Boron carbide (B₄C) is highly significant in the production of lightweight protective materials when added to aluminum owing to its exceptional mechanical properties. In this study, a method for fabricating Al-B₄C composites using high-energy ball milling and directed energy deposition (DED) is presented. Al-4 wt.% B₄C composites were fabricated under 21 different laser conditions to analyze the microstructure and mechanical properties at different values of laser power and scan speeds. The composites fabricated at a laser power of 600 W and the same scan speed exhibited the highest hardness and generated the fewest pores. In contrast, the composites fabricated at a laser power of 1000 W exhibited the lowest hardness and generated a significant number of large pores. This can be explained by the influence of the microstructure on the energy density at different values of laser power.

Porous Cu-14 wt% Co with aligned pores is produced by a freeze drying and sintering process. Unidirectional freezing of camphene slurry with CuO-Co₃O₄ powders is conducted, and pores in the frozen specimens are generated by sublimation of the camphene crystals. The dried bodies are hydrogen-reduced at 500°C and sintered at 800°C for 1 h. The reduction behavior of the CuO-Co₃O₄ powder mixture is analyzed using a temperature-programmed reduction method in an Ar-10% H₂ atmosphere. The sintered bodies show large and aligned parallel pores in the camphene growth direction. In addition, small pores are distributed around the internal walls of the large pores. The size and fraction of the pores decrease as the amount of solid powder added to the slurry increases. The change in pore characteristics according to the amount of the mixed powder is interpreted to be due to the rearrangement and accumulation behavior of the solid particles in the freezing process of the slurry.

The hydrogen reduction behavior of the CuO-Co₃O₄ powder mixture for the synthesis of the homogeneous Cu-15at%Co composite powder has been investigated. The composite powder is prepared by ball milling the oxide powders, followed by a hydrogen reduction process. The reduction behavior of the ball-milled powder mixture is analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and temperature-programmed reduction at different heating rates in an Ar-10%H2 atmosphere. The scanning electron microscopy and XRD results reveal that the hydrogen-reduced powder mixture is composed of fine agglomerates of nanosized Cu and Co particles. The hydrogen reduction kinetics is studied by determining the degree of peak shift as a function of the heating rate. The activation energies for the reduction of the oxide powders estimated from the slopes of the Kissinger plots are 58.1 kJ/mol and 65.8 kJ/mol, depending on the reduction reaction: CuO to Cu and Co₃O₄ to Co, respectively. The measured temperature and activation energy for the reduction of Co₃O₄ are explained on the basis of the effect of pre-reduced Cu particles.

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• Synthesis of Porous Cu-Co using Freeze Drying Process of Camphene Slurry with Oxide Composite Powders
  Gyuhwi Lee, Ju-Yeon Han, Sung-Tag Oh
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2020; 27(3): 193.     CrossRef

In this study, porous Mo-5 wt% Cu with unidirectionally aligned pores is prepared by freeze drying of camphene slurry with MoO₃-CuO powders. Unidirectional freezing of camphene slurry with dispersion stability is conducted at -25°C, and pores in the frozen specimens are generated by sublimation of the camphene crystals. The green bodies are hydrogen-reduced at 750°C and sintered at 1000°C for 1 h. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that MoO₃-CuO composite powders are completely converted to a Mo-and-Cu phase without any reaction phases by hydrogen reduction. The sintered bodies with the Mo-Cu phase show large and aligned parallel pores to the camphene growth direction as well as small pores in the internal walls of large pores. The pore size and porosity decrease with increasing composite powder content from 5 to 10 vol%. The change of pore characteristics is explained by the degree of powder rearrangement in slurry and the accumulation behavior of powders in the interdendritic spaces of solidified camphene.

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• Characteristic Evaluation of WC Hard Materials According to Ni Content Variation by a Pulsed Current Activated Sintering Process
  Hyun-Kuk Park
  Korean Journal of Materials Research.2020; 30(12): 672.     CrossRef
• Effect of α-lath size on the mechanical properties of Ti–6Al–4V using core time hydrogen heat treatment
  Gye-Hoon Cho, Jung-Min Oh, Hanjung Kwon, Jae-Won Lim
  Materials Science and Technology.2020; 36(7): 858.     CrossRef