Three-dimensional transmission electron microscopy (3D-TEM) is a powerful technology that provides 3D characterization of the internal details of a material. In this work, for the first time, 3D-TEM was used to characterize a laser-sintered polymer nanocomposite. The dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the laser-sintered polyamide 12 (PA12)-CNT nanocomposite parts was evaluated. At first, to prepare 3D-TEM samples at specific locations, a focused ion beam technique was used. Then, high quality two-dimensional (2D)-TEM images were achieved at various scanning angles for the PA12-CNT laser-sintered sample. After that, 3D-TEM images were reconstructed by combining all the 2D-TEM images. Results revealed that the CNTs were agglomerate-free in the PA12-CNT parts after laser sintering, which helps to explain previously reported improvement in mechanical properties of laser-sintered PA12-CNT parts.

The combustion synthesis of Al50Ir48Ni2 (at.%) was conducted at different heating rates in both a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) chamber and a vacuum furnace. It was found that a higher heating rate, a sufficient amount of reactant powder, and effective control of the heat loss facilitated the complete reaction and resulted in combusted single IrAl phase products. Otherwise, multiphase products containing IrAl, unreacted Ir, and Al3Ir were synthesized. The reactions involved in different processes were discussed in terms of the thermal competition between heat generation and loss during the reaction. All ignition temperatures were below 773 K, indicating that the combustion reaction occurs at the solid–solid state. With increasing heating rate, the ignition temperature increased while the product density decreased.

Accurate measurement of the lattice misfit between the γ and γ phases in Ni-base single crystal superalloys at high temperatures has successfully been achieved using a parallel beam mode X-ray diffractometer with a high temperature specimen stage. The superalloys have γ' precipitates, an ordered FCC structure based on Ni3Al, in a γ-matrix having a disordered FCC structure (LI2). The parallel beam mode, the optics of which is made from a Ge (111) channel cut crystal, generates a superior monochromatic and parallel CuKα1 beam, which makes it possible to resolve a cluster peak in Ni-base superalloys into individual γ and γ ‘ peaks. This peak separation was almost impossible using the CuKα1+2 doublet beam from the standard type para-focusing mode, due to the very small difference in lattice parameters between the two phases.

The chemical stability of the surface of stainless steel (SUS) 304 in acid immersion tests is greatly improved by the laser implant-deposition (LID) process, i.e., the simultaneous deposition and incorporation of silicon by KrF excimer laser irradiation. The etching depths of the treated samples in 1.32 N HCl solution are substantially zero at the laser irradiation conditions of more than 40 pulses and of more than 400 mJ/cm2 at the surface. By the quantitative verification of cathodic polarization in 1 N H2SO4, the highest polarization resistance is estimated to be 26.7 times that of the nontreated sample.