Table of contents

Preface

With great pleasure, we introduce the Proceedings of 2018 6th International Conference on Nanomaterials and Materials Engineering (ICNME 2018) which provides a lively knowledge sharing forum that reports the latest development of research and application pertaining to Nanomaterials and Materials Engineering. ICNME 2018 offers an extensive program of interest to academia, government and industry. Great presentations have been delivered that allow effective knowledge dissemination, as well as enhancing relevant professional practices and skills.

The objective of ICNME 2018 will always be bringing together a large group of researchers, scientists, academics, and engineers in the area of Nanomaterials and Materials Engineering from all over the world to share ideas not only about the technical interests, but also cross culture and history.

This proceedings of ICNME 2018 presents the accepted papers, where the submitted papers are from universities, research institutes and industries. The submitted papers have been gone through a rigorous review and the papers are selected based on quality and relevancy to the conference. The volume tends to present to the readers the recent advancement in the field of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology; Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering; Ceramic and Glass Materials; Computational Material Science; Coupling of Multiple Ferroic Order Parameters; Crystal Defect Engineering; Crystallographic Domain Engineering; etc.

We would like to thank all the authors who have contributed to this volume and also to reviewers, speakers, chairpersons, sponsors and all the conference participants for their commitment, hard work and support to ICNME 2018.

ICNME 2018 CONFERENCE CHAIR

March 30, 2018

List of Conference Committees are available in this PDF.

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Phononic crystals (PCs) are multi-layered materials with functional elastic wave band gaps where propagation of vibration within these band gaps is restricted. PCs have vibration attenuation properties dependent on their periodic structure and material constituent. In this study, the band gap and vibration attenuation of a one-dimensional PC subjected to longitudinal vibration were evaluated experimentally. Two bi-layered specimens composed of Aluminum and a Silicone Rubber (Elite double 8) were manufactured and tested. The specimens were subjected to vibration from an electrodynamic shaker to obtain pseudo-transfer functions.

Metamaterials (MMs) are materials engineered to have a property that is not found in nature. In this study, one-dimensional MMs is investigated, particularly that with a functional elastic wave band gaps where propagation of vibration within these band gaps is restricted. The vibration attenuation properties of MMs are dependent on their periodic structure and material constituent. In this paper, the band gap and vibration attenuation of a one-dimensional Phononic crystal (PC) subjected to longitudinal vibration were evaluated numerically. Different geometries of bi-layered specimens composed of Aluminum and a silicone rubber (Elite double 8) were modeled using Finite Element (FE) Software ABAQUS. The FE analysis results were validated using experimental results from the electrodynamic shaker.

Two types of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) thin films based on hybrid organic-inorganic materials sandwiched between metal and semiconductor were fabricated. The novel films were 40 layers Y-type LB films of Cd-salt stearic acid (CdSt₂). The second type of films was formed after the treatment of CdSt₂ films with H₂S gas over a period of 12 hours at room temperature to grow CdS nanoparticles within the stearic acid matrix. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement of CdSt₂ LB films exhibit a significant dependence on the measurement frequency in the accumulation region due to high DC leakage currents. By embedding CdS nanoparticles into the stearic acid matrix, less frequency dependent C-V curves were obtained. The problem in determining the true insulator capacitance due to frequency dispersion was overcome by using the Yang's model. The corresponding dielectric constant of LB films of CdSt₂ was found to be 2.3 and increased to 5.1 when embedded with CdS nanoparticles.

In this paper, nickel zinc ferrite (NZF) nanopowder was mixed with organic vehicle which consists of linseed oil, m-xylene and α-terpineol. Then the mixture was sonicated for 1 hour at 40°C in order to obtain homogenous paste, followed by printing it onto FR4 substrate using the screen printing technique to form the NZF thick film layer before dried at 100°C and later fired at 200°C. A basic square shape patch antenna by using silver paste was printed onto the NZF thick film layer and was compared with another patch antenna which was been printed without the NZF layer. The results showed that the antenna with NZF thick film layer has return loss of -10.97dB, resonant frequency 6.42GHz, bandwidth 3.9 and Q factor of 1.646, which is better compared to the antenna without the layer by 32.81%, 3.22%, 86.60% and 44.69% respectively.

Currently a submicron soft reflow process developed in University of Manchester uses silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) as the hard mask layer to support the T-Gate structure of pHEMTs in order to make it mechanically stable. However, an alternative material known as Spin-on-Glass (SoG) is introduced to replace Si₃N₄, offering shorter processing time and consequently, a much simpler and more cost-effective alternative to the e-beam lithography of nanometre-scale gate length transistors. The SoG deposition through plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition process requires only 30 minutes to complete, as opposed to the one-day process of depositing Si₃N₄. In this study, the SoG material used is Silicafilm, and the minimum deposition thickness achieved is 138 nm, enabling 150-nm gate length devices to be fabricated. The SoG is also successfully etched at very low power and pressure (20 W and < 25 mTorr respectively), eliminating the detrimental effect of high power plasma etching to the 2DEG carriers. In addition to that, no film cracks observed even by using a single coating and a single baking temperature of 200 °C. All these results indicate the potential of SoG as a suitable hard mask layer alternative to the silicon nitride for the use soft reflow fabrication process.

The surface crack in flexure (SCF) is a method for the evaluation of the fracture toughness of advanced ceramics. Conventionally is practiced by using a Knoop indenter to make a very small precrack. Removal on indent and the plastically deformed zone is required before the fracture test. The purpose of this removal is to eliminate residual stresses under the Knoop impression and to obtain a semi elliptical precrack shape. In this work the influence of the variation of several experimental parameters is investigated. Fracture toughness values by the SCF method are compared with those measured using the SEVNB (single edge V-notched beam) method. The material chosen for this purpose was gas pressured sintered silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) containing 3wt.%Al₂O₃ and 3 wt.%Y₂O₃ (SL200B, Ceram Tec, Plochingen, Germany). The varied parameters were indentation load, orientation of the indentation crack with respect to the bending axis and the amount of material removed from the surface. Additional investigations were performed to determine the crack geometry for various indentation loads. A procedure was developed to facilitate the location and measurement of the precrack size on the fracture surfaces. The effect of measurement accuracy of the results is evaluated. The fracture toughness of specimens with a surface removal in the range suggested from ASTM C 1421 were found to agree with the results obtained from SEVNB. A surface removal below the recommendation resulted in low values of fracture toughness. Increasing the amount of surface removal moderately was found to still fit with results obtained from SEVNB. Surface removal of much more from the recommended amount leads to failure from natural flaws. Observations from serial sectioning revealed that precracks obtained from HK20 and HK30 have an irregular precrack shape with large lateral cracks. It is suggested to use HK5 and HK10 to produce semi-elliptical surface cracks.

Plasma treatment of polymers is the promising technique for improving the quality of biomedical devices, in particular deformable implants. The influence of mechanical deformation on such coating has not been sufficiently studied. The effect of the uniaxial cyclic deformation on the surface structure of carbon nanolayer deposited (by the magnetron sputtering) on soft elastic polyurethane is investigated. The obtained coating is wrinkled. The mechanical load changes the structure of the surface (wavelength, amplitude and fractal dimension of the wrinkles, surface roughness); the cracks appear on the deposited layer. As the strain increases, the number of cracks rises and the strain-induced folds appear on the coating.

PCMs show great promise as thermal energy storage (TES) medium; however, their low thermal conductivity presents a major bottleneck for their potential application. Enhancement of the thermal conductivity of a paraffin based PCM material using GNP in combination with CNF, CNTs and TRG was investigated in this work. SEM was used to qualitatively assess the dispersion & distribution of the hybrid-nanofillers. DSC was used to determine the melting temperature, thermal capacity and latent heat, whereas thermal conductivity was measured using Hot Disk TPS Thermal Conductivity Instrument (TPS2500S). An overall increase by 143%, 158% and 174% in thermal conductivity and 179%, 193% and 214% in thermal diffusivity was observed for 2 wt.% hybrid loading of TRG, CNT and CNF respectively (pure PCM as ref.). Furthermore, the contribution of the CNF and CNT hybrid-fillers was evaluated to increase the composite PCM thermal conductivity by 122% & 110%, and diffusivity by 117% & 105% respectively (10%-GNP as ref.).

Graphene Nanoplatelets (GNPs) possess outstanding properties which can be utilized to reinforce Al metal for various applications of automotive and aerospace sectors. The major hurdle for real-time applications is the GNPs dispersion in Al matrix which is a challenging task. To address this issue, a combination of processing like solvent dispersion via tip sonication and low energy ball milling at 200 and 300rpm were employed to investigate the GNPs dispersion at various fractions and their effects on final nanocomposite properties. Microstructural analysis of nanocomposite powder was carried out to investigate dispersion analysis. A decrease in relative density with increase in GNPs content showed by all samples. Hardness and wear characterization of the nanocomposite samples were performed. It was found that 0.3wt%GNPs/Al samples has shown maximum increase in hardness (35.61%) and reduce wear rate of (76.68%) than pure Al at 300rpm milling. Finally, GNPs have shown their reinforcing effect by increasing hardness and wear rate by provide effective lubrication.

Excessive urea leaching causes water pollution and fabricating slow release coated urea is usually performed at high temperature or using synthetic polymers and toxic solvent which might generate environmental pollution. This study aims to formulate "green process" of urea slow release tablets and characterize urea slow release tablets. The formula was composed of rice husk ash, urea, and liquid natural rubber (LNR). Several proportions were studied and characterized based on the stability in water and urea leaching. The immobilizing urea was carried in two models; core-shell and mixed model composite either coating or uncoated with chitosan. The slow release urea tablets were stable in water without decomposition at least 9 days of incubation times depending on LNR content but at least 15 mL of LNR was required to obtain stable tablets. Urea leaching from core-shell tablet was 0.045% and 0.75% for mixed model tablet in 10 days incubation times. Chitosan coating did not affect significantly on urea leaching for core-shell model but it caused urea release faster in mixed model after 12 days incubation times. Low LNR and chitosan coating retarded fungus growth on the urea slow release tablet.

In the paper, the crystallization process of nanocrystaline alloys Fe_73.5Cu₁M₃Si_13.5B₉ where M = Nb, W, Mo, V, Cr and the physical origin of different efficiency of impact that inhibitors exert on the structure and magnetic properties has been investigated. It is shown that the structure formed at the peak temperature of the crystallization process is close to the optimal one and ensures high values of magnetic permeability. The efficiency is directly related to the solubility of inhibitory elements in αFe, which in turn affects the diffusivity of atoms. Upon slow migration of grain boundaries, the inhibitory atoms with lower diffusivity, being concentrated near the front of moving boundary, provide stronger drag.

Surface coating is very important in some applications. The preparation of Co-Mo alloy coating was prepared using electrodeposition process. The process of electrodeposition method was performed using 4 different concentration of molybdenum. The purpose of using different concentration of Mo in the solution bath is to find the optimum concentration of Mo that resulting to the best mechanical properties. The corrosion behavior, wear properties, surface morphologies and compositions of Co-Mo alloy was studied. The smooth surface was obtained when there was no Mo element in the solution bath. The Co-Mo coating that has the highest concentration of Mo, having the highest hardness value which is 286.6 HV. It was observed that the addition of Mo element in the deposit improved corrosion behavior of the deposits, hardness properties and resistance toward slurry erosion.

The structure of the magnesium alloy Mg-1%Zn-0.2%Ca after equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) has been studied by optical and scanning electron microscopy. It was established that increasing the equivalent strain by increase a number of passes through a ECAP die leads to more pronounced grain refinement in the alloy. When equivalent strain achieved 7.2, an average grain size of 2 μm was observed. It was shown that the ECAP samples enable to demonstrate the high microhardness of 69.5 HV and the enhanced ultimate tensile strength of 282 MPa, which is more than 2 times higher in comparison with the homogenized state, while maintaining ductility.

Thermal stability of microstructure of the magnesium alloy Mg-2%Sr processed by high pressure torsion has been studied using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. It was shown that formation of bimodal structure after additional annealing at a temperature of 200°C leads to demonstration of enhanced ultimate tensile strength (245 MPa) with a ductility of 1.5%. In addition a uniform distribution of eutectic phase in bimodal structure led to a slowing down of the corrosion rate to 2% for 31 days (compared to the initial state of 78% for the same period).

Chemical looping combustion (CLC) is one of the carbon capturing technologies, in which oxygen from oxygen carrier reacts with fuel inside fuel reactor to produce CO₂ and H₂O. Fe-based oxygen carrier is widely used in CLC due to the low cost and less susceptible to carbon formation. This research focuses on synthesizing and characterizing iron ore with alumina in order to analyse the suitability of Malaysia iron ore as an oxygen carrier for CLC application. Iron ore with alumina was prepared using ball milling at various milling time which are 1 hour, 6 hours, 8 hours and 10 hours. The phase transformation, morphology and elemental composition of obtained samples were characterized using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (XRD), respectively. In CLC application, high reactivity of CLC can be obtained with the small particle size of oxygen carrier. This research succeeded in producing Fe₂O₃/Al₂O₃ using ball milling with particle size that less than 10μm with crystallite size 17nm at 10 hours, which favourable to be used as oxygen carrier.

In corrosive environment, the hardness along the depth direction and crack propagation direction of specimen is affected by hydrogen concentration and stress. In this paper, micro-hardness tester was employed to quantitatively evaluate the hydrogen distribution in metals. Hydrogen saturated value and hydrogen saturated layer of specimens were obtained. The experimental results demonstrated that hydrogen concentration behavior in a known equibiaxial stress environment can be verified experimentally using micro-hardness technique. There is a simple additive relationship between the hydrogen-induced micro-hardness increment and the stress-induced micro-hardness increment in Vickers micro-hardness measurement. The hydrogen distribution of specimens was analyzed by taking the change of the micro-hardness increment along the depth direction and crack propagation direction of specimens as the indicator.

As more and more chemical activity and biological activity are found, cerium, one of the largest reserves of cheap rare earth lanthanides, is widely used in many fields such as flint, decolorizer, abrasive polish, glass additives, reducing agents, catalysts, harmful metal substitutes and other special functional materials. Cerium nanoparticles can be used in cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and radiation-induced tissue damage, also be used as biomimetic enzymes, biocatalysis, biomedicine, biological scaffolding and other biological fields. However, cerium-based hollow nanospheres have never been properly tested as a drug carrier. In this report, we explored the potential of cerium-based materials as a drug carrier which is a brand new attempt to expand the scope of application of cerium-based nanomaterials in the field of biomedicine.

Wet synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) has been reported as an effective and low cost process for large production thin films. The purpose of this project is to investigate the effect of different precursor, different concentration and annealing temperature on the growth of ZnO nanostructures. The ZnO nanostructures is synthesised via a hydrothermal process on a glass substrate and characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The morphological changes of the nanostructures are systematically investigated as a function of precursors and concentration as well as annealing temperature. The process use two different types of precursor which are Zinc acetate dihydrate and Zinc nitrate hexahydrate.

In the present work, NaX zeolite membranes were synthesized via secondary growth using vacuum seeding method. NaX zeolite suspension solution for vacuum seeding was prepared at various concentration and the resultant seeded supports with homogeneous coverage were selected for hydrothermal synthesis. The resultant membranes were characterized using XRD, SEM and EDX analysis. The XRD results showed that NaX zeolite membranes were successfully formed and the SEM images revealed that continuous zeolite membrane layer was obtained.

The characterization of carbonate formations is challenging as compared to sandstones, yet carbonate reservoirs hold over 60% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves. Carbonate reservoirs exhibit a high level of heterogeneity at every scale; from core to field. To be able to manage heterogeneity for reservoir modelling, the formation has to be discretized into a few rock types, each of which having somewhat similar flow properties. Recently, the interest in extending the rock-typing approaches is increasing with the aim to identify the potential layers in complex lithology like carbonates. The approach becomes more rigorous if the geological description is coordinated with petrophysical data, an approach that has been followed in this study. The hydraulic flow units in Arab-D formation were identified and interpreted using both geological facies and petrophysical data. All three methods; histogram analysis, normal probability plot and least-squared regression were utilized to determine the optimum number of hydraulic flow units across Arab-D carbonate formation. Published routine core analysis data from ten wells of Arab-D formation was analyzed and six optimum hydraulic flow units were identified. The average porosity and average permeability of each hydraulic flow unit was then computed. The results were found to be in good agreement with the geological facies data of the Arab-D formation, thus validating the identified flow units.

The ever-growing demand of petroleum resources lead to depletion of easily accessible reservoirs. To meet the petroleum demands, exploration of challenging reservoirs must be taken up. This can be done by drilling deviated, horizontal and deeper well with high pressure and high temperature reservoirs. However, such drilling leads to harsh drilling circumstances such as torque and drag. These circumstances can be overcome by adding appropriate amount of nanomaterials to reduce drilling problems such as pipe sticking, thermal instability, torque and drag. This paper emphasis and investigates the usage of lubrication behaviour of drilling fluids by adding multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and graphene nano-platelets (GNP) to reduce coefficient of friction of water based drilling fluid. Experiments were conducted to study the characteristics of added nanoparticles on drilling fluid, where by analysing the rheological properties, filtrate loss fluid and lubricity. The results showed that the addition of MWCNT at 0.01 ppb and 0.02 ppb of GNP gave torque lubricity reduction between 38 to 59%. The comprehensive nanomaterial behaviour in water based drilling fluid favoured the enhancement of drilling fluid lubricity and marginally improved the drilling fluid rheological properties such as plastic viscosity, yield point and filtrate loss of drilling fluid.

In the application of laser marking, the biggest challenge is that machine-readable barcodes with superior quality were not marked consistently. To solve this problem, laser direct-part marking Data Matrix barcode experiments were carried out on titanium alloy substrates, using a Q-switched light-pumped Nd:YAG laser. The microstructure of the symbols was analyzed using an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The internal micro-stresses of the marked areas were analyzed using X-ray diffractometer (XRD). The influence of the pulse frequency on the symbol contrast is analyzed. Results showed the interaction between the laser and the titanium alloy can be found. This can further explain the physical mechanism of laser direct part marking Data Matrix symbols on titanium alloy substrates.

To evaluate the quality of the laser direct part marked Data Matrix symbols on titanium alloy substrates, the quality assessment methods at home and abroad were compared. A new quality assessment method of combining the effect of the laser on substrate materials and symbol grade of laser marked Data Matrix was put forward. Depending on previous research works, orthogonal experiment results were analyzed again and a modified nonlinear mathematics model was established. Analysis results indicate that this modified model can explain 90.6% of symbol contrast change and it is statistically significant. So it is better than previous linear regression model and can be used to estimate the quality of laser marked Data Matrix symbols on titanium alloy substrates. The nonlinear mathematics model can also explain the laser parameters influence on the symbol contrast.