Nickel silicide formation with rapid thermal treatment in the heat balance mode

The formation of nickel silicide layers on (111)-Si substrates during rapid thermal annealing in the heat balance mode was studied by the Rutherford backscattering method, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and electrophysical measurements. Nickel films of about 70 nm thickness were deposited by magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The rapid thermal treatment was carried out in a heat balance mode by irradiating the substrates backside with a non-coherent light flux of quartz halogen lamps in the nitrogen medium for 7 seconds up to the temperature range of 200 to 550 °C. The redistribution of nickel and silicon atoms to monosilicide NiSi composition starts already at a temperature of 300 °С and almost ends at a temperature of 400 °С. In the same temperature range, the orthorhombic NiSi phase with an average grain size of about 0.05–0.1 μm is formed. At a rapid thermal treatment temperature of 300 °C, two phases of silicides (Ni2 Si and NiSi) are formed, while a thin layer of unreacted Ni is retained on the surface. This fact can be explained by the high heating rate at the initial annealing stage, at which the temperature conditions of the NiSi phase formation occur earlier than the entire Ni layer manages to turn into the Ni2 Si phase. The layers with a simultaneous presence of three phases are characterized by a high roughness of the silicide-silicon interface. The dependence of the specific resistivity of nickel silicide layers shows an increase to the values of 26–30 μOhm · cm in the range of rapid thermal treatment temperatures of 200–250 °C and a subsequent decrease to the values of about 15 μOhm · cm at a rapid thermal treatment temperature of 400 °C. This value of specific resistivity is characteristic of the high conductivity of the NiSi phase and correlates well with the results of structure studies.

Applicability of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) impregnated polyurethane nanoweb as a transmission line for smart textiles

Smart clothing, which can be manufactured based on smart textiles with electrical conductivity, can be used as a transmission line to transmit signals. The performance of the fabricated textile-based transmission line can be determined by evaluating light-emitting diode consistency. In this study, a textile-based transmission line was fabricated by impregnating two concentrations of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) to impart the electrical conductivity to a polyurethane (PU) nanoweb. Three conditions of thermal treatment were conducted to decrease the electrical resistance, and the thickness, electrical, surface, and chemical properties were evaluated. The thickness of the specimens tended to decrease at the low concentration, and the thermal treatment temperature increased. The linear resistances decreased from 1580 Ω/cm (PA) to 310.6 Ω/cm (PB120) as the concentration of PEDOT: PSS and thermal treatment temperature increased. Field emission scanning electron microscope images show that the PU nanoweb was uniformly and successfully impregnated with PEDOT: PSS. Raman spectra indicate an effect of the thermal treatment on the structural change of the PEDOT chains, which suggests an electrical resistance change of specimens. As a result, the optimum concentration of the PEDOT: PSS impregnated PU nanoweb as a transmission line for smart textiles is 2.6 wt%, and the thermal treatment temperature is 120℃. The performance of the textile-based transmission line (PB120) according to the length was higher as the length of the specimen was shorter. The highest consistency was 51 lm/m2 (50 mm), and the lowest was 45 lm/m2 (150 mm). Therefore, the PEDOT: PSS/PU nanoweb has applicability and feasibility as a transmission line.

Controllable formation of unusual homocrystals in poly(L-lactic acid)/poly(D-lactic acid) asymmetric blends induced by the constraining effects of pre-existing stereocomplexes

Crystallization in confined environments usually induces polymers showing complicated crystallization kinetics and unusual crystalline structure. Beyond the typical confined polymer systems, pre-existing crystals can also exert confinement effects on the subsequent crystallization of polymorphic or multi-component polymers; this, however, is not well understood at present. Herein, poly(L-lactic acid)/poly(D-lactic acid) (PLLA/PDLA, abbreviated as L/D) asymmetric blends with various PDLA fractions (f D = 0.02–0.5) are chosen as a model system and the effects of pre-existing stereocomplexes (SCs) on the crystallization kinetics and polymorphic structure are investigated. It is found that unusual β-form homocrystals (HCs) of poly(lactic acid) can be formed in an asymmetric L/D blend, which are strongly influenced by the molecular weights (MWs) of the used polymers, L/D mixing ratio, thermal treatment temperature (T max) and crystallization temperature (T c). The formation of β-HCs is preferred in asymmetric L/D blends with low and medium MWs, medium f D (0.1–0.2), medium T max (170–200°C), and low T c (70–110°C). The metastable β-HCs reorganize into the more stable α-HCs via melt recrystallization in the heating process. It is proposed that the β-HC formation stems from the constraining effects of pre-existing SCs; this constraining effect is governed by the content of pre-existing unmelted SCs in the thermally treated samples.

Influence of Thermal Treatment Temperature on Phase Formation and Bioactivity of Glass-Ceramics Based on the SiO2-Na2O-CaO-P2O5 System

In this work, the thermal treatment temperature effect on phase formation and bioactivity of glass-ceramics based on the SiO2-Na2O-CaO-P2O5 system has been studied. The chemical composition of the system is 45 wt.% SiO2, 24.5 wt.% Na2O, 24.5 wt.% CaO and 6 wt.% P2O5 (45S5). The rice husk ash is used as the natural raw materials instead of commercial SiO2. All of the investigated compositions were prepared by melting the glass mixtures at 1350°C for 3 h. The resulting glass samples were heated at different thermal treatment temperatures ranging from 750 to 1050°C with fixed dwell-time for 4 h for crystallization. Phase identification of the 45S5 glass ceramics was carried out by X-Ray diffraction (XRD). Moreover, the physical properties such as density, porosity and mechanical properties were systematically investigated. It was found that, the increasing of heat treatment temperature led to the increasing of the Na2Ca2Si3O9 phase and obtaining better bioactive behavior after incubation of glass-ceramics in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 7 days. The maximum hardness value of 4.02 GPa was achieved after heating at 1050°C for 4 h. However, the density value has slightly changed with various heat treatment temperatures.