Mgr. Milan Heczko from the Institute of Physics of Materials (IPM) has been awarded the Thermo Fisher Scientific & Czechoslovak Microscopic Society fellowship for the support of scientific work of young researchers.
The fellowship will support his project focused on the development of new materials based on Fe-Ni-Cr matrix for high temperature applications. Mgr. Heczko will study the nucleation, morphology and growth of MX nanoparticles, the most important precipitation strengthening phase in these advanced high temperature alloys. Multi-field and multi-scale cooperation based on the mechanical testing of materials, electron microscopy observations, image simulations and modelling will lead to systematic study contributing to the explanation of the MX nanoparticles role in the determination of mechanical properties of advanced high temperature alloys.
Experimental instrumentation, especially image aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope Titan/Themis, installed by the Thermo Fisher Scientific within the CEITEC BUT infrastructure will be used within the project.
(a) [011] zone axis HAADF-STEM image with enhanced strain contrast showing two NbC particles (marked by black arrows) pinning ½<011> edge dislocation. A distinctive bowing of the dislocation line between the particles is noted. (Ref.: Mat. Sci. Eng. A 719 (2018) 49-60.)
(a) Experimentally obtained HAADF-STEM image of MX type of precipitate (NbC) on the top of austenite matrix is compared to (b) simulated image along the [011] zone axis based on the atomic structure model (c). Nanoparticle overlaps with austenite matrix with cube-on-cube relationship forming Moiré-like contrast in STEM. (Ref.: Mat. Sci. Eng. A 719 (2018) 49-60.)