RESUMO
State-of-the art atom probe tomography (APT) combined with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the microstructure at different stages of the ageing process of an alloy of composition (at%) Al-1.68%Cu-4.62%Li-0.33%Mg-0.1%Ag. These alloys were shown to exhibit a complex microstructure of T(1) plates and several metastable phases, including θ' and S. We will highlight the early stages of clustering, precipitate interactions and possible solute segregation at the matrix/precipitate interfaces and detail the chemical composition of the different phases.
RESUMO
The strengthening of an Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloy during natural ageing and subsequent short artificial ageing was investigated using three-dimensional atom probe (3DAP) analysis and tensile testing. The contingency table and Markov chain analyses confirmed that non-random arrangements of atoms already exist after a natural ageing time of only 3.5h. Extensive use of particle analysis tools in the IVAS and PoSAP software packages revealed that whilst the commonly used minimum aggregate size (N(min)) of 10 is a reasonable choice, much more useful information about the system can be gained by additionally employing a wide range of larger and smaller N(min) values. In particular, it was found that the density and volume fraction of solute aggregates increased with increasing natural ageing time in the T4 condition. After a 0.5h artificial ageing treatment at 170 °C (designated as T6), the size, volume fraction and Mg/Si ratio of the aggregates were all found to decrease with increasing prior natural ageing time. These findings are used to discuss the detrimental effect of natural ageing, where the T6 strength has been observed to decrease rapidly with increasing prior natural ageing time before stabilising after several hours of natural ageing.
RESUMO
Biodegradable scaffolds serve a central role for tissue engineering scaffolds and guiding tissue regeneration. Some of these scaffolds, including apatites, display a significant effect upon cell adhesion and cell proliferation. The incorporation of scaffold technology with the developing embryonic stem (ES) cell field and the capacity of ES cells for self-renewal and differentiation are believed to hold enormous potential for applications in biomedical research and regenerative medicine. The purpose of this work was to determine the effect of hydroxyapatite (HAP) and fluoride substitutions of HAP upon ES cell growth and colonisation. Sintered hydroxyfluorapatite discs were found to support cellular proliferation and colonisation, and the ES cells displayed a tendency for differentiation on the apatite surface as determined by reductions in colony Oct4 immunoreactivity. Fluoride-containing HAPs were found to provide equivalent support to gelatin in terms of cell numbers, yet superior support for cellular colonisation when compared to HAP. This study indicates that fluoride substitutions of HAP may represent a viable strategy for the development of certain engineered tissue replacements and tissue regeneration systems using ES cells.
