture toughness. The fracture energy required for the onset of mode I interlaminar delamination was enhanced by 31% and 60% by adding 0.2wt.% of aGO and prGO, respectively, covering positively the entire range of crack growth. The effect of adding graphene oxide of larger average sheet size and lower oxygen surface chemistry, i.e. with partial elimination of the oxidative debris, allows a direct chemical bonding when curing step between oxygen complexes of clean and large sheets and the resin, improving the reinforcement efficiency.

Biography:

Thaddeus Strusinski has completed his Masters in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute In Troy NY. He is a Welding Materials and Process Expert for gas turbine components. He has worked as a Journeyman Welder for 6 years prior to college, and is capable of performing his own weld trials. With 30 years as an Engineer he has experiences at GE, Mitsubishi, Liburdi and Siemens, solving gas turbine alloy welding challenges.

Abstract:

Gas Turbine hot gas path components use highly alloyed Nickle and Cobalt castings (i.e. CM-247, IN-738, IN-939, Rene-80, GTD-111, MGA-1400, ECY-768, MAR-M 509, etc). The alloying elements such as Al, W, C, Ti, & Ta used in these alloys increase the difficulty of achieving good castings and good welds. Siemens has been improving the gas tubine by incorporating ALLOY- 247LC into the blade design. ALLOY-247LC, a gamma prime strengthened nickle based superalloy, has been quite a challenge with which to qualify welding processes. High strength nickle based superalloys can be very expensive to produce into weld fillers. Typically, with minimum lot sizes, these weld filler alloy costs can approach $200,000 USD. And the final mechanical properties studies verifying appropriateness of alloy systems can approach $1,000,000 USD. An upfront selection process is needed to reduce these developmental investments. This presentation uses a Six Sigma Tool to compare and down select 15 potential candidates of weld filler alloys specifically for Alloy-247LC. This is a novel way of looking at the mechanical and physical properties of superalloys from a “survive the weld and post weld heat treatment” strategy. This technique reduces the number of experiments and focuses on the top two down selected weld filler candidates.

Biography:

Micó-Vicent B has completed her PhD from Politecnic University of Valencia. She has been working as Statistical Professor in the Politecnic University of Valencia since 2012, and as Investigator Personal in the Colour and Vision Gropup in the synthesis of hybrid nanopigments. She has published two patents on the performance of optimal nanopigments.

Abstract:

Biopolymers do not have competitive prices, which has prevented their industrial exploitation on a global scale so far. In this context, using nanoclays, improvements in certain biopolymer properties, mainly mechanical and thermal, have been achieved. However, research has been much less focused on changing optical properties through the incorporation of nanoclays. At the same time, current research has focused on obtaining nanopigments, by organic dyes adsoptions into different nanoclays in order to achieve sustainable colouring and high performance materials. By combining advances in these lines of research, biodegradable composites with optimal mechanical and optical properties can be obtained. The aim of this work is to find the optimal formulation of naturally sourced nanopigments, incorporate them into a biological origin epoxy resin, and obtain a significant improvement in their mechanical, and optical properties. We combine three structural modifiers in the nanopigment synthesis: surfactant, silane and mordant salt. The latter was selected in order to replicate the mordant textile dyeing with natural dyes. Using a Taguchi’s desing L8, we look for the effect of the presence of the modifiers, the pH acidification, and the interactions effect between the synthesis factors. Three natural dyes were selected: chlorophyll, beta-carotene, and beetroot extract. Furthermore we use two kinds of laminar nanoclays, differentiated by the ion exchange charge: montmorillonite, and hydrotalcite. Then the thermal, mechanical and colorimetric characterization of the bionanocomposite materials was carried out. The optimal conditions to obtain the best bionanocomposite materials are using acid pH, and modifying the nanoclays with mordant and surfactant.

Biography:

Harshal D Santan completed his PhD in 2014 from a joint program of Berlin Brandenburg School of Regenerative Therapies and Institute of Biomaterial Science (HZG) Berlin. The work of PhD was mainly related to the functionalization of biopolymers, preparation of thermosensitive hydrogels and 3D-scaffolds, and investigation of effect of hydrogel network structure on the mechanical properties and degradation. From November 2014, he is working as a Marie Curie Postdoc at the University of Huelva, Spain, (ISSFLOW project) on synthesis and characterization of adhesives based on renewable sources and preparation of hydrophobic rheology modifiers for industrial applications.

Abstract:

In this work, we studied the effect of chemical modification of castor oil (CO) based polyurethane (PU) adhesives, once included bio and synthetic polymer on the adhesiveness. In detail, two different adhesives were prepared by chemical functionalization of castor oil by adding gelatin (0.5-1.5 wt%) and poly(ethylene oxide-b-propylene oxide-b-ethylene oxide) (PEPE) (5 and 10 wt%) using hexamenthylene diisocyanate (HMDI) as a crosslinker. These adhesives were cured at room temperature and the curing process was followed by using ATR-FT IR spectroscopy to check the presence of –NCO groups during the curing. In addition, the mechanical properties were anlalyzed by performing rheological measurements before and after curing of these adhesives. The adhesiveness of the system was measured by performing tack tests by using smooth plateplate geometries with different initial gap (0.1 and 0.5 mm) and by applying different debonding velocities (1 to 5 mm/sec) and then the adhesion energies were calculated. The chemical functionalization of CO-based adhesives by gelatin and PEPE has induced a dramatic enhancement in adhesivesness. Moreover, the gelatin based CO adhesives have shown highest adhesiveness due to the ability of gelatin to form triple helices, which can also contribute to enhance the adhesiveness. However, an excessive increase in the amount of geltin (>1.5 wt%) and PEPE (>10 wt%) in the composition, yields a decrease in adhesiveness. Thus, the adhesiveness of the system was tunable by varying the amount of gelatin and PEPE in the composition. Moreover, these adhesives were found to be degradable in presence of emzyme.

Biography:

Abeer Salah has completed her PhD from Cairo University. her PhD is concered with nonlinear characterization of different nanomaterials nia Z scan technique,we are intersted in optical characterization of materials through studying thier transmission, photoluminescence, absorption,etc.

Abstract:

Thermo optical switching (TOS) transmission of paraffin wax hosting different concentration of powder Graphite or Graphene was examined. Two series of graphite/paraffin wax and graphene/paraffin wax were studied. In the composite, paraffin wax was used as a Phase Change Material (PCM) while Graphite or Graphene used to enhance thermal properties of paraffin wax. Due to large particle size of graphite, dispersing toluene into paraffin wax graphite composites was done. Optical mimcroscopy were used in characterize the microstructure of the composite. It is found that graphene/paraffin wax and graphite/paraffin wax dispersed in toluene have a homogenous distribution while samples without toluene have agglomeration and precipitation at the bottom of the tube. TOS transmission versus time and temperature are measured by using test tube with inner diameter 11 mm for bulk composites. Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) was measured for the prepared samples. The melting temperature, latent heat of fusion, heat gained and heat lost of paraffin wax-graphite or graphene composites were determined. The melting temperature of Paraffin wax hosting graphite without toluene is close to those of pure paraffin wax. The melting temperature, latent heat, heat gained and heat loss of two phase transitions measured from DSC for paraffin wax-graphite composite dispersed in toluene decrease as graphite to paraffin wax ratios increase. DSC for paraffin wax-graphene composite shows that, the temperature is affected gradually as the graphene content increase, the sample of high graphene concentration (0.007) shows strongly decrease of the melting temperature, latent heat, and heat gained and heat lost. TOS transmission of paraffin wax hosting graphite or graphene is studied under electric heating, lowering the switching temperature (Ti), saturation temperature (Tf) and the corresponding time for these transitions are observed for graphene. theses are due to the high thermal conductivity of graphene over that of graphite. The sharp enhancement of lowering the time needed for switching for paraffin wax-graphene composites is due to high thermal conductivity 5000 W/m°C while the thermal conductivity of graphite 440 W/m°C. This measurement supports the using of paraffin wax (PCM) hosting carbon fillers as Thermo Optical sensing material for Thermo Optical Switching (TOS) device applications.

Biography:

Deepalekshmi Ponnamma has completed her PhD from Deakin University, Australia and at present working as a Postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University. Her research in the field of polymer nanocomposites (among other topics) has been published in international journals and book contributions, and has been awarded at several international conferences with best poster and oral presentation awards. She has published more than 15 papers in reputed journals and 13 book chapters in different books. She has also edited 6 books.

Abstract:

Electronic industry has been moving to a new phase with the invention of polymer nanocomposites. Large number of polymers and their composites containing nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, reduced graphene oxide, metal nanoparticles as well as their hybrid and functionalized derivatives are being used in manufacturing sensors, actuators, piezoelectric devices, capacitors and so on. Here in this work, sensors made of polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF) and its nanocomposites containing metal nanoparticles and its hybrid cobinations with nanocarbon materials are investigated. The metal nanoparticles are synthesized by followith hydrothermal method and the final composites are made by simple solution casting. The use of polymers in fabricating light weight and flexible electronic parts will be mainly focussed; and this piece of work aims to have tremendous applications in technology and engineering.

Biography:

Murtaza Najabat Ali is a Biomedical Engineer by profession and completed his BSc in Biomedical Engineering from University of Engineering & Technology (UET) Taxila Pakistan. He completed his MSc in Biomedical engineering from Brunel University. As part of his MSc academic program, he completed a research project entitled “Appraisal of the efficacy and effectiveness of Auxetic structures configured as endovascular implant relevant to the palliative treatment of oesophageal cancer”. After completing his MSc, he worked as a Project Director at National Engineering & Scientific Commission (NESCOM) Pakistan, and setup a dedicated coronary stent manufacturing unit for coronary heart disease application which entailed design, manufacturing, mechanical testing (in vitro pulsatile fatigue testing and in vivo animal study), standardization of the production unit and CE Marking. He did his PhD from the University of Sheffield. He worked for Kroto Research Institute University of Sheffield in the position of Post-Doctorate Research Assistant for the pilot project which has been funded by the Research and Innovation Department University of Sheffield.

Abstract:

For achieving additional benefits and improving the material characteristics two or more materials are often combined together in the form of composites. Composites are important because of their light weight, high strength and flexibility of design. Composite materials provide various advantages based on their particulate or fibrous nature and on the basis of individual qualities of the constituting elements of the composites. Besides the multiplied benefits achieved with the composite materials, they being composed of two different materials exhibit greater challenges and biocompatibility threats which need to be addressed while developing a composite material. A structural composite of bio-absorbable nature is developed using a polymeric material and metal particles. The composite material so developed would provide altered strength and flexibility, better than the individual constituting materials for use in various biomedical devices and would eventually degrade on subject to exposure to the physiological environment. The two different varieties of the composite have been developed using metal particles and metal salt and they have been tested for their tensile, degradation and drug release properties, which have been found satisfactory for use of the composite in various biomedical devices and drug release applications.

Biography:

Alfonso Jiménez completed his PhD in Chemistry (1996) and is working as a Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry and Food Science and Technology in the University of Alicante (Spain) from 2001. He is the Head of the Polymer and Nanomaterials Analysis Group. He is the editor of 17 books on polymer degradation, stabilization and more recently on biodegradable and sustainable composites. He is the author of 125 research papers published in journals of analytical chemistry, food technology and polymer science. The main research areas are, environmentally-friendly additives in polymers, characterization of biodegradable polymers and sustainable composites, modification of PLA for flexible films manufacturing, and valorization of agro-food waste.

Abstract:

The need to both avoid waste and find new renewable resources has led to a new and promising research avenue: The use of food supply chain waste (FSC) as a renewable biorefinery feedstock. Residues produced by the FSC contain valuable functionalised molecules, such as flavonoids, waxes, biopolymers, fatty acids or lignocellulosic materials with potential to be used as chemicals to be used as bioadditives and building blocks for biopolymers. The main current uses of the food supply chain, agricultural and forestry residues are low value-added, mainly meeting needs that concern farming activities (bed and feed for livestocks), soil fertilization and compensation (composting) or energetic requirements (pellets for combustion). These uses do not cover the real potential of this feedstock from technologic and profitability points of view. The incorporation of natural additives in a variety of commercialized products depicts the current trend for the limitation of the use of synthetic substances. Many industrial sectors are currently focused on the utilization of functional biomolecules in order to offer advance, more economic and more eco-friendly products. Due to their abundance and renewability, there has been a great deal of interest in utilizing lignocellulosic wastes for the production and recovery of many value-added products such as nanocellulose. This presentation will give a general overview of the current situation of the valorization of FSC to yield high value biomaterials with potential in key industrial sectors, such as food packaging, biomedical, nutraceutical food, cosmetics and many others.

Biography:

Eduardo Favret is currently a research scientist at the Institute of Soils, National Institute for Agricultural Technology (INTA) and a scientist of the National Council on Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). He obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Buenos Aires and did a postdoctoral training in laser structuring of materials at the University of Saarbrücken, Germany. He edited the book “Functional Properties of Bio-inspired Surfaces: Characterization and Technological Applications”, World Scientific Publishing Co, 2010. His research interests are in the field of nanotechnology, biomimetics, soil physics, metallography and archaeology

Abstract:

Recently, biomimetics has opened a fruitful field of investigation for engineering solutions. It is known that the phenomenon of adherence of soil to solid surfaces of the components of agricultural machinery increases the required drawing force as well as energy consumption of machinery, decreasing the quality of work. To overcome the adhesion of soil to solid surfaces of the components of agricultural machinery, scientists propose to apply biomimetic principles and characteristics of soil fauna for designing such surfaces. The animals that inhabit the soil move without the soil sticking to them, because of their geometric shapes, hydrophobicity, micro-electro-osmotic systems, lubrication and flexibility of the cuticle surface. The physicochemical, mechanical and geometric features of those species can be used for the design of materials and structures of agricultural tools. The present research work addresses this problem by modifying the surface topography of the body involved in an agricultural tool based on the micro-topography of the cuticle of the Diloboderus abderus beetle (female), as well as discussing new topographic patterns based on the self-cleaning cuticle of springtails (Collembola). The macro and micro surface topography proposed for the tool is effective to decrease the adherence of soil to the surface of the agricultural tools with a noticeable and significant reduction in the traction force and an increased capacity of penetration of the tool, due to replacement of soil-soil friction with soil-metal friction. This has a deep ecological and economic impact resulting from saving fuel and labor time.

Biography:

Radames J B Cordero has completed his MS in Biochemistry and PhD in Biophysics from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. As a Young Talent Attraction Scholar at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, he continued his doctorate work on the physicochemical properties of microbial capsules and extraceullar vesicles. Currently, he studies fungal melanin in the laboratory of Dr. Arturo Casadevall at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He has published more than 27 papers in reputed.

Abstract:

Melanins are pigments found in most, if not all, life forms. In biology, melanins are related to function in photoprotection, camouflage, antioxidant, metal chelators, drug resistance, and virulence. These insoluble and amorphous substances are also attractive because of their unique physicochemical properties, including a broad-band UV-Visible optical absorption and the ability to conduct/store electrical charge depending on the water content. Studies from our laboratory demonstrated that melanized fungi can harness chemical energy by capturing high-energy electromagnetic radiation and act as a thermal insulator, protecting cells against heat and cold stress. This research project began evaluating the role of melanin on thermoregulation in the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans; an ideal model since it can generate different pigments depending on exogenous precursor (ie. L-Dopa, dopamine, epinephrine). We initiate our studies by monitoring the apparent temperature differences of L-Dopa pigmented versus non-pigmented C. neoformans communities using infrared imaging. Our data shows that melanized fungal material exhibit slower dissipation of heat when switch from a hot to a cold environment and different apparent temperatures following irradiation with microwave or infrared frequencies, even in the absence of water. These results suggest that melanin alters the heat absorbtion/release of fungal material, and, consistent with the theory of thermal melanism in ectotherms, melanization can provide a mechanism by which microorganisms can regulate their absolute temperatures in response to thermal and/or radiation changes in their environment.

Biography:

Abstract:

A buccal delivery system provides a much milder environment for drug delivery compared to an oral delivery which presents a hostile environment for drugs, especially proteins and polypeptides, owing to acid hydrolysis. Local delivery in an oral cavity has particular applications in the treatment of toothaches, periodontal disease, and bacterial infections. Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)-based hydrogels prepared using a chemical initiator have been attempted for a mucoadhesive system owing to their flexibility and excellent bioadhesion. In this experiment, PAA and polyethylene glycol (PEG) were selected to prepare using a radiation process a bioadhesive hydrogel for adhesion to mucosal surfaces. PAA and PEG were dissolved in purified water to prepare a homogeneous PAA/PEG solution, and the solution was then irradiated using an electron beam at dose up to 70 kGy to make the hydrogels. Their physical properties, such as gel percent, swelling percent, and adhesive strength to mucosal surfaces, were investigated. In this experiment, various amounts of PEG were incorporated into the PAA to enhance the mucoadhesive property of the hydrogels. The effect of the molecular weight of PEG on the mucoadhesion was also examined.

Biography:

GeXia Wang has completed her PhD from Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC), The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Jan. 2012. She is now assistant research fellow of National Engineering Research Center of engineering plastics in TIPC. She is chiefly engaged in the research on engineering plastics, particularly on polymer powder used in Selective Lase Sintering. She has published more than 9 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Materials technology is currently a great challenge in selective laser sintering (SLS). Because of the lack of new types of material and the high cost of the present polyamide 12(PA12) powder, the development of new method for the preparation of a variety of materials has drawn great attention from both industrial and academic organizations. In this work, we developed a simple strategy to prepare polyamide 12 (PA12) microspheres through a modified phase-separation process. The phase separation was conducted by adding ethanol as a poor solvent into a formic acid solution of PA12 pellets with polyvinyl pyrrolidone as a dispersant. The mean diameters of the obtained PA12 microspheres, ranging from tens to hundreds of micrometers, were well controlled by adjusting the amount of ethanol and the phase separation temperature. Further investigation by differential scanning calorimetry demonstrated that the sintering window for PA12, between the onset temperatures of crystallization and melting, was drastically stretched during the microsphere formation process. Encouragingly, this microsphere preparation method has demonstrated some extent of universality for the preparation of other polymer powders. Microspheres of PA 6 and polystyrene can also be preared using the same strategy when the solvent systems was changed to be acetic acid/ethanol and chloroform/ ethanol, respectively. Therefore, this approach provided an effective method to prepare a large amount of polymer powder and showed significant advantages for commercialization.

Biography:

Víctor Valcarcel has worked for over 20 years in the field of advanced composite materials, being his main focus production of single crystal alumina fibers. He has more than 20 papers in the best journals, with more than 160 citations, and more than 10 patents already commercialized. He has co-invented (together with Dr C. Cerecedo) the innovative VLS deposition of alfa-alumina whiskers. He and Ms Cerecedo have founded Neoker, S.L., the first company introducing this material in the market. Since 2014, he simultaneously work as CTO at Neoker Spain and is the Research Group Leader & Director of the Adv Composites Research Center, Dongguan Tsinghua Innovation Center. His project for scale up of single crystal aluimina fibers was selected in 2013 Pearl River Talent Plan, Guandong Province. The Pearl River Talent Plan was launched in 2009 to provide funding over a period of 10 years for leading international and domestic entrepreneurial innovation teams and individuals to establish innovation platforms in Guangdong Province. The program is open to all outstanding researchers of all nationalities.

Abstract:

High performance advanced composites are mainly used in structural applications, where the main concerns are mechanical performance (stiffness, strength, creep and fatigue resistance), although many other properties can dominate the selection procedure (electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, dielectric properties, etc.). The most suitable variant has to be chosen on the basis of this application-driven “wish list”. Of course, the final properties of a composite will always be determined both by their composition (the matrix and the reinforcing phase) and by their fabrication procedure. When a novel material is employed as a reinforcing phase, conventional fabrication routes will often offer limited possibilities and limited performance, and therefore disruptive sintering strategies are needed to achieve the best potential from such a new composite. The novel single crystal alumina fibers, produced by Neoker, possess a huge potential to be used as a reinforcing phase in high performance composite materials. As an oxide, alumina can offer chemical stability where non-oxides (carbon, carbides, nitrides etc.) are likely to fail. As single crystals, they are defect-free, and as fibers, NKR® big aspect ratio (length/diameter) allows a big increase in the mechanical performance of the composite compared to the bulk material. Here we are presenting our preliminary results, where we have demonstrated that Spark Plasma Sintering is able to overcome the main difficulties of incorporating NKR® fibers in composites, so it can be considered one of the most promising sintering routes for this new family of materials. In this work, different matrix compositions have been combined with different NKR® fiber percentages using SPS route. The use of different coatings has been explored, trying to improve the matrix-fiber interface, thus activating fiber strengthening. Most relevant features of the final composite have been analyzed, focused on density, porosity and mechanical performance (bending strength, toughness etc.). In this work, we have been able to demonstrate that NKR® fibers combined with the SPS route gave rise to composite materials with high densities and homogeneous microstructures, allowing good control of interface properties, and therefore achieving high mechanical performances. This combination of NKR® fibers and SPS route will bring unique opportunities to create new high added value composite materials.

Biography:

Abstract:

For the last two decade, composite materials are increasingly preferred due to the specific modulus and specific strengths at body parts, structural part of aircraft and military systems. Composite materials are sometimes exposed to invisible or visible deformation due to impact loading during service. In this study, the effect of impactors with four different contact surfaces and geometry on carbon fiber reinforced composite plates having three different thicknesses are investigated. At the first stage, for low velocity impact test, FE analysis has been performed in order to determine optimum ply orientations which will give high resistance to full penetration. Later, composite plates were manufactured with the ply orientations of [45/-45/0/90/45/-45]2s, [45/-45/0/90/45/-45]3s, [45/-45/0/90/45/-45]4s based on FE analysis. At the second stage, carbon reinforced composite test panels were exposed to low velocity impact tests to get force-time, energy-time and force-displacement curves. Finally, ballistic limits which give impact energy levels for semi and full penetration of composite panels were determined and verified with numerical analysis.

Biography:

Caterina Lesaint Rusu has completed her Master degree in Chemical Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2012. She has started working as a PhD candidate in March 2014 at the same University, under the supervision of Associate Professor Hilde Lea Lein.

Abstract:

This work aims at improving the resistance of coatings to scratch, impact, wear and chemicals by changing the composition of the composite layer. The latter is currently comprised of a melamine-impregnated layer and ceramic particles. Finding the optimum composition for highest possible scratch resistance is one of the main activities of this study. An important part has been the functionalization of the ceramic particles for securing an optimal adhesion between the particles and the resin matrix. Since mechanical performance of a composite material strongly depends on the properties of the filler–matrix interface and, in particular, on the level of adhesion between the matrix and the reinforcing filler, coupling agents have been added to promote interfacial adhesion and improve the properties of the composites. In addition, the position of the particles in the coating layer has been varied. Coatings have been manufactured and tested. It was expected that an optimal particle distribution and adhesion will increase the scratch resistance of the structure. The analyses have shown that the chemical wear of the coating was better with small ceramic particles and high amount of hardener. Additionally, the impact resistance was significantly improved with small particles and high amount of hardener. The correct thickness and curing state of the coating, considering the best parameters for the different layers in the structure, is assessed.

Biography:

P Cerchier has completed his Master’s degree in Material Engineering from Padova University and he is now in his second year of PhD in Material Engineering at Padova University.

Abstract:

Among the different applications of aluminum alloys, a very particular one is in medical field, as they can be used in external prosthetic devices, surgical try-ins, instruments and other tools. For this kind of application it is necessary the simultaneous presence of both corrosion resistance and antibacterial activity. PEO is a relatively new treatment derived from conventional anodizing that uses more environmental friendly solutions and produces a thick, dense and hard oxide ceramic coating which improves wear and corrosion properties of lightweight metals. Furthermore, silver micrometric particles can be incorporated in the PEO coating to provide a bactericide effect. Several mechanisms of interaction between silver and bacteria have been proposed: probably the bacterial cells in contact with silver take in silver ions, which inhibit several functions in the cell and eventually cause cell death. In this work, PEO coatings were produced on AA7075 using basic solution containing silicates compounds, with different operative conditions. The particles of silver, previous synthesized from silver chloride solution using glucose syrup as reducing agent, were both added to the PEO solution and used for sealing treatment. In an optic of cycle economy, the silver chloride used derived from an acid pre-treatment of electronic scraps. The coatings obtained were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD, potentiodynamic anodic polarization test and antimicrobial tests. The results showed that the coatings formed were homogenous with higher corrosion resistance than untreated alloy and with biocide effect.

Biography:

Catarina Pinho graduated from the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in Materials Engineering with focus on Biomaterials, in 2012. Currently, she is doing her PhD in Advanced Materials and Processing – AdvaMTech- between the University of Coimbra and the Univeristy of Oporto, Portugal. Her research work deals with the development of new polymers to be used in peripheral nerve regeneration.

Abstract:

Since the end of the XIX century, different strategies concerning peripheral nerve regeneration have been reported. As this pathology is very common, several techniques have been used to achieve functional recovery of the nerve. The use of guidance tubes or nerve conduits which are sutured to both extremities of the injured nerve has been the approach showing the most promising results. The aim of this work is to prepare a polymeric guide-tube able to solve, or mitigate, the problems presented by some commercial products with FDA clearance. In this work, dextran was chosen as the polymeric material to prepare the guide-tube. Dextran is widely used in biomedical applications due to its inherent biocompatibility and due to the easiness in tailoring its properties by chemical modifications. For the purpose of this work, different formulations based on dextran were prepared and the materials were submitted to in vitro and in vivo tests to access their biocompatibility (NP EN ISO 10993- Biologic evaluation of biomedical devices). Preliminary results indicate that these materials are non-cytotoxic and do not elicit any acute inflammatory response when implanted in vivo, meaning that the dextran based materials can be safely used in biomedical applications, namely in peripheral nerve regeneration.

Biography:

Muhammad Farhan Khan is a KTP research associate at IISE University of Derby. He has a background in mechanical engineering. Before joining Derby University he has worked on structural design optimisation of a medical device at the Universit of Nottingham where he was a member of the additive manufacturing and 3D printing research group (AM3DPRG). He holds a masters degree in engineering from Loughborough University.

Abstract:

The performance of polyamide lattices with electro-depositied metal is evaluated. This is achieved by irreversable compaction of the structures involved in the investigation. The versatility of additive manufacturing is utilised in order to fabricate the lattices. It is demonstrated that metal coating of polymer lattices could significantly improve their compression properties. This methodology could provide new opportunities in terms of light weight energy absorbing structures in a wide variety of applications.

Biography:

Somen K Bhudolia received his MSc in Aerospace Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and Technical University of Munich, Germany (Joint Degree Program). He is currently pursuing a joint industrial PhD at NTU on Thin Ply thermoplastic Composites for Sports Applications. To date he has presented 8 conference papers and has 3 journal publications. His research interests are – design, fabrication and testing of advance composite materials, thermoplastics, thin ply NCFs, microwave curing of composites, NDT and fatigue analysis.

Abstract:

In the ever-growing world of material innovation, carbon composites are fast becoming a tremendous solution for aerospace, automotive, marine and offshore, sports and many other applications seeking high specific properties. An ample amount of attention is being given in choosing the right mix of fibres and matrix system to achieve an optimal composite system in terms of quality, mechanical properties as well as long term durability. In current research, a novel thin Ply thermoplastic composite system has been developed. Thin bi -angle C-Ply (<150 g/m2) has been used as a reinforcement while a reactive processing liquid thermoplastic Elium rein was a chosen matrix material. The manufacturing of composite system was carried out using cost effective Vacuum assisted resin infusion (VARI) and light resin transfer moulding process. The manufacturing process has been optimised and the mechanical properties (in and out of plane) were characterised. Mechanical tests are followed by detailed failure mode studies to understand the fner nuiances of the difference in varuious laminate configurations. The Elium resin was found to be an competitive solution to epoxy resin in tensile and flexure properties while it offers significant improvement in out of plane properties like fracture toughness. The results of developed Thin-Ply thermoplastic composite system composite are indeed promising and has a potential to be a perfect material for mass production processes utilizing cost effective liquid injection techniques.

Biography:

Hybrid composites typically have a fiber or particle phase that is stiffer and stronger than the continuous matrix phase and serve as the principal load carrying members. The matrix acts as a load transfer medium between fibers, and in less ideal cases where the loads are complex, the matrix may even have to bear loads transversed to the fiber axis. In this research, the comparative synthesis and analysis of kenaf fiber and polymer fibers are treated with NaOH solution and the fibers are properly reinforced with polypropylene resin and epoxy resin respectively in a matrix form to prepare hybrid composite laminates of 6 mm thicknesses. Thereafter work is done to determine the mechanical properties like flexural strength or flexural modulus, tensile strength, tensile modulus and compressive strength with suitable specimens with ASTM standards. The anylysis is done in the Ansys 10.0 for various load and result factors. So the matrix also serves to protect the fibers from environmental damage before, during and after composite processing. When designed properly, the new combined material exhibits better strength than each individual material. Composites are used not only for their structural properties, but also for electrical, thermal, and eco-friendly environmental applications.

Abstract:

Kranthi Kumar Guduru, Assistant Professor in Mechanical engineering department at Chtistu Jyothi Intitute of Technology and Science-Warangal, India. He has a PhD degree along with a Master of Technology in CAD/CAM. He also has 5 years of teaching experiance, is life member of Indian society for technical education, published 10 papers in international conferences and journals including IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Madaras in the area of materials and metallurgy, designed one experiment in thermal engineering and has the knowledge of computer programming used in his research work. His research work is mostly on natural fiber composite which are eco friendly and easily biodegradable in manufacturing.

Biography:

This research was completed in the lab of Dr. Miriam H. Rafailovich. Dr. Rafailovich completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Stony Brook in 1980. Since then, Dr. Rafailovich has co-authored over 150 publications, filed several patents, and received numerous awards and recognition. She is currently the director of the Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces, SUNY Stony Brook. Arvind Sridhar, a high school Junior from California, and Kevin Sadhu, a high school Senior from New York, will be presenting this work on behalf of the entire team.

Abstract:

As the fields of tissue engineering and drug delivery move closer to clinical applications, challenges of engineering inexpensive scaffolds with biomimetic properties persist. To address these issues, previous studies have synthesized water-swollen, cross-linked hydrogels; however, the gels’ weak mechanical properties limited their viability. The discovery of versatile nanoscale graphene oxide (nGO) has opened up avenues for hydrogels to overcome these limitations and demonstrate enhanced structural stability, biocompatibility and physiological viability. This study engineered cross-linked, nGO-doped gelatin hydrogels and characterized them through rheology, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, contact angle and thermogravimetric analysis. The nGO-doped hydrogels exhibited a stiffer structure (~17.9 kPa elastic modulus) with increased biocompatibility and water retention capacity. Then, nGO was observed to selectively suppress the growth of cancerous (Squamous Cell Carcinoma) keratinocytes, and the nGO-doped hydrogels showed potential as drug delivery vehicles for selective and localized cancer therapy. Additionally, the gels both supported the growth and proliferation of normal keratinocytes and prevented dermal fibroblasts from adhering, indicating their ability to serve as anti-fibrotic tissue engineering scaffolds. Finally, the gels were applied as drug delivery vehicles and exhibited enhanced loading and sustained release of curcumin, a potent therapeutic known to combat a range of cancers, infections, and inflammation. Ultimately, this study proposed nGO-doped gelatin hydrogels as easy-to-synthesize and cost-effective vectors for novel scaffold-based disease therapy, with the potential to overcome the issues faced by current treatment practices.

Biography:

In 1987, Josep Vives received his Ph.D. in chemical from University Autònoma de Barcelona. For last 30 years, he is working in surface treatment processes in several companies: Diversey (Novamax) , Chemetall and Proquimia. He has worked in processes on aluminum, cold roll steel, galvanized steel, …. prior to paint for architectural, car body, and general industry. Last years, in Proquimia, he has developed several R&D projects concerning new treatments based on nanoceramics coatings.

Abstract:

Last century, the state of the art of surface treatment prior to paint was the phosphating process. This has undergone continuous improvement and is nowadays still used on all relevant materials. Nevertheless, phosphating process has serious drawbacks: high amount of sludge is generated which needs to be removed and disposed of as special waste; large volume of water and great expense of energy. Proquimia has been working for the last years on new environmentally friendly treatments. These new processes which work at room temperature do not yield sludge. They use the technology of Liquid Phase Deposition to get ceramic coats on metal surface. The coat which is uniform and thin, 50-200 nm, can be based on zirconium oxide, zirconium phosphate, or a binary zirconium, calcium or manganese phosphate depending on the metal to treat and the properties required. Actually new developments and projects involve amphiphilic silanes as precursor of the nanocoats. In this case, the technology used to get the coat is sol-gel and does not content any metal.

Biography:

Hanumantha Rao Kota obtained his BSc in 1971 from Andhra Christian College, Guntur, at Andhra University and his MSc and PhD degrees in Applied Chemistry from the Faculty of Engineering at Jabalpur University, in 1974 and 1980, respectively. He worked at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad; Government Engineering College, Rewa; Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar, before joining the Division of Mineral Processing of Luleå University of Technology in Sweden in 1985. He became Docent and Full Professor in Mineral Processing at the Luleå University of Technology in 1992 and 2003, respectively. He has authored more than 165 scientific papers published in various international peer-reviewed high-impact journals and conference proceedings.

Abstract:

Recent studies reveal the formation of reactive, oxidizing oxygen species and H2O2 by sulfides interacting with water due to the catalytic activity of sulfide surfaces. The formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) by sulfide minerals during grinding was investigated by us1-5. It was found that pyrite (FeS2), chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), sphalerite (ZnS), and galena (PbS), which are the most abundant sulfide minerals on Earth, generated H2O2 in pulp liquid during wet grinding in the presence and absence of dissolved oxygen in water and also when the freshly ground solids were placed in water immediately after dry grinding. Pyrite generated more H2O2 than the other sulphide minerals and the order of H2O2 production by the minerals was found to be pyrite > chalcopyrite > sphalerite > galena. The amount of H2O2 formed also increases with increasing sulfide mineral loading and grinding time due to increased surface area and its interaction with water. The sulfide surfaces are highly catalytically active due to surface defects capable of breaking down the water molecule leading to hydroxyl free radicals. The type of grinding medium on formation of hydrogen peroxide by pyrite revealed that the mild steel produced more H2O2 than stainless steel grinding medium, where Fe2+ and/or Fe3+ ions played a key role in producing higher amounts of H2O2. The results of the amount of H2O2 production corroborate with the rest potential of the sulfide minerals; higher the rest potential, more is the formation of H2O2. Most likely H2O2 is responsible for the oxidation of sulfide minerals and dissolution of non-ferrous metal sulfides in the presence of ferrous sulfide besides the galvanic interactions reported in the literature. Studies have also been carried out to build correlation between percentage of pyrite in the concentrate, grinding conditions and concentration of OH•/ H2O2 in the pulp and as well of controlling the formation of these species through known chemical means for depressing the generation of the oxidant. The results demonstrate that the selectivity of metal sulphides against pyrite increases with increasing generation of H2O2 in the pulp liquid. These studies highlight the necessity of revisiting the electrochemical and/or galvanic interactions between the grinding medium and sulphide minerals, and interaction mechanisms between pyrite and other sulphide minerals in terms of their flotation behaviour, leaching and environmental degradation in the context of inevitable H2O2 existence in the pulp liquid.

Biography:

Yuko S Yamamoto is growing as a spectroscopist particularly based on Raman spectroscopy and plasmon-enhanced spectroscopy. She studied chemistry and completed PhD (2011) from Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan. After Post-doctoral work at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan), she received the research fellowship for young scientists position of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in Kagawa University, Japan (2014). Her specialties are Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Her current research interests are single-molecule spectroscopy based on SERS, Tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) and surface-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (SE-CARS).

Abstract:

Plasmonics, which is a new branch of photonics, is based on the interaction of light with surface plasmon in nanostructured free-electron-rich metallic structures. Surface plasmon is a collective excitation of the electrons within the conduction band of a metal. Localized surface plasmon resonances occurring in metallic nanoparticles generates confined light fields, which enables enhancement of Raman scattering and nonlinear processes. Enhancement of signal amplification by localized surface plasmon was first discovered as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS, in 1974) then made another techniques, tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS, in 2000) and surface-enhanced coherent anti-stokes Raman scattering (SE-CARS, in 1994). These three types of plasmon-enhanced vibrational spectroscopies have certain potential for the detection of any types of molecules at single-molecule level along with refinement of metallic nanostructures, however, only few specific molecules were reported as target molecules at single-molecule level. In this talk, the reported experiments which already succeeded plasmon-enhanced single-molecule detections using SERS, TERS and SE-CARS will be introduced and what is needed more will be discussed for universal detection of molecules using plasmon-enhanced single-molecule spectroscopy.

Biography:

Devki N Talwar graduated from Allahabad University in India in 1976 with a PhD degree in Condensed Matter Physics. From 1977-80, he worked as a Visiting Scientist at the Commissariat a’l Energie Atomic, Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France with Professor M. Vandevyver. While at Saclay he collaborated with theoretical /experimental group of Professor M. Balkanski, including Karel Kunc, M. Zigone, and G. Martinez and supervised 3 PhD theses. In January 1980, he joined the Physics Department, University of Houston as a Visiting Professor and collaborated with Professor C. S. Ting on problems related to the electronic properties of defects in Semiconductors and supervised a PhD student. From 1982-87, he was a faculty at Texas A&M University. He joined the Physics Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1987, supervised 20 MS theses. Since 2007-2014, he served as a Chairperson of the Physics Department.

Abstract:

Comprehensive results of theoretical calculations are reported to probe the optical, phonon, thermal and defect properties of 3C-SiC/Si (001). By exploiting Raman scattering (RS) spectroscopy we have recently recognized amongst the conventional optical modes (~794 cm-1, 973 cm-1) in 3C-SiC, two extra phonons near ~ 625 cm-1 and 670 cm-1– possibly falling between the forbidden gap of the acoustic and optical branches. Accurate assessments of the lattice dynamical, thermal and defect properties are achieved by exploiting phonons from a rigid-ion model fitted to the inelastic x-ray scattering data and expending apposite group-theoretical selection rules. Lattice relaxations around Si/C atoms attained by the first-principles bond-orbital model for isolated defects in 3C-SiC has helped us evaluating the necessary force constant variations to construct perturbation matrices for intrinsic “complex-defect-centers”. For a nearest-neighbor “anti-site-pair” CSi–SiC defect, our methodical Greens function simulations of the gap modes have provided not only a strong support to the observed phonon features of DI-center but also afforded validation for a broad band observed near ~ 670 cm-1 in RS experiments.

Biography:

Abstract:

Understanding the action of organic additives on hydrated cement phases is essential to develop novel admixtures and alternative cements with low carbon footprint. Due to the indirect nature of available experimental information the true nanoscale morphologies of the hydrated cement surface and its interaction with additives have remained elusive. Atomistic simulations with thoroughly validated PCFF-INTERFACE force field allow the first quantitative insight into the interactions of polyacrylate oligomers containing polyethylene side chains with tobermorite 14 A (h k l) surfaces in the aqueous solution. The results show that the acrylate backbone is more attracted to the surface than to the polyethylene oxide side chains. In particular, we found that carbonate ions of oligomers approach calcium ions on the tobermorite surface to form ion pairs. The adsorption energy on tobermorite facets per mole of acrylate monomer is in the range of 0~4 Kcal/mol. Detailed results for a range of different polymers and tobermorite facets will be reported and potential implications for hydration and setting properties will be discussed.

Biography:

Claudio Cason is at the second year of his PhD and he works in the laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Padua. The PhD project involves the study of the gold alloys and the optimization of the industrial production processes used to make gold chains. All the study was done in collaboration with the goldsmith company Filk S.p.A. He has published 1 paper in reputed journal.

Abstract:

Gold alloys, used in the production of both hollow and solid gold chains, affect the optical and mechanical properties of various gold products because the corrosion resistance and the workability of the chains depend on these properties. It is important that gold alloys with high corrosion resistance do not degrade during the production process. The microstructure of the alloys strongly influences the mechanical properties, which have a key role in both the machinability and quality of the plates. In the present work, different compositions of gold alloys and various industrial deformation processes (annealing and rolling steps) were analyzed and optimized. In particular, the choice of the suited grain refiner is very important to avoid particular unwanted behaviors of the gold alloys. The changing of the production parameters and the compositions of the alloys leads to the formation of different levels of residual stresses within the material, which can generate a variation in the behavior of gold sheets. The microstructures were analyzed by OM and SEM observation, whereas the variation of mechanical properties by micro-hardness test. The residual stresses were evaluated using XRD analysis and the corrosion resistance by potentiodynamic polarization tests. The results showed that a high homogeneity of the microstructure and a suitable recrystallization process, with an increase of the quality of semi-finished products was obtained. Moreover, to improve the weldability of the final chains, a different gold welding alloy with a lower melting point was developed and optimized.

Biography:

L Pezzato is at the third year of his PhD and he works in the laboratory of metallurgy of the department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Padua. He mainly works on corrosion and coatings on light alloys. He has published about 10 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) is a very promising process that can enhance the corrosion and wear resistance by producing a relatively thick, dense and hard oxide ceramic coating on light alloys. The corrosion and wear behaviour of the treated samples strongly depends on some process parameters: current density, voltage, treatment time and electrolyte composition. In particular, the addiction of additives in the electrolyte produces significant changes in the resistance of the obtained coatings. In literature several works can be found concerning the addiction of silicon carbide or graphite particles in PEO coatings, in order to improve the wear resistance on aluminium alloys. However, there is little knowledge regarding the improvement of wear resistance of PEO treated magnesium alloys. In this work, 3g/l of graphite nanoparticles were added to an electrolyte containing sodium phosphates and sodium silicates in order to improve the wear resistance of the coatings produced on AZ91 and AZ80 magnesium alloy. Treatments were conducted at high current densities and short treatment times (two different treatment times were tested). The thickness, the morphology and the composition of the coatings were studied with SEM-EDS and XRD. The wear resistance was analyzed with a tribometer and the corrosion resistance of the samples was studied with potentiodynamic polarization tests and EIS tests. The results showed that the graphite nanoparticles seal the pores that characterize the typical surface of a PEO treated magnesium alloy. This fact produced an improvement both in the corrosion resistance and in the wear resistance.

Biography:

Aybike Nil Olcay has completed her MSc from Izmir Institute of Technology and she continued her Doctoral studies with Prof. Dr. Mehmet Polat at Izmir Institute of Technology.

Abstract:

Elucidating the mechanisms of ultrafiltration for wastewater treatment in the presence of surface active molecules and aggregates: Ultrafiltration (UF) is a pressure-driven process that removes emulsified oils, metal hydroxides, colloids, emulsions, dispersed material and suspended solids from waste water and other solutions. Surfactants are also invariably present in these waste waters, or added intentionally. In this study, methylene blue (MB), a dye widely employed in textile, paper and chemical industries, was chosen as the model contaminant. Surfactants selected were anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), cationic hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and non-ionic ethoxylated octylphenol (TX-100). Surface tension, size, charge, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy and contact angle measurements were conducted to investigate dye-surfactant interactions. Cellulose nitrate filters were employed to determine the effect of these interactions in filtration efficiency. It was aimed to elucidate the effects of the surface active agents on the mechanism and efficiency of ultrafiltration. In general, surfactants decreased the efficiency of MB removal. In the absence of surfactants, the removal efficiency is high, due to the attachment of MB on the negatively charged cellulose nitrate filter. The presence of surfactants in the monomer range had a significant effect on the filtration depending on their charge. In the micellar range, on the other hand, the filtration efficiencies were low for all the surfactants. The interaction between filter surface and the surfactants molecules were found to be as important as those between the filter surface and the contaminant.

Biography:

P Marín is Assistant Professor of Magnetism in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid at the Materials Science Department. She is Researcher of the Instituto de Magnetismo Aplicado (Applied Magnetism Institute) at the same University since 1997. She is the author of more than one hundred scientific publications, in SCI journals and author of 18 patents. Her scientific publications, which have been cited around 2.000 times, combine both basic research and its applications. The outstanding characteristic of her activity has been the ability to combine the results from fundamental research in the field of materials' magnetism with applications, as seen by the large number of patents and contracts with both Spanish and international companies. In 2000, she created Micromag S.L. Company, dedicated to shielding radar. This company has the customer and /or contributors to the Spanish Armada, the French and American and large multinationals. More recently the company has signed a contract with a Southeast Asia country government. She has worked in the Max-Planck Institute, Stuttgart. MASPEC Institute (Parma – Italia), Sheffield University (United Kingdom), IFW Dresden (Germany).

Abstract:

Magnetic amorphous microwires have been extensively investigated in the past two decades. The outstanding soft magnetic properties resulting from amorphous structure and small size make them suitable for a wide application. Their giant-magneto impedance (GMI) behavior has been of much research interest. Recently, these microwires have also been used as precursors for fabricating multifunctional composite materials with electromagnetic functionalities. In this work, we report an experimental study on the microwave modulated scattering intensity for a single Fe2.25Co72.75Si10B15 amorphous metallic microwire. The modulation is driven by applying a bias magnetic field that tunes the magnetic permeability of the ferromagnetic microwire. Furthermore, by using a magnetostrictive microwire, we also demonstrate that the microwave scattering is sensitive to mechanical stresses. In fact, we present a wireless microwave controlled stress sensor. As far as the composites are concerned, the tunable properties specifically refer to magnetic field, stress or temperature dependence of effective microwave permittivity. Composite samples containing magnetic microwires as sensing elements can be irradiated by electromagnetic wave and its response can be characterized by complex effective permittivity in a resonance or relaxation dispersive manner generated by the current distribution, which may depend on the microwire impedance. Due to the existence of GMI effect, the dispersion characteristic of effective permittivity also depends on the external stimuli, such as a magnetic field or stress. The mechanical, magnetic, magneto-impedance and microwave measurements and analyses indicate that our new composites are very promising candidate materials for a variety of self-sensing applications.

Biography:

Vladimir V Rumyantsev is Professor in Nanophysics Department at Donetsk National University (DonNU) and Head of Physics Technology Subdivision at A.A. Galkin Donetsk Institute for Physics and Engineering (DonPhTI). He received PhD in Physics (1988) from DonNU and Dr. Sci. in Solid State Physics (2007) from DonPhTI. He has published more than 200 scientific publications. He is Group Leader of International project in the framework of the European program FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES (2013-2016).

Abstract:

Photonic structures and metamaterials are in the focus of theoretical and experimental interdisciplinary studies, which span laser physics, condensed matter physics, nanotechnology, chemistry and information science. The important features of photonic band-gap structures under discussion are connected with ‘slow’ light, which is one of the promising fundamental physical phenomena that can be explored in the design of various quantum optical storage devices. In particular, the effective reduction of the group velocity demonstrated in the associated optical waveguide resonators. Based on the representations of the ideal photonic structures, the non-ideal systems of this class - polaritonic crystal, which is a set of spatially ordered microcavities containing ultracold atomic clusters, is considered. Moreover, the spatial distribution of cavities (microresonators) is translation invariant, and the atomic subsystem has randomly distributed defects: impurity atomic clusters (quantum dots) or a vacancies. Numerical modeling of dependence of the dispersion of polaritons in this imperfect lattice of associated microresonators on impurity concentration is completed. Using the virtual crystal approximation the analytical expressions for polaritonic frequencies, effective mass and group velocities, as a function of corresponding quantum dots and vacancies concentrations, is obtained. It turned out that even with a small number of vacancies in the lattice (one position for a thousand resonators) weight polaritons increases by three orders of magnitude. These results enable to extend the possibility of creating a new class of functional materials - polaritonic crystal systems.

Biography:

A Várez is Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at Carlos III University of Madrid. His main research is focused in the synthesis and processing of different materials (metals and ceramics) with different applications, mainly energy applications. He is co-author of more than 100 reviewed scientific publications in journals gathered (or to be incorporated) in ISI Web-of-ScienceTM; with a total number of citations in ISI Web-of-ScienceTM of +1400.

Abstract:

Powder Extrusion Molding (PEM) is a technology that combine the advantages of extrusion plastic and the conventional powder technology allowing the manufacturing of ceramic and metallic 2D pieces. On the other hand, Micro-Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (MT-SOFCs) are small tubular shaped, ceramic based, that electrochemically converts fuels, mainly those containing hydrogen in the compound such as hydrocarbons, into electrical power. In this communication we present the results we have obtained by applying the PEM technology to manufacture MT-SOFCs. In particular, by using this technology we have obtained tubes of YSZ, Ni-YSZ and ferritic Stainless Steels (430L) for being used as self-supported, anode-supported and metallic-supported SOFCs respectively. The binders developed for the manufacturing process are multicomponent systems constituted by a thermoplastic polymer as high density polyethylene or polypropylene, and several kind of wax. These binders are mixed with the metallic or ceramic powder to produce the so-called feedstock. The extrusion of this feedstock allowed obtaining micro-tubes with a wall thickness ranged between 200 and 1000 µm after sintering process. Mechanical and electrochemical properties are good enough for the final application (electrolyte, anode-support or metal-support).

Biography:

Volodymyr Gnatyuk received his M.S. in Theoretical Physics from Kharkiv National University in 1985 and Ph.D. in Physics of Semiconductors & Dielectrics from Institute of Semiconductor Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (ISP-NASU) in 1993. He has vast experience in characterization and laser-induced modification of semiconductors, development of high energy radiation detectors and nanosecond laser processing of solids. He is currently a Senior Scientist at ISP-NASU (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Honorable Guest Professor of Shizuoka University (Hamamatsu, Japan). He has published over 340 scientific works (3 textbooks, 3 patents, 120 articles and 215 conferences abstracts).

Abstract:

Pulsed laser processing of semiconductors with strongly absorbed light has been used for surface cleaning, oxide removal, annealing of structural imperfections, doping, formation of homo/hetero-interfaces, epitaxial recrystallization, etching of material, stress relieving, etc. We have investigated the effect of nanosecond laser pulses on photoelectric and electrical properties of semiconductors which have been used as materials for radiation sensors: GaAs, InSb and CdHgTe for infrared and CdTe, CdZnTe and CdMnTe for X/gamma-ray detectors, respectively. These properties of semiconductors are governed by the intrinsic point defect system (interstitials and vacancies) and extended defects. Application of short pulses of a ruby (694 nm, 20 ns) or YAG:Nd (532 nm, 7 ns) laser made it possible to reduce the thermal diffusion length and hence, to modify the defect structure only in the surface region of crystals and thus, to form micro- and nanolayers with desired parameters. The photoconductivity (PC) spectra and electrical characteristics of the semiconductors were studied before and after laser action. Irradiation with certain energy densities increased the photosensitivity and transformed the PC spectrum profile, in particular the short-wavelength wing rose, then the maximum and long-wavelength edge were shifted toward shorter wavelengths. This was attributed to a decrease of the surface recombination velocity and formation of a layer with wider bandgap, respectively. Irradiation of semi-insulating CdTe pre-coated with an In film resulted in heavy doping of a surface layer of crystals. The laser-based techniques of modification of semiconductor properties have been employed to form the sensor structures for infrared and X/gamma-ray radiations.

Biography:

Mohammadreza Behi was born in Iran in 1984. He received the B.Sc. Degree from the Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran, in 2008. Then, he received his M.Sc from University of Gavle/ Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden, in 2012, and Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng.) from Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e), the Netherlands, in 2014. He worked as a researcher in the NanoHex (The world’s largest collaborative nanotechnology project in EU) at Department of Energy Technology at KTH. From 2013 to late 2014, as part of his PDEng, he involved in the LIFE EU Project Called SUNCOOL to manufacture and develop solar cooling modules, at ClimateWell AB, Stockholm, Sweden. Currently, he has started his research on Nanofluidic and Nano-engineered coolants in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The University of Sydney. His main areas of research interest are Micro/Nanoscale heat transfer, Nanofluidic, and Solar thermal energy. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Association of Professional Engineers in Australia. He is also a reviewer of Journal of Energy, Elsevier and Journal of Applied Physics.

Abstract:

Over the last decade, there has been a great deal of interest and development in nanofluidic coolants. Thermophysical properties of nanofluids (NFs) have been broadly studied; however, their rheological behavior that plays a pivotal role for their application compels a thorough investigation. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of nanoparticles size on the shearing viscosity and stress behaviour of alumina NFs. The Al2O3 NFs were prepared by dispersing three different nanoparticle sizes in the basefluid (40 nm, 150 nm, and 250 nm). A mixture of distilled water and ethylene glycol (DW-EG) 50:50 weight ratio was used as a basefluid. Effect of different nanoparticle size on rheological properties of NF was measured in a constant volume concentration (2.57 Vol%). A rotational method was used to investigate the rheological behaviour of these NFs at ambient temperature. Our results demonstrated that the dispersion of the nanoparticle with different sizes did not affect the Newtonian behaviour of the basefluid. On the other hands, the shear viscosity of DW-EG was significantly increased by the addition of the nanoparticles. It was concluded that in alumina NFs system the particle size had a significant impact on shearing viscosity. The higher viscosity of NFs with smaller particles was due to their larger aspect ratios, which form stronger interplay between the cohesive-adhesive interactions in the suspension, nanoparticle–fluid, nanoparticle-nanoparticle and liquid-liquid molecules interactions. Fundamentally, it is crucial to understand the physics behind the rheological behaviour of nano-engineered coolants as it can directly affect both stability and thermal transport properties of such medium. Furthermore, several hydrothermal applications such as electronic cooling could be improved significantly by employing NFs. To achieve this goal, it is essential to conduct a comprehensive study to understand the mechanisms that elaborate the effect of particle characteristics in NFs suspensions on viscosity.

Biography:

Martínez-Verdú FM has completed his PhD from Technical University of Catalonia and Post-doctoral studies from University of Alicante. He is the Director of color and vision group, a research group expert in color science and technology, and visual ergonomics. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals, and is a Promoter and Director of the MSc program in Color Technology for the Automotive Sector.

Abstract:

Visual appearance of materials, covering color and texture (gloss, sparkle, etc.) can be understood and managed better using a top-down and bottom-up multi-scale approach. This strategy is used in the automotive industry for the car body by different optical instruments for measuring color in different combinations of lighting and viewing, gloss, and other surface texture effects as sparkle (due to directional lighting) or graininess (with difusse lighting), etc. But, it can be progressively extended to other industries as cosmetics, plastics, coatings, printing inks, building materials, new materials, etc., using current or future industry and scientific standards proposed currenty for the automotive sector. Nowadays, many special-effect pigments, with goniochromatic or other functional effects, are extensively used in many industries for manufacturing attractive colored products. The light-matter-eye interaction is mainly responsible for these colorful effects in daily objects as cars, joys, cosmetic products, etc. However, the origin of this visual appearance is a complicated sinergy of variables and models from at nano/micro scale to (macro) optical behavior, including the visual assessment of the human observer (colorist, quality engineer, client, etc.). And, in all quality processess of visual validation of objects (cars, joys, etc.), the visual and instrumental correlation should be undestood and proactively managed for producing repeatable objects with the same visual attributes (color, gloss, sparkle, etc.). Spite of some important progresses in advanced optical instrumentation for measuring color, gloss, etc., this is not enough for new pigments, materials, etc., and in many times even it is not enough without running experiments of visual detection, scaling or grading, and discrimination, or visual tolerances. Therefore, the visual appearance of materials can be converted in this century into an excellent example of inter and multi-disciplinary science.

Biography:

Aline Figueirêdo da Nóbrega de Azerêdo has completed his PhD from Federal University of Pernambuco, where during one year she carried out part of her Doctoral research at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is Professor in Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraíba and colaborates with the Civil and Environmentl Engineering Post progam at Federal University of Paraíba. She has published many papers in reputed journals and international conferences.

Abstract:

Metakaolin has been presented as very good pozzolanic material for using in lime mortars and cement mortars. Alternatively, many studies have shown that wastes, coming from the kaolin production, can produce good quality pozzolans. In Brazil, industries, that produces kaolin, generates a lot of wastes, which are not placed in adequate sites or reused. Many studies have discussed about the microstructural characteristics and hardened properties of pastes, mortars or concretes mixes. There are few studies about rheological properties of this kind of paste. In this work pastes containing only hydrated lime (LP) and metakaolin+hydrated lime (L-MK) (made of the kaolin production waste) were assessed in their fresh state. Rheological characteristics, like yield stress, viscosity (static rheology test), viscous and elastic modulus (dynamic rheology test), creep and recovery behavior were studied. The results showed that the curves of pastes presented as a non-Newtonian fluid following a Herschel Bulkely moldel. When the metakaolin was added to lime paste the yield stress and the viscosity was lower. From the dynamic tests it was obtained that the L-MK pastes were less rigid than LP. And according to the creep and recovery tests these pastes presented a curve model as a viscoeslastic liquid.

Biography:

C C Lee obtained his PhD in Ecomaterial Design & Process Engineering from Tohoku University, Japan in 2013. He joined University Malaysia Perlis (previously known as KUKUM) as a Lecturer since 2006. Currently, he is a Senior Lecturer and a Post-graduate Programme Chairman at School of Manufacturing Engineering, University Malaysia Perlis. His major research interest is on ecomaterial development, microwave processing of materials, biomaterial and manufacturing process improvement.

Abstract:

Recently, considerable changes in the housing and building construction industries have been taking place. Particularly, wood-based materials, and composite panel products are gaining importance. In this study, cement-based composite were prepared from bagasse and two different types of modifier, namely SAE and AR. Mechanical and physical properties of the composites were studied. Mechanical tests showed that flexural and compression strength of the composites markedly increased with the modifier content, reaching 4.712 and 9.75 MPa when reinforced with NaOH treated fiber and 5 wt% SAE. The addition of modifier into the cement composites proved to be an effective additive for reinforcing the composite. Apart from enhancing the mechanical properties, greening the waste, widespread use of agricultural crops would greatly reduce the impact of construction material use.

Biography:

Omer Damdelen has completed his PhD at the age of 25 years from Kingston University and he was working as Lecturer and Material engineer in Sustainable Concrete Laboratory at Kingston Unuversity. After that He worked as Civil Engineer in CGR Group Company Ltd. (UK). He is the coordinator of MSc Construction Management, and he is lecturer in Civil Engineering Department in Girne American University. He has published 1 book, 3 papers in reputed journals and 2 conference paper in scientific events.

Abstract:

Nowadays, the popularity of sustainable concrete construction is increasing every passing year. The purpose of the construction industry is to maximize the life of the residence by minimizing CO2 emissions and to increase the use of natural resources. Examination of thermal mass can be used to prevent or minimize temperature swings in the building and can be used to minimize the need for energy consumption. Thermal mass minimizes the risk of overheating in the summer and provides passive heating in the winter. Thermal mass is currently evaluated with “admittance” that is the ability of the element to exchange heat with the environment and is based on specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity and density. The excel spreadsheet is set up to calculate the thermal dynamic properties of building concrete mixes by applying the thermal properties of Building Materials (thermal conductivity, density and specific heat capacity) of the sustainable concrete mixes. Factors which affect the thermal storage are taken under examinations that include thermal admittance, decrement factor, and thermal transmittance. These calculations lead an understanding on the effects of different types of cement materials (PFA, SF and GGBS) and recycled coarse aggregate of the sustainable concrete mixes on the thermal admittance and hence thermal mass.

Biography:

Abstract:

All the proposed designs of metamaterials are characterized by ever-increasing sophistication of fabrication methods. We propose a comparatively simple recipe for the fabrication of a metamaterial, which is both gyrotropic and of the simultaneously negative permittivity and permeability. The idea is to make a mixture of three ingredients, where one of them would be responsible for the negativity of μ, while the other two would be responsible for the negativity of ε. The first component of the mixture is the “swarm” of single-domain ferromagnetic nanoparticles, immersed in a mixture of other two, silver and mercury cadmium telluride (MCT). The choice of silver is determined by the fact, that as it was shown, the permittivity of a mixture of silver and a dielectric material can be negative in some frequency domain. In addition, silver is that it is a diamagnetic material. It means that considering the “swarm” of single – domain ferromagnetic nanoparticles suspended in a mixture containing silver, we can neglect the interaction between their magnetic moments and treat the whole mixture as superparamagnetic. The choice of MCT is determined by the remarkable dependence of its energy gap on the fraction of cadmium in the compound. In its turn, it leads to the strong dependence of the electron concentration on this fraction as well as on the temperature. It enables to adjust each of the two frequency domains, where ε <0 and μ <0 and makes them simultaneously negative. Similar dependence on the electron concentration exhibits Pb1-xSnxTe. By carrying out the computer simulations, the domains where metamaterial to exist, relative to all parameters characterizing the model, that is, the temperature, external magnetic field, parameters of nanoparticles, and the fraction of cadmium in MCT as well as the fraction of tin in Pb1-xSnxTe and relative concentrations of the mixture components are established

Biography:

Mercedes Pérez Méndez has completed her PhD at the age of 29 years from UCM Madrid University and postdoctoral studies from University of Aberdeen Chemistry Department and University of Oxford Metallurgy Department. She is leader of the Group of Physical-Chemistry and Modelization of Macromolecules (PCMM) and Responsable of the R&D&i line “Nanoestructured Cholesteric Liquid-Crystal Polymers for Advanced Applications”. She has published more than 40 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Abstract:

Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Polymers (ChLCP), synthetized in our laboratory through a stereoselective polycondensation reaction, as multifunctional optically active materials, have been extensively characterized by NMR, Raman spectroscopy, steady-state fluorescence, molecular modeling, and SAXS/WAXS. These ChLCP behave both as thermotropic and lyotropic, confering interesting macromolecular properties indicative of potential application on the biomedical and engineering field. The amphiphilic nature of their monomers makes them polymerize along helical chains, being able to entrap smaller molecules inside, such as Lycopene. They have shown to be biocompatible against macrophages and fibroblasts cellular lines, and able to interact with biomacromolecules such as lipids (both neutral and cationic) and nucleic acids, the structures of the complexes being identified by synchrotron radiation source. Cationic liposomial/surfactant systems based on our CLCP were developed which entrapped DNA plasmids, acting as non viral cationic vectors for gene therapy, which successfully transfected in several tumor cell lines. Cationic functionalized ChLCP have been synthesized, dispersed in TAE and directly complexed with commercial DNA of increasing complexity: [Poly-A]; [Poly-C]; [Poly-G]; [PolydT]; [PolyC-PolyG]; [PolyAC-PolydT]; commercial calf thymus DNA and plasmid. Three different proportions ChLCP:DNA were prepared: (1:2), (1:1), and (2:1) respectively by mixing and digesting for 12h in a swinging shaker. The structure of the cationic complexes has been studied by SAXS at the BM16 beamline at ESRF, at room temperature . Neutron scattering experiments, had shown sufficient contrast (scattering length density difference) between new cholesteric PTOBEE-Ammonium (1.5 to 1.9x1010/cm2) and polynucleotide [PolyC-PolyG] (3.32x1010/cm2) for contrast variation SANS experiments. This experiment was successfully performed at NIST.

Biography:

Abstract:

The key challenge faced by electrical industrial systems is how to improve operation efficiency with acceptable cost. The wide possibilities of the existing polymers and, particularly, the huge scenarios of new polymer compounds in electrical technology inspire the researchers of the field to innovate and compound new electrical industrial materials to study their properties and behavior thoroughly. The research work on novel nanotechnology materials is of great significance both nationally and internationally in the field of power engineering, and environmental technology due to the increasing demands of more cost-effective, efficient, reliable and environmentally satisfactory industrial equipment’s. Recently, preliminary work investigates the capability of nano-composite polymeric materials for electrical insulation to show improved electrical performances with respect to the corresponding conventional materials, possibly filled by nano-grains or chemical additives.

Biography:

Dr. P K C Bose is the Managing Director & CEO, of SAERTEX INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, the wholly owned subsidiary of the German Multinational, SAERTEX GmbH & Co. KG., who is the world leader in advanced composite in glass, carbon and aramide, having 13 manufacturing plants spread out in Germany, USA, France, South Africa, China, Portugal, Brazil and India and having presence over 50 countries in the world. Before joining SAERTEX, Dr. Bose, worked for SEW EURODRIVE INDIA, the wholly owned subsidiary of SEW-EURODRIVE Group, Germany, as its Managing Director responsible for India & Area Countries. Dr. Bose is an Alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (India), Indian School of Buisness, India, Wharton Business School, and Kellogg School of Management, USA. He has his Ph.D from Washington International University, USA. He has also a Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management, M.Phil in Labour Studies and Masters Degree in Labour Management on his credit. He has 24 years experience in the Corporate world as a successful Business Leader. He has well travelled across USA, Europe and Asian countries and having wide experiences in dealing with most critical business situation and turning around problems to opportunities.

Abstract:

Composite material consisting of glass, carbon and aramid are key and integrated parts of material science world over. However, the use and applications enhanced on these materials are majorly United States, and Europe and Asia is slowly growing in the slower pace as well. Since composite material is an ideal replacement of steel and metal it is time we understand the advantages and use of the same so that the dream of a ‘green and sustainable earth’ can be realised over a period of time. Composite material specially the glass reinforcements are growing in a rapid pace all over the world specially for applications such as wind energy, automotive, marine, industrial and infra areas. The same case with carbon composite material which are now replacing the high end aluminium and steel applications such as aeronautical, defence, marine specially ship builders etc. The same case with Aramid which are mainly used as hybrid material between glass/aramid or carbon/aramid depending up on the applications. Since last 10 years Indian advanced composite market has been growing consistently but with a lower pace. However, under the “Make in India” program there are ample opportunities for advanced composites specially in the fields of aeronautical, wind energy, automotive, marine, locomotives, infra and industrial segments. The Indian government specially after the ‘Climate Control Summit” held in Paris has taken more initiatives as composite being environmental friendly material compared to steel and metal it would be a great opportunity for advanced composites.