Microstructural characterization of Ti-6Al-4V alloy subjected to the duplex SMAT/plasma nitriding.

In this study, microstructural characterization of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, subjected to the duplex surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT)/nitriding treatment, leading to improve its mechanical properties, was carried out through novel and original samples preparation methods. Instead of acid etching which is limited for morphological characterization by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), an original ion polishing method was developed. Moreover, for structural characterization by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), an ion milling method based with the use of two ions guns was also carried out for cross-section preparation. To demonstrate the efficiency of the two developed methods, morphological investigations were done by traditional SEM and field emission gun SEM. This was followed by structural investigations through selected area electron diffraction (SAED) coupled with TEM and X-ray diffraction techniques. The results demonstrated that ionic polishing allowed to reveal a variation of the microstructure according to the surface treatment that could not be observed by acid etching preparation. TEM associated to SAED and X-ray diffraction provided information regarding the nanostructure compositional changes induced by the duplex SMAT/nitriding process.

Surface nanocrystallization of Ti-6Al-4V alloy: microstructural and mechanical characterization.

In this study, microstructural and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, before and after the SMA treatment (SMAT) as well as the duplex SMAT/Nitriding process at different treatment conditions, were investigated in order to deepen the knowledge of these properties for biomedical devices. For that purpose, tribological (wear resistance, coefficient of friction) and mechanical (Vickers microhardness) tests were performed. To carry out the microstructural and surface topographical characterization of the samples, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the 3D-SEM reconstruction from stereoscopic images have been used. By means of profiles deduced from the 3D images, the surface roughness has been calculated. The obtained results allowed to find an interesting SMAT condition which, followed by nitriding at low temperature, can greatly improve tribological and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. It was also shown from SEM characterization and the original method of 3D-SEM reconstruction, that SMAT can reduce the machined grooves and consequently the roughness of the samples decreases. Moreover, we demonstrated, for the first time, that instead of usual etching method, the ionic polishing allowed to reveal the grains, the grain boundaries and the twins as well as the surface nanocrystalline layer generated by SMAT. Thus, the thickness of the SMATed layer decreases with the nitriding temperature, whereas the surface grain size increases.

Properties of cellulose/pectins composites: implication for structural and mechanical properties of cell wall.

The primary cell wall of dicotyledonous plants can be considered as a concentrated polymer assembly, containing in particular polysaccharides among which cellulose and pectins are known to be the major components. In order to understand and control the textural quality of plant-derived foods, it is highly important to elucidate the rheological and microstructural properties of these components, individually and in mixture, in order to define their implication for structural and mechanical properties of primary plant cell wall. In this study, the rheological and microstructural properties of model systems composed of sugar-beet microfibrillated cellulose and HM pectins from various sources, with varied degrees of methylation and containing different amounts of neutral sugar side chains, were investigated. The influence of the presence of calcium and/or sodium ions and the biopolymer concentrations on the properties of the mixed systems were also studied. The characterizations of the mixed system, considered as a simplified model of primary plant cell wall, showed that whatever the structural characteristics of the pectins, the ionic conditions of the medium and the biopolymer concentrations, the gelation of the composite was mainly controlled by cellulose. Thus, the cellulose network would be the principal component governing the mechanical properties of the cell walls. However, the neutral sugar side chains of the pectins seem to play a part in the interactions with cellulose, as shown by the interesting viscoelastic properties of cellulose/apple HM pectins systems. The rigidity of cellulose/pectins composite was strongly influenced by the structural characteristics of pectins. The particular properties of primary plant cell walls would thus result from the solid viscoelastic properties of cellulose, its interactions with pectins according to their structural characteristics (implication of the neutral sugar side chains and the specific potential calcic interactions) and of the distribution of the components in separate phases.