Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

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Abstract: Production of titanium aluminides in TiO2-Al-Ca system has been investigated. For this purpose, different compositions of raw materials were studied in a special reaction vessel. In a special case, the non-completed reaction of TiO2 with Al and Ca resulted in the production of granulates of titanium aluminides especially Ti3Al and other Ti – Al phases as the metallic product and Ca12Al14O33 as the non-metallic product. Remelting of metallic granulates led to production of TiAl ingot.

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Abstract: Reduction of the Titanium dioxide, TiO2, by methane was investigated in this work. The thermodynamic of reaction was examined and found favorable. The reaction of titanium dioxide with methane was carried out in the temperature range 1150°C to 1450°C at atmospheric pressure with industrial high porosity pellets prepared from titanium dioxide powder. The evolved gas analyzing method was used for determination of the extent of reduction rate. The gas products of the reaction are mostly CO and trace amount of CO2 and H2O. The synthesized product powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) for elucidating solid phase compositions. The effect of varying temperature was studied during the reduction. The conversion-time data have been interpreted by using the grain model. For first order reaction with respect to methane concentration, the activation energy of titanium dioxide reduction by methane is found to be 51.4 kcal/gmole. No detailed investigation of kinetic and mechanism of the reaction was reported in literatures.

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Abstract: Glassy samples with xTiO2 .3SiO2 .Na2O composition that (8≤x≤40) (molar) were casted in refractory steel molds after melting at air as parallel palates. After polishing and getting to desire thickness, UV-VIS spectrometry in 200 -1100 nm was measured on samples. Glass density was measured by a sensitive micro balance and was found that by increasing titanium dioxide of glasses, glass density increases. Results from UV-VIS spectroscopy show that increase of titanium dioxide decreases light transmission and this value reaches zero for sample with 40 molar percent of titanium dioxide. One reason of this reduction is formation of crystalline phase in glass, in which, by increasing titanium content crystalline phase will be increased, results of X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy confirm this claim.

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The surface properties of metal-ceramic coatings based on titanium dioxide are described in dependence on the detonation spraying conditions. It is found that such properties as surface roughness, surface thickness and its hydrophobicity can be controlled in the production process by selecting certain values of the technological parameters of the spraying process. The optimal values of the technological parameters of detonation spraying, ensuring maximum hydrophobicity of the produced coatings are determined. The roughness of the coating surface and the coating thickness depend on the speed of the nozzle passage in accordance with the inverse power law. The roughness and the contact angle depend on spray distance in accordance with a parabolic law. New equations are obtained that can be useful for predicting the characteristics of the coating surface, as well as for determining the optimal mode of spraying the coating, ensuring its best hydrophobicity.
 

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Powder-based Physical Vapor Deposition (PPVD) was utilized to deposit doped TiO₂ thin layers, to modify electronic and optical properties. The modification was performed using different dopants (MnO₂, Ta₂O₅, Nb₂O₅) at different concentrations (0.05 and 0.1 mol%) respectively. The structural characterization by FESEM reveals that the size of the grain varied with respect to the dopants. The sample doped at lower concentration demonstrates a larger crystallite size than the sample doped at higher concentration. This trend is consistent with the measured grain size of the doped thin layer samples. The nonlinearity coefficient (α) and breakdown voltage at lower ranges are enhanced as the dopant concentration in the TiO₂ lattice increases due to the reduction of grain size. While, the optical properties of doped TiO₂ thin layers with respect to energy bandgap demonstrated enhancement trend with the addition of the dopant as revealed by UV-Vis’s reflectance analysis. The enhancement of electrical and optical properties is contributed by the formation of barrier layer surrounding the grains, which in return increases the conductivity of the doped TiO₂ thin layers sample. Conclusively, this study demonstrates the feasibility of the PPVD method in producing a dense thin layer structure for further optical and electrical based applications.

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Nanomaterials have significantly transformed multiple scientific and technological fields due to their exceptional properties, which result from their quantum confinement effects and high surface-to-volume ratios. Among these materials, zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles have attracted considerable interest because of their diverse applications.
In this study, TiO₂-ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized using varying calcination times of 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 hours. Characterization of fabricated samples through X-ray diffraction (XRD)‌ spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) confirmed the successful fabrication of the nanocomposites. In this regard, XRD analysis revealed anatase TiO₂ and hexagonal wurtzite ZnO phases. Raman spectroscopy also supported these findings, identifying characteristic peaks of both TiO₂ and ZnO.
The calcination time had a minimal effect on the crystal structures and also morphology of the nanocomposites, which gave rise to its negligible impact on optical properties and biological activities of the samples. Optical properties assessed by means of UV-visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy showed consistent band gap absorption and emission profiles across all samples, among which the nanocomposite calcined for 1 hour exhibited the best optical properties.

The sample prepared at 1 hour not only showed the most favorable optical properties, but also demonstrated significant antibacterial, antifungal, and cytotoxic activities, which make it suitable for various applications. In this regard, a reduction of more than 99.9% occurred in the number of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and also Candida albicans fungus by using TiO₂-ZnO nanocomposite. Besides, addition of 500 µg/ml of nanocomposite decreased the cell viability to 34.47%, which signifies its high cytotoxicity activity.