Tailoring through Colloidal Processing

   
2020

2019
 

27th December. Congratulations to Miguel de Dios as he has been awarded with the Outstanding Doctorate Student prize of the University Carlos III of Madrid.

Miguel de Dios defended his PhD Thesis entitled: "Synthesis, Processing and Mechanical Characterization of Ti(C,N)-based cermets through the combination of Colloidal and Powder Metallurgy techniques" the 22nd of December 2018. The work was supervised by Elena Gordo and Begoña Ferrari. The international evaluation committee was composed by Prof. Sofía Tsipas (UC3M) , Dr.Raquel de Oro (TU Wien) and Dr. A.Javier Sanchez-Herencia(ICV-CSIC) who granted Miguel´s thesis report and exposition with the Cum Laude and International mentions. Just after achieve the Ph Degree, Miguel found a job at Air Liquide Spain were he is now developing a sucessfull profesional carreer.

The prize-giving ceremony will be held at the University on the 28th of January.


 

25 December. Season´s Greetings. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Year 2020. Background of our Christmas Card is a tape of a composite of Hydroxiapatite and Gelatin cast from an aqueous slurry and freeze dried. By E. Vazquez and A. Ferrandez [Enlarge image].


 

1st December. New Paper published. H. Besharatloo, M. de Nicolás, M. Wheeler, A. Mateo, B. Ferrari, E. Gordo, L. Llanes, J.J. Roa, "Carbon addition effects on microstructure and small-scale hardness for Ti(C,N)-FeNi cermets"  Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater. 85, 105064 (2019). doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2019.105064

The current study investigates the influence of carbon addition on the microstructural and micromechanical properties of Ti(C,N)-FeNi cermets with different ceramic/metal phase ratios. Evaluation of small-scale hardness is conducted by using high speed nanoindentation in  conjunction with statistical analysis. Subsequent statistical analysis was done by considering three mechanically distinct phases: Ti(C,N) particles, the metallic binder, and one exhibiting the composite behaviour (i.e. imprints probing two-phase regions). In general, it is found that porosity amount is reduced as ceramic/metal phase ratio decreases and carbon is added. Carbon addition is also observed to rise small-scale hardness, but only for two of the defined phases: metallic binder and the composite one. Similar trends are observed regarding the influence of ceramic/metal phase ratio and carbon addition on the inverse hardness-fracture toughness correlation measured under high applied loads.


 

29th November. Workshop Our mate Begoña Ferrari has participated into the “10 Year Anniversary” International Symposium to celebrate the 10 years of the Institute of Biomaterials. The event was held on 29th November 2019 at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and chaired by the director of the Institute Prof. Aldo Boccacini. More than 120 participants attended the symposium, which featured a one day intense and high quality scientific program of international invited speakers. Begoña presented part of our recent advances and collaborations in a talk entitled "Relevance of colloidal processing in tissue engineering".

 

15th November. Farewell to Dr. Florencia Hernandez (Flor), who is returning home after spending six weeks with us studying the collidal processing of compounds and developing of complex microstructures nto the B2O3-Al2O3 system. It has been a quite productive and intese working time. Flor is returning to CETMIC-CONICET where she will continue characterizing the processes materials. We hope also we can expand our colaboration and see you back soon.


 

1st November. New Paper published. M.E. Garcia-Ayala, S. Tarancon, Z. Gonzalez, B. Ferrari, J.Y. Pastor, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, "Processing of WC/W composites for extreme environments by colloidal dispersion of powders and SPS sintering", Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater., 84,105026 ( 2019,) DOI:10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2019.105026

Tungsten and tungsten carbide are materials proposed for extreme environment applications such as first plasma face, or cutting tools. The high melting temperature and strong bonding energy of both materials force the use of powder metallurgical processes and non-conventional sintering routes to achieve dense parts. In this paper tungsten and tungsten carbide powders are colloidally processed and mixed to achieve composite powders that are sintered later by Spark Plasma Sintering. Starting micrometric tungsten carbide and nanosized tungsten powders are dispersed in water at pH3. Composite powders with volumetric rations of 50WC/50W, 80WC/20W and 90WC/10W as well as pure WC and W are sintered by SPS following the dimensional change of the specimens during the process. It has been proved that complete coverage of the micronic WC by the nanosized W powders, achieved with this colloidal approach, makes the tungsten govern the initial sintering stages. The derivative of the sintering curves is used to detect the solid state reactive sintering temperature of W2C. After sintering, XRD and SEM observations indicate that all the mixture compositions yield to ceramic materials with different W2C/WC ratios, depending on the initial compositions. Flexure tests at room temperature show that composite materials present a slightly lower fracture strength than pure WC.

 


 

1st November. New Paper Published. H. Besharatloo, M. de Nicolás, J.J. Roa, M. Dios, A. Mateo, B. Ferrari, E. Gordo, L. Llanes,"Assessment of mechanical properties at microstructural length scale of Ti(C,N)–FeNi ceramic-metal composites by means of massive nanoindentation and statistical analysis", Ceram. Int. 45 (16), 20202-20210, (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.06.292

Ti(C,N)-based cermets arise as excellent candidates to the traditional cemented carbides (WC–Co) due to their exceptional mechanical, tribological and thermal properties. In this work, microstructurally different Ti(C,N)–FeNi cermets were processed using a combination of colloidal and powder metallurgy techniques. Three distinct ceramic/metal phase ratios were used: 85/15, 80/20 and 70/30 (volume fraction) of Ti(C,N) and FeNi respectively. Small-scale hardness was evaluated by means of massive nanoindentation testing and statistical analysis of the gathered data, under the consideration of three mechanically different phases: Ti(C,N) particles, metallic binder and a composite-like one, corresponding to probing regions containing both constitutive phases. It is found that values of local hardness for both composite-like and metallic phases increase as the ceramic/metal phase ratio rises. In particular, local hardness values are determined to be significantly distinct for the metallic binder in the three cermets investigated. Estimated effective flow stress values for the metallic binder as well as detailed inspection of crack-microstructure interaction and fractographic features point out the effectiveness of FeNi as reinforcement phase and toughening agent for Ti(C,N)-base cermets.


 

15th October. New Paper published. A.Ferrández-Montero, M.Lieblich, J.L.González-Carrasco, R.Benavente, V.Lorenzo, R.Detsch, A.R.Boccaccini, B.Ferrari, "Development of biocompatible and fully bioabsorbable PLA/Mg films for tissue regeneration applications", Acta Biomater. 98, 114-124 (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.05.026

In this work we processed Mg reinforced PLA in the shape of films that would be suitable for tissue regeneration. Films with Mg content as high as 50 wt% were obtained without compromising the thermal stability of the polymer. Firstly, a successful dispersion of Mg microparticles was achieved by a breakthrough in processing introducing a colloidal step where organic additives were added to modify the Mg particle surface and promote a chemically stable suspension. The resulting colloidal suspension was then used as feedstock to obtain composite films by tape casting. The films show advantageous in vitro behaviour in terms of degradation, hydrogen release and oxygen permeability. In vitro behavior of PLA/Mg films demonstrated that Mg2+ ions increase the fibroblast cells growth. The viability with fibroblast cells (MEF) opens a window of opportunity for these composite films as bioabsorbable material for tissue engineering and wound dressing applications.


 

10-11th October. Our group has presented their recent results in the international Workshop for Young Researchers in Ceramics and Glasses for Medical Applications -YouCGMed- held at the ICV under the auspicies of the Spanish Ceramic Society and ECerS.

Ana Ferrandez-Montero was an organizing committee member, part of the Scientific Committee of the conferences and chaired the Ceramic session. She also presented her work on "Fused deposition modelling method to obtain PLA/HA 3D scaffolds using a novel colloidal feedstock" at the Session of Processing.

Álvaro Eguiluz presented his oral poster "New aproach to tailoring fused deposition modelling method to obtain HA-based 3D scaffolds" as a part of his PhD studies in Additive Manufacturing.

Begoña Ferrari was part of the Honour Committee and she also presented the oral poster "EPD of Halloysite clay nanotubes/gelatin composites for drug deliver"

Yolanda Castro was part of the Honour Committee presented she also the oral poster "Synthesis of mesoporous silica nanoparticles by sol-gel as nanocontainer for future drug delivery applications"


 

17th September. Welcome to Itzel Lorente!!!, who is here for a three months stay as a part of her Industrial PhD. She is carrying on her doctorate at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and AMES BARCELONA SINTERING, S.A. under the supervision of Prof. José Calero. In our group she is to study the colloidal behaviour of the metal powders in order to disperse and stabilize slurries.


 

16th September. Thesis Defense. Joaquín Yus defended at the UC3M his PhD Thesis entitled: "Nano-architectures with hierarchical porosity manufactured by colloidal techniques for application in ceramic semiconductor-based supercapacitors".

The international evaluation committee was composed by Dr. Sandra Cabañas (Johnson Matthey Advanced Glass Technologies, Netherlands), Dr. Jadra Mosa (ICV-CSIC) and prof. María Eugenia Rabanal (UC3M) who granted Joaco´s thesis report and exposition with the Cum Laude and International mentions. Congratulations!!


 

11-13th SeptemberOur team has presented recent results in the application of coloidal-chemistry in the development of additive manufacturing techniques during the 7th Shaping hold in Aveiro.

Ana Ferrandez-Montero presented her paper on "A Novel Technique Based on Fused Deposition Modeling to Obtain 3D Full-Ceramic Scaffolds" at the Session of Prototyping.

Our colleague Alex Sangiorgi, presented the paper “Three dimensional printing of photocatalytic titanium dioxide-based filters” (DOI: 10.1149/2.0341905jes) developed in collaboration with CNR-ISTEC.

Framed in the Session of Thick Films, Begoña Ferrari presented the KEYNOTE “Inks response to electro & mechanic stimulations: key to design 3D nanostructured coatings in EPD and IJP”.


 

28th August. New Paper on line. J. Domínguez-Robles, S. A. Stewart, A. Rendl, Z. González, R. F. Donnelly and E. Larrañeta, "Lignin and Cellulose Blends as Pharmaceutical
Excipient for Tablet Manufacturing via Direct Compression"
, Biomolecules, 9, 423 (2019) DOI:10.3390/biom9090423 (OPEN ACCESS)

This paper, in collaboration with members at the University of Belfast, presents the use of this biopolymer as excipient to prepare tablets as alternative uses for lignin (LIG). LIG was combined with microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and used as excipients to prepare directly compressed tablets containing a model drug, tetracycline (TC). The excipients contained different concentrations of LIG: 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% and 0% (w/w). Two different compression forces were used (two and five tonnes). The presence of LIG in the tablets modified significantly the release profile and the maximum amount of TC released. Finally, a DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrozyl) assay was performed to confirm that the presence of LIG provided antioxidant properties to the formulations. Accordingly, LIG has potential as a pharmaceutical excipient.


 

2nd August. New Paper on line. M.  de Nicolás, H. Besharatloo, J. M. Wheeler, M.  Dios, P. Alvaredo, J.J. Roa, B. Ferrari, L. Llanes, E. Gordo, "Influence of the processing route on the properties of  Ti(C,N)-Fe15Ni, Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater. On line, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2019.105046

This study aims to understand the influence of powder preparation and processing steps on the microstructure and properties of Ti(C,N)-Fe15Ni cermets with 70 and 80 vol. % of ceramic phase. Two routes were used for powder preparation: (i) a colloidal approach, consisting of the preparation of stable aqueous suspensions of the powder particles and spray-drying to obtain easy-to-press granules, and (ii) conventional powder metallurgy route, consisting on wet ball milling of powders, with subsequent drying in rotary evaporator. As a result, COL samples exhibit a more homogeneous microstructural assemblage, higher small-scale hardness and mechanical integrity under sliding contact conditions. Compositions of materials must then be adjusted to adequate initial C addition with respect to the employed processing route, to account for the effects of the mixtures preparation stage.


 

1st August. New Paper Published. J. Yus, Z. Gonzalez, A.J.Sanchez-Herencia, A.Sangiorgi, N.Sangiorgi, D.Gardini, A.Sanson, C.Galassi, A.Caballero, J.Morales, B.Ferrari, "Semiconductor Water-Based Inks: Miniaturized NiO Pseudocapacitor Electrodes by Inkjet Printing", J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 39 (9), 2908-2914 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2019.03.020

The paper presents the formulation, development and optimization of water-based inks of platelet-like nanoparticles. The as-synthesized Ni(OH)2 nanoparticles were dispersed and stabilized in aqueous suspension by PEI addition. The combination of DEG (cosolvent) with H2O shows the ideal values of surface tension and viscosity for piezoelectric inkjet printing, which exhibits a homogeneous jetting flow of the nanoplatelets suspension.

It is described a electrochemical overview of the NiO electrode behavior sintered at low temperature (325 °C). These printable pseudocapacitors tested by a three-electrode cell have showed a competitive specific capacitance, leading 92% and 78% of capacitance retention for 2000 cycles at scan rates of 1 and 2 A/g respectively, and a coulombic efficiency of 100%. This new finding is expected to be particularly useful for the designing of micro-pseudocapacitors.


 

5th July. Our group has host during the last months several studient of Master and Degree to make with us the mandatory final project. It is a synergy activity for all of us the student, the supervisors and the lab mates.

Congratulation to all and thank you for joining us with so possitive atmosphere!!!


 




26th June. Congratulations to Ana Ferrández as she has been awarded the IV AMES-Joan Antoni Bas R&D Award with the work entitled "Processing of Mg base materials through the combination of colloidal techniques and Additive Manufacturing".

The price is is to incentivate the development of topics of Interest for AMES company in universities and research centers at a national and international level. Price has an economical grant for the presenter and for the Department where the work was done.

The work presented by Ana covers a part of her thesis as well as the patent developed in our research group “Method for obtaining a piece by Fused Filament Deposition Modeling”.


 





24-26th June. Our group has participated in the VII Congreso Español de Pulvimetalurgia and II Congreso Iberoamericano de Pulvimetalurgia organized in Madrid by the “Grupo de Tecnología de Polvos” of University Carlos III of Madrid.

Begoña Ferrari  was an scientific committee member of the congress.
Javier Sánchez-Herencia chaired the Symposium on "Técnicas de procesamiento"

We have presented thre Oral presentations:

  • Manufactura Aditiva de Materiales Base Carburos Por FFF: Incorporación de Nanofases Metálicas Por Rutas Coloidales. (Begoña Ferrari)
  • A New Approach to Obtain Customized Biodegradable 3D Scaffolds by Fused Deposition Modelling Method. (Ana Ferrández)
  • Sinterización de Materiales de W y WC Con Aditivos de Sinterización Incorporados Por Rutas Coloidales de Procesamiento (Macarena García)

 

26th June. Following the JII in Castellón, our team has also participated in the national meeting on electroceramics "IXIV REUNIÓN NACIONAL DE ELECTROCERÁMICA" organized in the same city with the following oral presentations:

• Zoilo González presented "Additive manufacturing of tailored structures of functional ceramics".
• Joaquín Yus "From 3D Electrodes Processed by EPD to 2D Miniaturization by Inkjet Printing for Energy Storage Devices".


 




25th JuneOur team has participated in the second workshop for Young Researchers in Ceramic and Glass “II Jornadas de jóvenes investigadores" organized in Castellón by Instituto de cerámica y Vidrio (ICV) and the Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica (ITC) with the colaboration of the Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio(SECV) and the Universitat Jaume I (UJI).

Zoilo Gonzalez was an organizing committee member of the conferences and chaired the “Recubrimientos”.

Joaquin Yus presented the oral presentation entitled “Procesamiento de electrodos con differentes microarquitecturas mediante EPD e Inkjet Printing”.

Rafael Moratalla presented the oral presentation entitled “Recubrimiento de materiales cerámicos para electrodos de supercondensadores”. The results presented correspond with part of his end-of-career project that has developed in the 6 last months with our group. Welldone Rafa!


 




16-20th JuneOur team has presented the recent results in our main research lines during the XVI ECerS Conference hold in Torino. It has been a great time to share research and friendship with colleages of all over the world,

On Monday Joaquin Yus represented Spain in the Student Contest presenting its late results in the processing and characterization of materials for supercapacitors with the presentation “Colloidal Processing of NiO Nanoplatelets in Water-Based Suspensions at the Forefront of the Energy Storage: From 3D Electrodes Manufactured by EPD to 2D Miniaturization Available from Inkjet Printing". He could not get the price, even when he made a great job.

Ana Ferrandez participated in the Sesion of Ceramics and Glasses for Healthcare with the communication "A Novel Technique Based on Fused Deposition Modeling to Obtain 3D Full-Ceramic Scaffolds".

On Tuesday A. Javier Sanchez-Herencia presented in the Sesion for Advanced Structural Ceramics, Composites and Refractories: Cermets the communication "WC/W2C Composites for High Temperature Applications Processed from W and WC Aqueous Suspensions".

The Wednesday Zoilo Gonzalez presented in the Session Innovative Processing and Synthesis: Hybridization Technologies the communication "Fabrication of Tailored Structures of Semiconductors TiO2-Based by Colloidal Processing”.

and finally Begoña Ferrari Session Innovative Processing and Synthesis: Hybridization Technologies the communication "Tailoring of the Stabilizers Adsorption on Nanoparticles Surfaces for the Nanostructured Growth of Ceramic Coatings in 3D AM Structures".


 

10th June.New Paper published. Yus, J., Bravo, Y., Sanchez-Herencia, A.J., Ferrari, B., Gonzalez, Z., "Electrophoretic deposition of RGO-NiO core-shell nanostructures driven by heterocoagulation method with high electrochemical performance", Electrochim. Acta, 308, 363-372 (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2019.04.053

The paper presents a heterocoagulation route to prepare Reduced Graphene Oxide-Nickel Oxide (RGO/NiO) hybrid structures for their application as supercapacitor electrodes. The RGO intercalation among the NiO nanoplatelets has been carried out by electrostatic interactions of the synthetized particles which have been previously dispersed and stabilized in aqueous media to improve the assembly between both materials forming core-shell structures. The electrophoretic deposition (EPD) has been used to shape the composite onto 3D collector (Ni foams) controlling their growth and homogeneity. Electrodes have been thermal treated at 325 °C during 1 h to improve the electrochemical response since the formation of ceramic necks among NiO semiconductor nanoparticles preserves the microstructural integrity to enhance their connectivity avoiding the employment of binders, while RGO contributes with the electrochemical double layer effect to step up the specific capacitance by reducing the charge transfer resistance.


 

28th May. Dr. Brian Giera, from the Center for Engineered Materials and Manufacturing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's will give a seminar in the Auditorium of the Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio - CSIC (Calle Kelsen, 5 28040 Madrid -maps-) focused on develop and apply traditional (molecular dynamics & continuum/theory) and data driven (machine learning & computer vision) models to address materials processing and characterization problems within advanced manufacturing systems.

Dr. Giera is the Principal Investigator of the Exploratory Research Project "Rapid Closed-Loop Control of Advanced Manufacturing with Machine Learning" aimed to develop a machine-learning algorithm for vision-based control of additive-manufacturing processes to automatically detect problems and implement rectification strategies, thereby improving quality while reducing time and cost. [Dr. Giera's CV]


 
16th May. Begoña Ferrari is visiting the Claudine Filiatre's Group of research at the UTINAM Institute (Universe, Time-Frequency, Interfaces, Nanostructures, Atmosphere and Environment, Molecules) in the University of Franche-Comté (Besançon, France). This visit is correspond to a follow-up metting for the project "Dépôts céramiques à base de particules colloïdales pour le domaine de l'énergie" (Crysalide'2019 ). Dr. Ferrari will give a seminar entitled "Tailoring of the stabilizer adsorption on nanoparticles surfaces for the nanostructured growth of ceramic coatings in 3D structures".

 
14th May. Zoilo González has participated in the 25th Topical ISE Meeting: New electrochemical processes for energy and the environment organized in Toledo, Spain from 12th to 15th May 2019 by the Universidad Castilla la Mancha (UCLM) and the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE). Zoilo presented the following Oral presentations: Tailoring Electrode Microstructures for Improving their Performance by Colloidal Strategies


 
6th May. Welcome to Daniela Tovar who is here for a three months stay as a part of her PhD. She is carrying on her doctorate on Co-doping of Zirconia Ceramics at the Center for Research in Structural Integrity, Reliability and Micromechanics of Materials of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia under the supervision of Prof. Emilio Jiménez. In our group she is to study the colloidal behaviour of the zirconia and the materials she is dealing with in order to achieve better microstructures and process samples with different shapes and composition from optimized slurries.

 
1st April. B. Ferrari and A.J. Sanchez-Herencia have visited the Metallurgy and Materials Science Research Institute at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. A.J. Sanchez-Herencia presented our capabilities in colloidal processing of metals and other non-oxide materials. During the visit to the laboratories, hosted by Prof. Yuttanant Boonyongmaneerat they had the possibility of discuss with the different groups on electrochemical processing, batteries, additive manufacturing, and cultural heritage. [enlarge image]

 

25th March. The Group is participating in the 11th International Conference on the Science of Hard Materials held in Khaolak, Thailand, which has attracted expert in cemented carbides, hard metals and other structural metal-ceramics composites.
A.J. Sanchez-Herencia presented the oral comunication entitled "Aqueous colloidal processing of WC/W composites for extreme environments" and B. Ferrari the one entitled "The colloidal approach to the fused filament fabrication of hard metal: incorporation of nanophases to the feedstock".


 

28th February. New Paper online. A. Sangiorgi, Z. Gonzalez, A. Ferrandez-Montero, J. Yus, A. J. Sanchez-Herencia, C. Galassi, A. Sanson and B. Ferrari, "3D Printing of Photocatalytic Filters Using a Biopolymer to Immobilize TiO2 Nanoparticles", J. Electrochem. Soc. 166 (5), H3239-H3248 (2019). doi:10.1149/2.0341905jes

The paper describes titanium oxide-based photocatalytic filters produced by Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) using biopolymers obtained from renewable biomass resources. The thermoplastic route allows shaping composites through the immobilization of photoactive TiO2 nanoparticles in an environmentally friendly bioplastic such as the polylactic acid (PLA). Composites with an inorganic charge of 30wt% of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) exhibit a 100% methyl orange (MO) degradation after 24 h of light exposition due to the extremely uniform dispersion of the nanophase within the polymer matrix in the FDM feedstock.

The proposed new route of processing improves the dispersion of nano-charges comparing with the traditional thermo-pressing routes used for mixing thermoplastics based composites, avoiding the thermal degradation of the polymer and providing a customised product.


 
7th January. We congratulate our good friend and collaborator Dr. Raul Bermejo, from the Institute of Structural and Functional Ceramics (ISFK) at the University of Leoben, who has been granted with an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project CeraText "Tailoring Microstructure and Architecture to Build Ceramic Components with Unprecedented Damage Tolerance". ERC grants are some of the most competitive all over the world and are funded by the European Union to promote the excelence in research. WE have been collaborating with Raul for a long time, and we expect to continue the collaboration for a longer one.
2019

2018
 
We wish a Merry Christmas and a Happpy year 2109 to all. May all yours best dreams became true. Large image

 

7th November.Research award. Our colleague F. Javier González López has won the Sociemat award to the best Final Degree Project, sponsorted by the "Fundación Caja de Ingenieros", for his work entitled "Manufactura aditiva de materiales compuestos de matriz polimérica con alta concentración de carga inorgánica para el procesamiento de implantes de hidroxiapatita mesoporosos y 100% inorgánico". The work was supervised by Begoña Ferrari and Ana Ferrandez. During the celebrations of the International day of Materials, Javier received the certificate and impart a lecture about the subject. Now to get similar scores with the Master!!!


 
29th October. Thesis Defense. Ana Ferrandez defended at the UC3M her PhD Thesis entitled: "Processing by Colloidal Techniques and Characterization of Mg/Polymer Materials for application in the biomedical industry".
The international evaluation committee was composed by Prof. Sandra Cifuentes, (UC3M), Prof. Luigi Torre (Un. Perugga) and Dr. Yolanda Castro (ICV-CSIC) who granted Ana´s thesis report and exposition with the Cum Laude and International mentions. Congratulations!!

 

10th October. Congratulations to Joaquin Yus as he has been awarded the Best Oral Communication presented at  the Student Speech Contest in the V Congreso Hispano-Luso de Cerámica y Vidrio  with the work entitled "The age of additive manufacturing. Water based semiconductor inks for the fabrication of Energy Microdevices." Part of this work was carried out during his stay at the ISTEC supported by the JECS Trust mobility grant. Being part of his thesis funded by the Regional Government through the European Union’s Young Employment Initiative (YEI).

 

 

8th OctoberOur team has participated in the V Congreso Hispano-Luso de Cerámica y Vidrio  organized in Barcelona by the Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio, The Sociedade Portuguesa de Cerâmica e Vidro, The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelonatech and the CIEFMA.

Begoña Ferrari  was an organizing committee member of  the congress and chaired the Industrial Networking event
Zoilo González chaired the Symposium on "Advanced Manufacturing Technologies"
Javier Sánchez-Herencia chaired the Symposium on "Cemented Carbides, Hardmetals and other Ceramic-Metal Composites"

Our colleagues presented the following Oral presentations:

  • Towards the development of innovative ceramic semiconductors structures of TiO2 by additive manufacturing processes. (Zoilo González)
  • Processing of Tungsten-Tungsten Carbide Composites by a Colloidal Approach. (Macarena García-Ayala)
  • Anchorage study between hydroxyapatite particles and thermoplastic agents to obtain ceramic-based scaffolds by fused deposition modelling method. (Ana Ferrández)
  • The age of additive manufacturing. Water based semiconductor inks for the fabrication of Energy Microdevices. (Joaquín Yus)
  • Processing of patterned TiN coatings by ink-jet on metals for hardness improvements. (Antonio Javier Sanchez-Herencia)

 

1st October. New Paper published. T. Zimmermann, A. Ferrandez-Montero, M. Lieblich, B. Ferrari, J.L. González-Carrasco, W.D. Müller, A.D. Schwitalla, “In vitro degradation of a biodegradable polylactic acid/magnesium composite as potential bone augmentation material in the presence of titanium and PEEK dental implants”, Dent. Mater. 34 (10), 1492-1500 (2018). doi:10.1016/j.dental.2018.06.009

This study assess the degradation behavior by measuring the H2 release of a biodegradable composite consisting of a polylactic acid matrix reinforced with 30% wt. spherical magnesium microparticles (PLA/Mg) as potential bone augmentation material in combination with dental implants of either titanium or polyetheretherketone (PEEK) in order to evaluate the potential influence of the titanium dental implants on the corrosion behavior of the Mg particles within the PLA matrix.

Regarding the similar values of the degradation depending H2 release of the two implant material groups, the co-implantation of a PLA/Mg composite is not only possible with new metal-free implant materials such as PEEK, but also with conventional implants of titanium.


 

17th SeptemberNew Paper on line. Z. Gonzalez, J. Yus, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, J. Dewalque, L. Manceriu, C. Henrist, B. Ferrari, "A colloidal approach to prepare binder and crack-free TiO2 multilayer coatings from particulate suspensions: Application in DSSCs", J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2018.09.018

This paper describes a well-compacted and crack-free TiO2 multilayer coatings manufactured from a colloidal approach. Processing methodology has been designed to obtain interconnected microstructures, free of defects and heterogeneities. The sintering process was at low temperature, 450º C, allowed open microarchitectures without complete densification and favoring the dye adsorption. A thickness of 12.8 µm resulted in a successful dye loading of 4.52 × 10-10 mol·mm-2 and a photoefficiency of 5.7%, both in the range of the others particulate systems.

The paper contains some result of the collaboration between our Group and the Group of Research in Energy and ENvironment from Materials (GREEnMat) at the University of Liege. This successful collaboration has been supported by JECSTrust throught a Frontiers of Research Grant awarded to our colleague Z. Gonzalez, who spent 3 months in the GREEnMat Lab.


 

7th September. Congratulations to Joaquin Yus as he has been awarded the Best Poster Prize presented at 69th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry with the poster entitled "Electrophoretic Deposition of a GO/Ni(OH)2 Composite Material produced by Hetereocoagulation as promising Supercapacitor Electrode". The work is a part of his thesis funded by the Regional Government through the European Union´s Young Employment Iniciative (YEI).


 

7th SeptemberOur team has participated in the 69th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry organized in Bologna.
Begoña Ferrari chaired the Symposium 12: Electrophoretic Deposition of Functional Coatings: from Materials Science to Biotechnology.

Our colleagues presented the following posters:

  • EPD of Halloysite clay nanotubes/gelatin composites for drug delivery.
  • TiO2 nanostructured films prepared by colloidal routes for application in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells.
  • Electrophoretic Deposition of a GO/Ni(OH)2 Composite Material produced by Hetereocoagulation as promising Supercapacitor Electrode

Zoilo González presented the oral communication “Colloidal Strategies to shape Core-Shell based films by EPD and their Electrochemical Performance as Pseudocapacitor electrodes” and Joaquín Yus presented the paper "Electron Transport Through Mesoporous and Interconnected Ni-Based Microstructures Shaped by Electrophoretic Deposition " with some of their recent results in colloidal processing for supercapacitors.


 

1st September. New Paper on line. P. Alvaredo, M. Dios, B. Ferrari and E. Gordo, “Understanding of wetting and solubility behavior of Fe binder on Ti(C,N) cermets”, J. Alloys. Comp. 770 (5) 17-25 (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2018.07.243

Iron is considered as the main alternative binder in cermets; however proper compositions are still under development as it is necessary to improve the sintering. This work propose the use of Ni as sintering aid to improve the wettability without the introduction of secondary phases. The article shows a comprehensive study of the high temperature behavior, in terms of solubility and wettability, of the system FeNi/Ti(C,N) , and the results are compared with the study of the conventional system Ni/Ti(C,N). A better understanding of the high temperature behavior between binder and reinforcement allows to design new compositions and to search strategies to improve the densification of the cermets.


 

30th AugustCongratulations to Ana Ferrandez as her Oral Poster Presentation of the work entitled "Biodegradable PLA/Mg films for tissues regeneration" in the 10th Symposium on Biodegradable Metals has been awared as the Best Poster Presentation. The work is a part of the Proyect Multimat Challenge supported by the Regional Goverment of Madrid and presents the results of the collaborative actions between CENIM-CSIC, ICV-CSIC and the Institute of Biomaterials (Univ. Erlangen). [Videonews]

 

15th August. New Paper. P. Alvaredo, J. Escribano, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sánchez-Herencia and E. Gordo, “Steel binder cermets processed by combination of colloidal processing and powder metallurgy”, Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater. 74, 1-6 (2018). doi:10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2018.02.018

Colloidal techniques are proposed to overcome the agglomeration of Ti(C,N) particles and the low compressibility of the metal-ceramic blends. Aqueous suspensions of steel powders and Ti(C,N) particles are prepared followed by spray-dry to obtain spherical granules able to be processed by pressing and sintering, avoiding oxidation of powders. The agglomerates present higher compressibility than blends, and sintered materials show higher density and hardness.


 
2nd August. E. Macarena García has reached one movility grant from the JECS Trust to spend three months at the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics (CNR-Italy) in Faenza working under the supervision of Dr Laura Silvestroni. She is going to study the sintering of WC powders with sintering aids dispersed by colloidal method. She will deal with advenced sintering techniques such as sintering under vacuum and/or controlled atmosphere and Hot Press.

 
19th July. Javier González defended his Grade Final Project entitled "Additive manufacture of polymer matrix composite materials with high concentration of inorganic load for the processing of mesoporous 100% inorganic hydroxiapatite implants", obtaining outstanding qualification. While the development of the proyect the Start-Up owned by Javier won the prize as best 3D printing project for osseous 3D printing during the national eHealth congress .

 

 
6th June. Zoilo González and Begoña Ferrari have participated in the CIMTEC 2018
(14th International Ceramics Congress) hold in Perugia, Italy. Z. Gonzalez presented the oral communications entitled: "Tailoring the Microstructure of TiO2 Photoactive Electrodes by using Cellulose Nanofibers and by Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Absorption" in the Session on Novel Synthesis and Processing, while B Ferrari presented the Invited Oral communication "Layer by Layer Modification of Nanoparticles Surfaces in Suspension: From Order to Chaos during the Nanostructured Growth of a Ceramic Film" during the sesion of Colloidal Processing.

 
7th MayFarewell picture of Joaquin Yus with the group of Dr. Carmen Galassi (Institute of science and technology for Ceramics, ISTEC - CNR), after his stay of three months in the Electroceramics and  Colloidal Processing group working in the research line about InkJet printing of ceramics suspensions with applications in Supercapacitors. The stay has been supported by a JECS Trust mobility grant. It has been a great time for him and we look forward to meet with the Dr. Carmen Galassi research group in Bologna during the 69th Annual ISE Meeting by September.

 
13th April. Our group has attended the III annual meeting of the Multimat Project held at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos I in Mostoles. As in previous issues students PhD students presented their work in progress, been this a good oportunity to get an overview of the advances and subjects the different partners are going on. Macarena García presented, into the Energy Challenge sesion, her most recent results in colloidal processing of tungsten compounds. Ana Ferrandez presented the new result on the colloidal an approach to processing of Magnesium-PLA composites into the Health Challenge..

 

9th April. Our colleague Zolilo González has earned a "Juan de la Cierva - Incorporación" grant to develop its research within our group during the next two years. This is a very competitive contract for young researchers who defended their PhD in the last five years and for what both the hosting group and the candidate curriculum are evaluated. Congrat to all the group and speccialy to Zoilo.

 

3rd March. Farewell party to wish Behnam Abdollahy (Univ. Teheran) and Laura Ramos (Univ. Erlangen) a safe trip back to home, aftern their stay in our group working in the reserach line about processing of biomaterials. Behnam has been with us for six months processing and characterizing biomaterials with drug carriers and Laura, during two months, has studied the processing of bioactive coatings on metallic substrates by EPD. It has been a great time for all and we look forward to see they again soon.


 
J Eur Ceram Soc

15th February. New Paper. C. Mendoza, Z. Gonzalez, E. Gordo, B. Ferrari and Y. Castro, “Protective nature of nano-TiN coatings shaped by EPD on Ti substrates”, J. Eur Ceram. Soc, 38 (2) 495-500 (2017)doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2017.09.046.

Uniform and dense TiN coatings have been obtained onto substrates of Ti by Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD). A deposition time of 5 min has been enough to obtain a cohesive layer of 7–8 μm in thickness. The coatings were thermally treated in vacuum atmosphere at 1200 °C for 1 h with heating and cooling rates of 5 °C min−1. The hardness and corrosion resistance of TiN coatings have been evaluated. The nanohardness values of the polished samples have been increased from 2.8–4.8 GPa up to 6.5–8.5 GPa. Besides, the corrosion current density has been reduced more than one order of magnitude obtaining a protective efficiency of 82%. These values demonstrate the strong impact of the colloidal processing over the specific properties of the material.


 
7th February. Zoilo González has participated in the JICI IV (Meeting of Young Researchers on Colloids and Interfaces) hold in Córdoba from 7th to 9th of February. He presented the oral communication entitled "Colloidal Processing of Ceramic Semiconductor of NiO and TiO2 for Energy Storage-Harvesting Devices"

 
5th February. Our Group has had an intense participation in the 42th edition of the Alfa de Oro awards celebrated during CEVISAMA2018, the International fair for Architectural Ceramic, Natural Stone, Raw Materials, Glazes, Frits and Machinery. Javier Sánchez has been member of the Jury and Begoña Ferrari, as General Secretary of the Spanish Ceramic Society conducted the Prize ceremony. The Alfa de Oro Awards are given by the Spanish Ceramic Society to recognize the R+D efforts of ceramic industries and related companies on its fabrication processes and final products.

 
Current Issue
1st February. Dr. Begoña Ferrari is one of the co-editors of the ECES Transactions Issue No. 1 Electrophoretic Deposition VI recently published (vol. 82, No. 1, 2018) containing papers presented at the VI International Conference on Electrophoretic Deposition: Fundamentals and Applications. This book includes the paper by J.L. Yus, Dr. Z. Gonzalez and E. Chinarro, entitled “The Effect of the Substrate on the Conductivity of NiO Electrodes in Electrochemical Capacitor Shaped by Electrophoretic Deposition” doi:10.1149/08201.0097ecst.

 
29th January. Joaquin Yus is to spent three months at the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics (CNR-Italy) in Faenza working with the Prof. Carmen Galassi Group. He is to study printable aqueous inks based on modified ceramic semiconductor nanoparticles for the fabrication of micro‐supercapacitors by Inkjet Printing. The stay is supported by the JECS Trust by a mobility action entitled "Inkjet printing of Ni‐based suspensions for micro‐pseudocapacitors".

 

25th January. New Paper Published. M.Dios, I. Kraleva, Z. Gonzalez, P.Alvaredo, B.Ferrari, E.Gordo and R.Bermejo,, “Mechanical Characterization of Ti(C,N)-based cermets fabricated through different colloidal processing routes”, J. Alloys Compd., 732 806-87(2018).. doi: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.10.274

It is focused on the mechanical characterization of Ti(C,N)-based cermets processed through colloidal and powder metallurgy techniques, analyzing the effect of carbon on mechanical response. It is uncovered the direct relationships between mechanical properties and processing route were obtained. The fracture mechanisms observed are dimple ductile and transgranular cleavage.


 
2nd January. Farewell. We start the year saying goodby to Miguel de Dios who has got a job at Air Liquide. He has started in the new position only fifteen days after his thesis defense!!!. Congratulation, good luck and see you soon!!!
2018

2017
 

 

24th December. The members of the Taioliring Through Colloidal Processing´s Group wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy year 2018. May all your dreams come true.


 
20th December. Thesis Defense. Miguel de Dios defended at the UC3M hir PhD Thesis entitled: "Synthesis, Processing and Mechanical Characterization of Ti(C,N)-based cermets through the combination of Colloidal and Powder Metallurgy techniques".
The international evaluation committee was composed by Prof. Sofía Tsipas (UC3M) , Dr.Raquel de Oro (TU Wien) and Dr. A.Javier Sanchez-Herencia(ICV-CSIC) who granted Miguel´s thesis report and exposition with the Cum Laude and International mentions. Congratulations!!

 
11th December. Our group has awared a grant to support a predoctoral student during two year. Funds for the grant came from the European Union through the Young Employment Iniciative (YEI), the Regional Government and from the group. Begoña Ferrari is to supervise the work of the student in surface modification of semiconductor materials and it implications in its electrochemical response.

 
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
15th November. New Paper. M.Dios, Z. Gonzalez, P.Alvaredo, R.Bermejo, E. Gordo and B. Ferrari, “Novel colloidal approach for the microstructural improvement in Ti(C,N)/FeNi cermets”, J. Alloys Compd. 724 (15) doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.07.034 (2017).
It is focused on the processing of Ti(C,N)-based cermets using fine powders (1–3 μm) in suspension. By combining colloidal and powder metallurgy techniques the uniformity of the phase distribution and its reactivity is promoted, leading to 99.9% dense cermets with Hardness values as high as 1300HV30.

 

8th November. New Paper. J. Yus, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, A. Caballero, J. Morales and Z. Gonzalez, “In Situ Synthesis and Electrophoretic Deposition of NiO/Ni Core-Shell Nanoparticles and Its Application as Pseudocapacitor”,Coatings, 7, (11) 193 (2017). doi:10.3390/coatings7110193

NiO/Ni core–shell hybrid nanostructures as binder-free electrodes to their application in supercapacitors are synthesized and processed by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) in aqueos media. After thermal treatment the necks created among ceramic-metallic nanoparticles preserve the structural integrity of the microstructure avoiding avoiding the employment of binders and enhancing in the interparticles connectivity.
Specific capacitance of NiO/Ni electrodes is 755 F/g. This value doubles the results of simple NiO nanoplatelets due to the presence of metallic Ni nanoparticles.


 

1st November. New Paper. E. Espinosa, R. Sánchez, Z. González, J. Domínguez-Robles, B. Ferrari, A. Rodríguez, “Rapidly growing vegetables as new sources for lignocellulose nanofibre isolation: Physicochemical, thermal and rheological characterisation”,Carbohydrate Polym., 175, 27-37 (2017). doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.07.055

The aim of this study has been to study the suitability of tagasaste and leucaena as new sources of biomass for lignocellulosic nanofibre production. LCNF were produced using three different pre-treatments, TEMPO-mediated oxidation, enzymatic treatment, or a mechanical process. XRD and FTIR analysis show that homogenisation has a strong negative effect on the crystallinity index; however, the higher lignin content of tagasaste (10%) protects the fibre, causing a smaller decrease in crystallinity. The thermal stability of LCNF is also affected by the high lignin content in the case of tagasaste, which exhibited maximum degradation temperatures of 340–315 °C, that were higher than those for leucaena (330–310 °C). A strong shear thinning behaviour was observed in most of the LCNF, which revealed a great degree of interconnectivity in the gel like-network.


 
1st November.Our group has participated in the Iberoamerican Workshop on Biomaterials for Medical Aplicacions hold at Conicet La Plata. Javier Sanchez presented the strategies for processing of porous inorganic structures from slurries and Begoña Ferarri our capabilites on odditive manufacturing of biomaterials. This workshop is framed in the activities of the i-link proyect we are participating in.

 
3rd October. Begoña Ferrari has presented the paper entitled "Film processing by EPD" in the VI Conference on Electrophoretic Deposition which is hold in Gyeongju (South Korea). The speach is included in a special symposium entitled “Fundamental Aspects of Electrophoretic Deposition” organized to celebrate the scientific career of Prof. O. Van der Biest on the year of his 70th birthday, highlighting his many contributions to the field of electrophoretic deposition.

 
Electrochimica Acta 1st September. New Paper. Z. Gonzalez, J.Yus, A.Caballero, J. Morales, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and B. Ferrari, “Electrochemical performance of pseudo-capacitor electrodes fabricated by Electrophoretic Deposition inducing Ni(OH)2 nanoplatelets agglomeration by Layer-by-Layer”, Electrochim. Acta, 247 doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2017.07.043 (2017).
It presents the tuning of Ni(OH)2 surfaces with polyelectrolytes following a Layer-by-Layer (LbL) methodology and fixing the conditions of the EPD process. NiO films with a stable and extremely open macroporous structure were processed to coat Ni foams, improving the capacitive performance to values of specific capacitances of 650 F/g.

28th June, Our team has participated in the VI edition of the "Jornada de Jóvenes Investigadores (Young Researchers Day and Contest)" organized at the ICV-CSIC and supported by the Spanish Ceramic Society (SECV).

Miguel de Dios, overcoming the technological barriers, presented the paper entitled "Mechanical characterization and fractographic analysis of Ti(C, N)-FeNi cermets", with some results he obtained during his 3 months stay at Montanuniversität (Austria) working with Dr. Raul Bermejo .

Joaquín Yus presented the paper "Studies ion the electrochemical behaviour for Core/Shell Ni based particles, processed and sintetized by colloidal techniques" including some of his recent results in colloidal processing of supercapacitors.


 

23th June, He have received the visit of our colleague from France Claudine Filiâtre She is an spetiallist in Chemistry at Surfaces in the group “Matériaux et Surfaces Fonctionnalisés” of the Institute UTINAM – UMR CNRS 6213, at the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté. After a productive discussion of the on going works of our group, some of them in common, she presented at the Institute some of their recent advances on transport and adhesion of particles funcionalizated with cationic surfactants or with a layer by layer (LbL) polyelectrolyte assembly in the conference entitled "Deposition and assembly of particles and polyelectrolytes: Influence of surfactants, type of polyelectrolyte, cations and pH".

 

22th June, Joaquín Yus has participated in the XIII National Meeting on Electroceramics hold in Cuenca. He presented the oral communication entitled "Estudio de las Propiedades Electroquímicas de Nanopartículas de NiO/Ni tipo Core/Shell Sintetizadas y Procesadas por Técnicas Coloidales".

 

6th June. The group has participated in the VI National and the 1st Iberoamerican Meeting of Powdermetallugy. The meeting was hold in Ciudad Real from 7th to 11th of June, being Begoña Ferrari was one of the chairs. The meeting has gained great interest in local and regional press media [media 1] [ media 2] [ media 3] [ media 4].

Javier Sánchez-Herencia presented the work entitled "Dispersión y estabilidad de suspensiones de partículas submicrónicas de W en agua para su!procesamiento por técnicas coloidales"

Miguel de Dios presented the communication entitled "Influencia del procesamiento en las propiedades mecánicas de CERMETS Ti(C,N)-FeNi"

Begoña Ferrari presented the work "Nuevos films biodegradables de PLDA/Mg-HA procesados por colaje en cinta"


 

1st June. Miguel de Dios presented the communication entitled "Mechanical characterization of Ti(C,N)-based cermets fabricated through different colloidal processing routes" by M.Dios, I. Kraleva, Z. González, P. Alvaredo, B. Ferrari, E. Gordo, R. Bermejo at the International Conference of Refractory Metals and Hard Materials hold during the 19th Plansee Seminar in Reutte, Austria.


 

18th May. New Paper online. Z. Gonzalez, C. Filiatre, C.C. Buron, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and B. Ferrari, “Electrophoretic Deposition of Ni(OH)2 Nanoplatelets Modified by Polyelectrolyte Multilayers: Study of the Coatings Formation in a Laminar Flow Cell”, J. Electrochem. Soc., 164 (7) doi: 10.1149/2.0801707jes (2017).

It presents the characteriztion of the particle surface modification of nanostructured Ni(OH)2 films with alternative monolayers of Polyethylenimine (PEI) and Polyacrylic Acid (PAA).


 

3rd May. Welcome to Macarena García who has joined to make the PhD supported by a Researchers Training grant associated to the ING4MATER project. She will work on the colloidal processing of tungsten based composites and their mechanical characterization in collaboration with the Politecnic University of Madrid.


 

30th April. Farewell to Ana Ferrandez is to spent three months working at the Prof. Aldo Boccacini´s Group in the Institute of Biomaterials (University of Erlangen-Nurembergof) to characterize new composites she has developed in her Thesis which can serve as tissue engineering scaffolds. The stay is supported by the JECS Trust by a mobility action entitled "In vitro studies of HAp/PLA materials processed by colloidal techniques and designed by additive manufacturing".

 

16th April. Farewell to Zoilo Gonzalez is to spent three months working with Prof. Catherine Henrist at the Group of Research in Energy and ENvironment from MATerials - GREENMAT (University of Liege) on the characterization of the electrocatalithic response of nano-TiO2 coatings. This research stay is suported by the JECS Trust by a Frontiers of Research project.

 

7th April. New Paper online. N.I. Vazquez, Z. Gonzalez, B. Ferrari and Y. Castro, “Synthesis of mesoporous silica nanoparticles by sol–gel as nanocontainer for future drug delivery applications”, B. Soc. Esp. Ceram. Vid., doi: 10.1016/j.bsecv.2017.03.002 (2017).

It is focused on the synthesis of silica carriers by sol–gel from tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as precursor of silica with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as pore generating agent.


 
3th April.Welcome to Guillermo Frias who has joined our group as technisian supported by the "Comunidad de Madrid" (Regional Governemnt ) grants for hiring technicians suported by the European Commision through the Youth Employment Iniciative (YEI). He will be at the lab for at least two years involved in most of the research activities.

 

21st March. New Paper online. E. Molero, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, E. Gordo, P. Colombo, “ Ti/Ti3SiC2(/TiC) bulk and foam composites by pyrolysis of polycarbosilane and TiH2 mixtures”, Adv. Eng. Mater., 1600700. doi:10.1002/adem.201600700 (2017). It presents the shapping of Porous Titanium bodies reinforced with MAX phases from slurries and emulsions.


 

17th February. Dr. Begoña Ferrari with Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and Dr. Laxmidhar Besra are guest editing a special issue on "Electrophoretic Deposition" in the open access journal "Coatings" (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings/special_issues/electrophor_depos). It has started the Call for Papers (PDF) with a deadline for manuscript submissions on 30 June 2017. Any specialist in the subject is invited to submit its papers to this special issue in OPEN ACCESS format (free for readers, with publishing fees paid by authors or their institutions).


 

2nd February.  We wellcome back to A. Javier Sánchez-Herencia who has quit his position as Deputy Vicepresident at the CSIC headquarters and is resuming his researching activity at the group.


 
FebruaryNew Paper Published.M. Dios, Z. Gonzalez, E. Gordo, B. Ferrari, “Chemical precipitation of nickel nanoparticles on Ti(C,N) suspensions focused on cermet processing”, Int. J. Refract. Met. Hard Mater., 63, 2-8 (2017) doi:10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2016.08.009 (2017). It presents a one-pot route through colloidal techniques to synthesize nanoparticles of metallic Ni on Ti(C,N) bigger grais on a core-shell arrangement and further processing of compacts with improved microstructural homogeneity by slip casting.

 

1st January. Welcome to Dr. Zoilo González to the Colloidal’s team. He has joined our research group as Post-doc Researcher, after the long collaboration maintained with us during the last four years, while he has belonged to the R+D department of the company HISBALIT, S.A.
He is to lead the research line on the synthesis and colloidal processing of nanostructures based on oxide semiconductors for the storage and generation of , contributing to the group research with his “Frontiers of research” project. In this line he is co-supervising the research work of a PhD student, J. Yus, in “Ceramic-based supercapacitors shaped by Colloidal Processing”. Moreover, he will also collaborate to develop specific tasks of the ING4MATER project and the MULTIMAT Challenge program (www.multimat.org).

2017

2016
 

24th December. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas plenty of happyness and a very happy year 2017.


 

22nd December. Miguel de Dios has returned from his stay in the Institut für Struktur- und Funktionskeramik,  Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria) where he has been testing, under the supervisión of Dr. Raul Bermejo, the mechanical response of the materials he has designed and processed during his PhD research. The development of new hard metal formulations, with the use of Fe-based binders, is framed in the ING4MATER and MITICO projects in a fruitful and long collaboration (more than 6 years) between Dr. Elena Gordo, from the Grupo de Tecnología de Polvos, UC3M, and Dr. Begoña Ferrari, from the Tailoring throught Colloidal processing group, at the ICV-CSIC.


 

11th November Dr. Begoña Ferrari is chairing the VI Congreso Nacional de Pulvimetalurgia y I Congreso Iberoamericano de Pulvimetalurgia (www.vicnp.e) with Dr. Gemma Herranz (UCLM) and Dr. Jose Maria Cabrera (UPC). The Powder Technologies for Ceramic and Metal Processing will be diffused together for the first time!!! The Comité Español de Pulvimetalurgia, CEP-EMPA, and the Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio, SECV (www.secv.es) sponsor the initiative. Abstract submission is now open. We will meet at Ciudad Real on 7-9 June!!.


 
September. New Paper Published. Z. Gonzalez, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, A. Caballero, J. Morales. “Use of Polyelectrolytes for the Fabrication of Porous NiO Films by Electrophoretic Deposition for Supercapacitor Electrodes”, Electrochim. Acta, 211, 110–8 DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2016.06.014

 
23rd August. Begoña Ferrari presented the communication entitled "Inducing flocculation of TiN nanoparticles during deposition through their steric stabilization in non-aqueous suspensions" by B. Ferrari, Z. Gonzalez, C. Mendoza, E. Gordo, Y. Castro (link PDF) at the symposium Combined Electro and Electrophoretic Deposition for Advanced Materials Synthesishold during the 67th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry at The Hague

 
Details

August. New Publications. E. Gordo, R.G. das Neves, B. Ferrari, A. Jimenez-Morales, A. Lima, A.C. Alves, A. M. Pinto, F. Toptan, “Corrosion and tribocorrosion behavior of Ti-alumina composites”, 3rd Conference on Powder Processing Consolidation and Metallurgy of Titanium, ISBN: 978-303835539-7, Key Eng. Mater., 708, 28-37 (2016).
DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.704.28

B. Ferrari, E. Molero, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, R. Das Neves, E. Gordo, “Shaping strategies for porous Ti fabrication throughout colloidal chemistry”, 3rd Conference on Powder Processing Consolidation and Metallurgy of Titanium, ISBN: 978-303835539-7, Key Eng. Mater., 708, 406-412 (2016).
DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.704.406


 

 

2nd June. Great participation of our group in the 229th ECS Meeting held in San Diego (EEUU) with two oral presentations.

- “Capacitance Improvement of Semiconductor Electrode by LbL Modification” presented in Joint General Session (Batteries and Energy Storage and Fuels, Electrolytes, and Energy) Z. Gonzalez, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia. A. Caballero and J. Morales.

- “EPD: From order to Chaos by the LbL Modification of the particles Surfaces” presented in Electrophoretic Deposition Symposium. Z. Gonzalez, C. Filiatre, Y. Castro, C. Mendoza, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and B. Ferrari.  


 
May. New Paper Published. M.Dios, Z. Gonzalez, E.Gordo and B. Ferrari. “Semiconductor-metal core-shell nanostructures by colloidal heterocoagulation in aqueous medium”, Mater. Lett. 180, 327–31(doi: 10.1016/j.matlet.2016.05.179)

 
3rd May. Congratulations to Dr. Zoilo González who has achieved a Frontiers of Research project from the Journal of the European Ceramic Society Trust. The aim of the proyect is the development of innovative photoactive coatings by colloidal processing techniques.

 

 

 

 
Cover image Journal of the European Ceramic Society

1st February. Dr. Begoña Ferrari is one of the co-editors of the special issue of the Journal of the European Ceramic Society, Vol. 32, num. 2, 2016 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2015.08.026). This special issue in JECS collects a series of papers written by experts in the field of EPD applied to ceramic materials.
Two new manuscripts describing results of the group have been published in this issue:

C. Mendoza, Z. Gonzalez, Y. Castro, E. Gordo, B. Ferrari, “Improvement of TiN nanoparticles EPD inducing steric stabilization in non-aqueous suspensions”, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc., 32 (2) 307-317 (2016).
DOI: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2015.06.023

F. Frajkorova, E. Molero, P. Montero, M. C. Gomez-Guillen, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, B. Ferrari, “Biodegradable bi-layered coatings shaped by dipping of Ti films followed by the EPD of gelatin/hydroxyapatite composites”, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc., 32 (2) 343-355 (2016).
DOI: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2015.07.005


 

25th Jan. Thesis Defense. Esther Molero defended at the ICV her PhD Thesis entitled: "Aditivos de procesamiento en el conformado de estructuras porosas: relevancia de la sinergia partícula-gel - Processing Additives to Shape Porous Structures: Relevance on the Particle-Gel Sinergy".
The international evaluation committee was composed by Prof. David Tudela (UAM), Prof. Pedro Miranda (UNEX) Dr. Emilio López (Element Six, England), Dr. Sophia Tsipas (UC3M) and Dr. Berta Moreno (ICV-CSIC), who granted Esther´s thesis report and exposition with the Cum Laude and International mentions. Congratulations!!

  2016

24th December. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas plenty of happyness and a very happy year 2016.

   

21th December.Dr. Zoilo González has rejoined our group after his stay in the Institut UTINAM-UMR CNRS and the UFR des Sciences et Techniques (Besançon, Franche-Comté, France) in collaboration with Prof. Claudine Filiatre within the project “Electrophoretic Deposition of Ni(OH)2 nanoplatelets in a Laminar Flow Cell” funded by the "JECS Trust" from the European Ceramic Society (ECerS). During this time Dr. González has monitored through a coupled microscope the deposition process of different systems formed by Ni(OH)2 nanoplatelets modified with polyelectrolytes using Layer by layer methodology. Additionally, he has measured the interaction between these polyelectrolytes by Refractometry analysis.

 

   

2nd Sept. Dr. Begoña Ferrari was awarded as the Best Oral Poster Presentation of the paper entitle: “Shaping strategies for porous Ti fabrication throughout colloidal chemistry”, authored by B. Ferrari, E. Molero, A.J. Sánchez-Herencia, R.G. Das Neves, E. Gordo, at the 3th International Conference Conference on Powder Processing, Consolidation and Metallurgy of Titanium, 2015 Lüneburg Germany, hosted by Dr. Thomas Ebel and Prof. Florian Pyczak from the Center for Materials and Coastal Research of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Germany.

   

1stAugust. New Paper Published. Z. Gonzalez, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, A. Caballero, J. Morales. “Relevance of the Semiconductor Microstructure in the Pseudocapacitance of the Electrodes Fabricated by EPD of Binder-Free β-Ni(OH)2 Nanoplatelets”, J Electrochem Soc, 162 (2015) D3001–D3012 (doi: 10.1149/2.0101511jes).

   

27thJuly. Dr. Begoña Ferrari visited the Institute of Biomaterials, University of Erlangen, as a member of the doctoral committee for the defence of the doctoral thesis of Dr. Qiang, entitled: “Electrophoretic Deposition of Composite Coatings with Bioactive Character and Drug Delivery Capability”, carried out under supervision of Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini.

Linked to: http://www.biomat.techfak.uni-erlangen.org/news/

   

7th July. New Paper Published. S. Cabanas-Polo, Z. Gonzalez, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, B. Ferrari. “Influence of ultrasound on the instantaneous synthesis of tridimensional α-Ni(OH)2 nanostructures and derived NiO nanoparticles”, Cryst Eng Comm, 17 (2015) 6193–6206 (doi: 10.1039/c5ce00876j).

   

1st July. Dr. Begoña Ferrari was one of the co-editors of the Key Engineering Materials volume on Electrophoretic Deposition recently published (vol. 654, 2015) containing papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Electrophoretic Deposition. Dr. Ferrari also co-edited with Prof. Boccaccini the special issue on Electrophoretic Deposition published in Advances in Applied Ceramics in 2014.

Linked to: http://www.ttp.net/978-3-03835-497-0.html

 

 

   

1th July. Large participation of our group in the 14th Conference of the European Ceramic Society (ECERS) held in Toledo with four oral presentations, including the Spanish representation in the student contest, a poster and participating as chairman in various sessions. These time the Spanish Ceramic and Glass Society (SECV) has been responsible for its organization and the members of our group have collaborated on the successful development of the congress, assisting in the organization.

 

   

29st June Last May 20th our collage Javier Sanchez Herencia, current Deputy Vicepresident for Scientific Programming of the CSIC was interviewed on the radio show “Radio o lo que sea”. This program belongs to the Juan XXIII Foundation and it’s carried out by people with disabilities. Below you can find the audio corresponding to the science section "Evolucionando" of the program with the interview included.

   

1st June. Welcome to Ana Ferrández, who has joined the group to make hes Ph.D. thesis on Colloidal processing techniques and characterization of lightweight materials polymer / Mg for applications in the biomedical industry and / or transport. She is co-hosted by the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas, CSIC and our group in the frame of the MULITMAT Challenges project.
Ana Ferrández was born in 1992 in Madrid, where she did her bachelor‘s degree in Chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master in “Advance Specialization in Plastic and Rubber” at the Universidad Menéndez Pelayo (CSIC) finishing in 2015. Now she is currently pre-doctoral researcher enjoying a training contract. Ana’s research interests include metal- polymer composites (Mg-PLA) and the colloidal processing of magnesium particles by 3D-printing.

   

14th May. In the development of the PhD thesis "Additives Processing in the shaping of Ti and HA porous biostructures: Relevance of the synergy particle-gel" by Ms. Esther Molero Romero (directors: Dra. Begoña Ferrari and Dr. Antonio Javier Sanchez Herencia), it have been processed Ti macroporous structures by different colloidal routes; materials such as sponges, foams and scaffolds shown in the follow image. The sintering study and the microstructural characterization of these Ti porous structures, prepared by different methods of shaping, it is carried out in collaboration with the Group of Powder Technology of the UC3M and the biocompatibility studies of the surfaces of these macrostructures, have been performed in collaboration with the  Research Group in Bone Physiopathology and Biomaterials of the Hospital Universitario La Paz (FIOBI-HULP), BIOMAT-12 and the associate company NORICUM, in the framework of the MultiMat project.

   

13th May. One of our lines of work deals with the manufacture of nanostructured TiN and TiC films by Electrophoretic Deposition. Preliminary results of this work have been published: "Dispersion and stabilization of TiN and TiC nanoparticles in organic suspensions" C. Mendoza, Z. González, Y. Castro and B. Ferrari, Key Engineering Materials vol. 654 (2015) pp 203-207. These coatings have been successfully sintered at 1200ºC in vacuum, onto dense commercial steels as well as titanium manufactured by powder metallurgy. The mechanical and electrochemical characterization of these coatings is performed in collaboration with the Group of Powder Technology of the UC3M.

   

27th Apr. Our group has successfully prepared Al2O3 crucibles with inner coatings of Y2O3 by sequential slip casting from suspensions of nanoparticles (Fig. 1). These coatings allow to sinter highly reactive metals at high temperatures such as Titanium (Fig. 2).


 

17th March. Juan Escribano has returned from his stay in the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics (ISTEC-CNR) in collaboration with Dr. Carmen Galassi and Dr. Davide Gardini within the project “Implementation of Direct Inkjet Printing for miniaturization of laminates of SS/Ti(C,N) as coatings for extreme conditions” founded by the JECS. During this time Juan has studied the formulation of ceramic inks for direct printing injection and it printing conditions. enlarge picture

  2015
Greetins 2014 23th December On behalf of the entire group we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2015 with our animated greeting card.
   

25th November. Congratulations to Esther Molero Romero who won the Student Contest at the LIV Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio held in Badajoz last 19 to 21 of November 2014 “Ceramic reinforcement (Ti3SiC2) of Ti scaffolds by combining the use of pre-ceramic polymers and colloidal processing”. This research work has been developed in our lab in collaboration with the research groups of Paolo Colombo at the University of Padua and Elena Gordo from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Esther will represent to The Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio at the European Student Contest framed in the 14th ECERS that will be celebrated in Toledo on 21th-25th of June 2015.

   

New Project. The group has awared a new research project MULTIMAT Challenge: "Multifunctional Materials for the Society  Challenges”. This Research Network clusters 11 research groups and 7 labs from 8 different Organisms sited at the Comunity of Madrid (CAM). The CAM has granted to MULTIMAT Challenge 700.000 € for the development of a research project that shall extend until September 2018. This interdisciplinary consortium comprise research groups of the public universities of Madrid (UC3M, UCM, UPM and URJC),  as well as research groups from the CSIC (CENIM, ICV, ICTP) and university public hospitals in Madrid (La Paz, 12 de Octubre). The ICV-CSIC team is headed by Dr. Begoña Ferrari and the research Group of Tailoring from Colloidal Processing (http://personal.icv.csic.es/colloidal/news.html), and involves scientific staff of other groups of ICV-CSIC.
The consortium structure ensures the progress from the perspective of structural material toward multifunctional materials capable of responding to the needs of increasingly complex society. The program activities will focus on three major social challenges: clean transport, sustainable energy and energy efficiency and healthcare and wellbeing. As a whole the program will encompass all stages of material development from the synthesis and processing of materials, surface modification, advanced joining techniques, to study of the interaction with the environment, nano and microstructural, mechanical and  functional characterization, including the necessary simulation and modeling of behaviors and processes. http://www.multimat.org/

   

5th October. New Paper Published. S. Cabanas-Polo, Z. Gonzalez, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, B. Ferrari, A. Caballero, L. Hernán and J. Morales. “Cyclability of binder-free β-Ni(OH)2 anodes shaped by EPD for Li-ion batteries”, Journal of the European Ceramic Society (2014) (doi: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2014.08.014).

   
 

20th July. A new project with the company SINTEF RAUFOUSS, Norway, for the fabrication of different Ti alloy has been signed.

   
15th July. Thesis Defense. Juan Antonio Escribano defended at the ICV his PhD Thesis entitled: "Iron-Based Complex Metal-Ceramic Microstructural Design by Aqueous Colloidal Processing - Diseño de Microestructuras Complejas Metal-Cerámica en Base Hierro por Procesamiento Coloidal en Agua" .
The international evaluation committee was composed by Prof. David Tudela (UAM), Dr. Raul Bermejo (ISFK, Austria), Prof. Luis Llanes (UPC), Prof. Elena Gordo (UC3M) and Dr. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (ICV-CSIC), who granted Juan´s thesis report and exposition with the Cum Laude and International mentions. Congratulations!!!
   
15-18th June. 4th International Colloids Conference is been held in Madrid. Our group is closely related to this meeting after presenting communications on 2011 and 2013. Additionally Dr. Begoña Ferrari is a member of the Local Committee of the meeting. We are presenting these communications as posters:
    - "Design of complex granules for the dispersion of ceramic nanoparticles into a metallic matrix, based on the manipulation of the colloidal chemistry of the surfaces in aqueous suspensions" E. Gordo, R.G. Neves, P. Alvaredo, J.A. Ecsribano, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia.

    - "Modification of Ti(C,N) surfaces for the fabrication of dense structures", J.A. Escribano, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, B. Ferrari.

    - "High yield of β-Ni(OH)2 nanoplatelets coatings through EPD process", Z. González, L. Cabrera, A.J. Sánchez-Herencia, B. Ferrari.

    - "Manipulation of the surfaces of titanium particles In aqueous media in the fabrication of scaffolds by colloidal processing", E. Molero, Z. Gonzalez, E. Gordo, A.J. Sánchez-Herencia, B. Ferrari.

    - "Nanostructured titanium non-oxide films by electrophoretic deposition", C. Mendza, Y. Castro, B. Ferrari.
   
1st June. New Paper Published. I. Gonzalo-Juan, J.A. Escribano, Y. Castro, J.L.G. Fierro, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and B. Ferrari, "One-pot Manufacture of Nanoparticle-based Films in Aqueous Media via an Electric Field-Driven Assembly Process", Green Chemistry, 16 (6), 3286-3296(2014). (doi: 10.1039/C3GC42539H ).

 

23th May. New paper online. J.A. Escribano, J.L. Garcia, P. Alvaredo, B. Ferrari, E. Gordo and A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, "FGM stainless steel-Ti(C,N) cermets through colloidal processing", Int J Refract Met Hard Mater. (doi: 10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2014.05.008).

Keywords: Ti(C,N), Cermet, Colloidal processing, Functionally gradient material, Steel

   

9th May. Group Meeting .... After 4 months Dr. Františka Frajkorová is presenting the final conclusion of her research proyect with the group. She has been working on processing of biomaterials for implants with improved mechanical properties. Her job in the fabrication of materials by employing gelling additives will be continued with the biocopatibility studies to be performed at the Brno University of Technology, where she is retuning

....and extended Farewell. Later on we had a farewell party with some other friends of the Institute were we sinceraly wished her a nice trip back to Brno University and to meet her again soon.

   
6th April. New Paper online. R.G. Neves, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, C. Pagnoux and E. Gordo, "Role of stabilisers in the design of Ti aqueous suspensions for pressure slip casting", Powder Technology. (doi: 10.1016/j.powtec.2014.04.093
   
Miguel de Dios 10th February. Welcome to Miguel de Dios, who has joined the group to make his Ph.D. thesis on Microstructural and Microarchitectural Materials Design of Metal-Ceramics Employing Colloidal and Powder Metallurgy Techniques. He is co-hosted by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and our group in the frame of the MITICO project.

Miguel de Dios was born in 1988 in Madrid, where he did his bachelor‘s degree in Industrial Engineering with a major in Materials Science and Engineering at Universidad Carlos III De Madrid.

After working for PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) as a business consultant for one year, he is currently a pre-doctoral researcher enjoying from a scholarship founded by FPI. Miguel’s research interests include powder metallurgy of metallic materials and colloidal synthesis of metallic and ceramic particles.

15th January. Congratulations to Juan A. Escribano who has achieved a 14.000€ grant from the Journal of the European Ceramic Society Trust (JECS-Trust) to perform a research project aimed to develop coatings by additive manufacturing techniques.

 
13th January. Welcome to Dr. Františka Frajkorová, junior researcher at the Materials Research Centre, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, who has joined the group for four months to get training on the colloidal processing of Biomaterials.

 

10th January. New Paper Published. Y. Castro, E. Molero, P. Parente, A. Duran, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, B. Ferrari, "Electric field driven assembly of hybrid micelles for shaping of porous silica films",Adv. Appl. Ceram., 113, (1) 28–34. (doi:10.1179/1743676113Y.280000000110).

Keywords:Atomic force microscopy; Electrophoretic deposition; Mesoporous silica; Micelles; Sol-gel.

Begoña Ferrari has been one of the Invited Editor of this issue.

   
13th January. The International Conference on Electrophoretic Deposition V: Fundamentals and Applications (EPD 2014), where Begoña Ferrari is a member of the organizing commitee, has managed funds to celebrate an student contest.. Meeting will be held in October 5-10, 2014 Hernstein, Austria. This funds will be provided by the JECS-Trust.

2014
Boletin

15th December. New Paper Published. J. A. Escribano, B. Ferrari, P. Alvaredo, E. Gordo, A. J. Sánchez-Herencia, " Colloidal processing of Fe-based metalceramic composites with high content of ceramic reinforcement ",Bol. Soc. Esp. Ceram. Vid, 52, (6) 247–250. (doi:10.3989/cyv.312013). Free PDF.

Keywords: iron, carbonitride, titanium, colloidal processing, rheology, slip-casting, metalceramic, suspension.
Cover of the issue


 

5th November. Our Group has proved the full yield of the EPD process for suspensions with such as low solid loading as 1 g/L. Suspensions are a mixture of Ni(OH)2 and Carbon Black (80/20 v/v) prepared in ethanol and deoinized water used in the fabrication of anodes for Li-Batteries (A. Caballero et al., J. Power Sources, 238 (2013) 366). The elevated suspension stability and an adequate conductivity leads to the complete deposition of the suspended powder. Results are published in the Thesis of Dr. Sandra Cabanas-Polo “Ultrasound assisted synthesis of Ni-based nanostructures”, supervised by Dr. A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and Dr. B. Ferrari. Video edited by J. Escribano.
enlarge picture


 

29th October. Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini from the Institute of Biomaterials at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany) visited our group. On occasion of the visit we had a meeting of the MITICO project with our partners from the University Carlos III of Madrid discussing the applications and implications of the cermet materials as biomaterials for implats. Next day he imparted the lecture “Bioactive Glass Based Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering: Advances and Challenges”. Research activities of Prof. Boccaccini are in the broad area of glasses, ceramics and polymer/glass composites for biomedical, functional and/or structural applications. Prof. Boccaccini has also developed the electrophoretic deposition technique for production of nanostructured materials and composites with defined surface topography with potential use in the biomedical field. enlarge picture


 

25th October. Congratulations to Juan Antonio Escribano who won the Oral Poster contest at the LIII Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio held in Alcora last 23 to 25 of October 2013 “Estudio de adsorción de aditivos en superficies de Ti(C,N): su efecto en la estabilidad coloidal de suspensiones y en el empaquetamiento durante el conformado por colaje de materiales compuestos Fe/Ti(C,N)” by J.A. Escribano A.J. Sánchez-Herencia and B. Ferrari.


 
15th October. Welcome to Carlos Mendoza who has joined the group to work on the synthesis and processing of non-oxide nanoparticles and processing of photocatalytic materials and structures.

 
20th September. It has been first announced the next 4th International Colloids Conference, this time focusing on Surface Design and Engineering. Our colleague B. Ferrari is a member of the Local Organization Committee of the conference that will be held in Madrid from the 15 to the 18th of June, 2014.

 

18-19th September. Juan A. Escribano has visited the Anders Palmqvist's Group at Chalmers University and the company Swerea IVF, both in Gotheborg, where he presented the group and his work on processing of metal ceramics.


 
Euro PM 2013

17th September. Juan A. Escribano has attended the Euro PM 2013 at Gotheborg (Sweden). He presented the poster entitled:

  • Slip Casting of Ferrous Matrix-Ti(CN) Cermets. Comparison of the Colloidal Behavior Between Fe
    and Stainless Steel



  •  

    15th September. New paper published. A. Caballero, L. Hernán, J. Morales, S. Cabanas-Polo, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and J. Canales-Vázquez, "Electrochemical properties of ultrasonically prepared Ni(OH)2 nanosheets in lithium cells", J. Power Sources, 238, 366-371. (doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.04.033).

    Keywords: Nickel hydroxide; Nanosheets; Lithium batteries; Solid–electrolyte interface


     

    15th September. New paper published. R.G. Neves, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and E. Gordo, "Colloidal approach for the design of Ti powders sinterable at low temperature" Mater. Lett. (107) Pages 75-78. (doi: 10.1016/j.matlet.2013.05.015)

    Keywords: Powder technology, Colloidal processing, Titanium, Sintering, Microstructure, Hardness


     
    Picture of Carlos G. Levi

    13th September. Professor Carlos Levi from the Materials Department of the Univerity of California in Santa Barbara (USA) visited our group. Prof. Levi is an expert in microstructure evolution on structural alloys and ceramics and microstructural design of coatings, composites and monolithic systems. He imparted the lecture "Thermal barrier coatings as enablers of energy efficiency: Fundamental challenges in materials design ".


     

    6th September. We say goodbye to María Verde, who has achieved a post-doc position in the Institute of Photonics and Electronics in Prague, in the group of Dr. Jan Lorincik. She will continue her work on EPD of nanoparticles, with the aim of obtaining efficient hydrogen sensors.  Congratulations for your new position and best wishes on this new step.


     

    1st September. New paper published. R.G. Neves, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, and E. Gordo, "Improvement of sintering behaviour of titanium by colloidal techniques", Powder Metall. 56 (4) 258-262. (doi: 10.1179/0032589913Z.000000000117).

    Keywords: Grain growth; Grain size and shape; Mechanical properties; Sintered alumina; Titanium, Sintering.


     
    Prof. Uli Wiesner 25th August. Professor Ulrich Wiesner from Cornell Univerity, who was attending the XVII International Conference on Sol-Gel, visited our group during to discuss common works on porous materials.

     
    Journal Cover

    15th June. New Paper Published. A. Caballero, L. Hernán, and J. Morales , Z. González, A.J. Sánchez-Herencia, and B. Ferrari , "A High-Capacity Anode for Lithium Batteries Consisting of Mesoporous NiO Nanoplatelets", Energy and Fuels , 27, (9) 5545–5551. (doi: 10.1021/ef400797r).

    Keywords: Electrochemical behaviors; High specific capacity; Mesoporous texture; Micro-structural properties; Organic modifier; Solid electrolyte interfaces; Sonocrystallization; Theoretical capacity


     
    Electrocerámica XI Zaragoza 21-24th June. Our group attended the 11th National Conference on Electroceramics, in Zaragoza, where Zoilo González, Esther Molero and María Verde presented their latest research results with the oral presentations entitled:

    - Influencia de la Microestructura de un ánodo β-Ni(OH)2 en el comportamiento electroquímico de una bateria de litio.
    - Materiales compuestos Ni-YSZ con macroporosidad contralada obtenidos por gelificación.
    - Obtención de láminas delgadas mediante deposición electroforética de nanopartículas de ZnO

     
    Carmen Galassi (ISTEC) 18th June. We had the visit of Dr. Carmen Galassi, from the CNR – ISTEC, in Italy, who was in Maria’s PhD committee. Dr. Galassi’s research interests are focused on synthesis, shaping and densification of piezoceramic materials and their functional characterization.

     
    Tesis Maria Verde 17th June. Thesis Defense. María Verde defended her PhD Thesis at the ICV. The international evaluation committee was composed by Prof. Vicente Fernández (UAM), Dr. Carmen Galassi (CNR-ISTEC, Italy), Dr. Darja Lisjak (IJS, Slovenia), Dr. Marco Peiteado (UPM) and Dr. Yolanda Castro (ICV-CSIC), who granted Maria with the Cum Laude and International mentions. Congratulations!!!

     

    15th June. New Paper Published. M. Verde, M. Peiteado, M. Villegas, B. Ferrari and A.C. Caballero, "Soft solution processing of ZnO nanoarrays by combining electrophoretic deposition and hydrothermal growth", Mater. Chem. Phys., 140, (1) 75-80. (doi: 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2013.02.067).

    Keywords: Thin films; Nanostructures; Crystal growth; Chemical synthesis


     

    21-24th April. Begoña Ferrari and A.Javier Sanchez has attended the 3rd International Colloids Conference Held in Xiamen (China). One of our work was selected as a conference (Gelling technology applied to the powder processing of YSZ-Ni electro-catalysts) while the other has been presented as posters.

    - Determination of colloidal stabilization mechanisms by AFM.
    - Nanosized nickel powders synthesized by a reduction method assisted by ultrasound,
    - Hydrothermal Growth of ZnO nanostructures onto EPD-seeded Substrates.
    - Ni-based particles for Li-Batteries anodes.


     

    1st March. New paper published. P. Parente, B. Savoini, B. Ferrari, M.A. Monge, R. Pareja and A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, "Effect of highly dispersed yttria addition on thermal stability of hydroxyapatite", Mater. Sci. Eng. C. 33 (2) 864-869(2013). (doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2012.11.013)

    Keywords: Hydroxyapatite composite; Yttria; Free form fabrication; Thermal stability; FTIR


     
    15th February. New paper online. P. Parente, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, M.J. Mesa, and B. Ferrari, "Functionalizing Ti-Surfaces through the EPD of HA/NanoY2O3", J. Phys. Chem. B, 117 (6) 1600–1607 (2013) (doi: 10.1021/jp305176h)

    Keywords: Suspensions, nanoparticle dispersion, electrophoretic deposition, coatings, Yttria,
    Titanium

     

    4th February. Luiz Desouza, a Brasilian International Student at the UAM has joined us to performe some experimental training while he is making his 1 year Stay in Spain. His work will be related to the EPD of nanoparticles in aqueous suspension.


     
    Hisbalit 23rd January. A two years project with the company Hisbalit S.A. to develop multifunctional glassy mosaics has been signed. Zoilo González has been hired by the company to work on this project.

     
    A.J. Sanchez-Herencia 10th January. After winning the elections past Novembre with a large support, A. Javier Sanchez has been appointed by the Presindent of CSIC as Director of the Institute. We wish him a good and easy term under this responsability.

     
    The Three Kings 6th January. May all our magic dreams come true.

    2013
    Zoilo 15th october. Welcome to Zoilo González Granados who has joined the group to work on the synthesis and characterization of nickel hydroxides into the COMETAS project. Zolio come from the University of Cordoba where he is close to finish his PhD.

     
    MINECO New Project.The group has awared by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiviness with a new research project entitled: "Microstructural and microarchitetural materials desing of metal-ceramics employing Colloidal and pulvimetallurgical Techniques (MITICO)" (MAT2012-38650-C02-02). It is coordinated with the University Carlos III of Madrid and continues with the research line focused on the processing of metal-ceramic structures and the functionalization of surfaces by colloidally aproached powderprocessing techniques.
       
    LII SECV Burgos

    3rd october. Our Group has attended the LII annual meeting of the Spanish Ceramic ang glass Society (Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio hold in Burgos. We have presented the papers entitled:

    - Determinación experimental de los mecanismos de estabilización coloidal por AFM [PDF]
    - Síntesis mediante reducción asistida por ultrasólidos de níquel nanométrico [PDF]
    - Procesamiento de coloidal en medio acuosos de materiales de hierro [PDF]

    In addition Begoña Ferrari was renewed her as the treasurer officer of the Spanish Ceramic and Glass Society.

       
    Sandra Cabañas

    1st october. We say goodbye to Sandra Cabañas who has achieved a post-doc position into the Group leaded by Aldo Boccaccini at the Institute of Biomaterials in Erlangen (Germany). She has spend less than one moth with us after she finished her PhD. Congratulations for your new position and best wishes on this new step.

       

    September. Two members of our group has started each one a three months stay at a foreign laboratory.

    María Verde is going to spend next months at Ljubljana to make HR-TEM studies on ZnO.


    Juan Escribano is to study the interparticle forces by AFM at the Institute of Particle Science and Engineering (University of Leeds) working with Prof. Biggs who is an speciallist in this subject.

       
    Tesis Sandra

    7th Sept. Thesis defense. Sandra Cabanas has defended her PhD Thesis entitled "Ultrasound Assisted Synthesis of Nickel Based Nanostructures" at the ICV. The evaluating commetee has been composed by Prof. David Tudela (UAM), Prof. Emilio Moran (UCM), Prof. Jesus Canales (UCLM), Yolanda Castro (ICV-CSIC) and Teresa Jardiel (ICV-CSIC) whom honored the work with the "Cum Laude" merit. Congratulations Sandra!!!

       
    Bye Paola

    1st Sept. We welcome to Esther Molero who has joined our group to work in processing from slurries with high solid contents and addtives. She has been previouly working during one year with another group at the ICV in electrochemical characterization of materials.

       
    Bye Paola

    15th Aug. We say goodbye to Paola Parente who is returning to Italy. She has been with us for one year and a half as a postdoc and has got involved in most of our projects and research activities. Good luck and keep in touch Paola!!!.

       
    R. Bermejo

    1st Aug. Dr. Raul Bermejo from Institut für Struktur- und Funktionskeramik,  Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria) visited our group. Dr Bermejo is an expert in mechanical characterization of ceramics and has cooperated previously with other members of the group. He imparted the lecture "Fracture behaviour of multilayer ceramics and components"presenting his recent advances in the characterization and modelization of the mechanical behaviour of ceramic composites and microarchitectures.

       

    Cornell

    20th July. A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and B. Ferrari have visited the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Cornell University. During the stay they dealed withthe works in progress between both groups and prospect for future interacctions. In addition they inteview with Director of the Enegy Materials Center, Professor Hetor Habruña.
    Dr. Sanchez-Herencia presented the conference "Tailoring Ceramics Through Colloidal Processing".


       
    ICC4

    15-19th July. Our group has presented several works at the 4th International Congress on Ceramics (ICC4) hold in Chicago. Under the slogan "Shaping the Future of Ceramics" the meeting joined more than 800 business, research, and government leaders from around the world
    ICC4 included the 3rd Ceramic Leadership Summit track.
    During the meeting A.J. Sanchez-Herencia and B. Ferrari have been chairs in the session on Aerospace II and Security and Strategic Materials II respectively.

    Posters presented :
    - Dispersion of ceramic particles into metallic matrix by colloidal control of powders in water (Multimedia)
    - Relevance of surface chemistry of inorganic colloids in liquid-phase processing under an Electric Field (Multimedia)
    - Ni-based films by electrophoretic deposition of Nickel hydroxide nanoflowers and nanoflakes [PDF]
    - Fabrication of Porous Ceramics by employing food additives and ceramic slurries [PDF]
    - An AFM study of nanoparticle arrangement with deposition time [PDF]

       
    Amyd-Teja

    6th July. Prof. Amyd Teja, from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology visited our group. Professor Teja’s research focuses on near-critical processes for synthesizing nanoparticles and nanocomposites.Two years ago his group hosted Isabel Gonzalo for three months. As a result of this stay it has been recently published in aterials Chemistry and Physics, the paper "Synthesis and dispersion of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) nanoparticles in supercritical water".
    Professor Teja give a lecture to the ICV entitled "Synthesis and deposition of inorganic nanoparticles and nanostructures using nearcritical and supercritical water"

       
    JECS

    July. New Paper online. P. Parente, Y. Ortega, B. Savoini, M.A. Monge, A. Tucci, L. Esposito, B. Ferrari, A. J. Sanchez-Herencia, "Characterization of residual compressive stresses in layered ceramics by positron annihilation spectroscopy, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc.,doi: 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2012.06.006

       
    Sandra

    June. Sandra Cabanas has started a research stay at Cornell University hosted by Professor Wiesner´s group. She will start a cooperation with this group focusing at the begining in two main subjects. One will be the desing and synthesis of new polymers to be employed as dispesants for metals and nanoparticles. The other will to continue with the EPD processes of nanoparticles with mesoporous structures. She will finished her stay at the end of August just before the thesis defense is scheduled.

       
    Prof. Uli Wiesner

    30th May. Prof. Ulrich Wiesner (Uli) from Cornell University visited our group. He is an expert in synthesis of bi-block and tri-block co-polymers and in assembly of nanoparticles to them in order to provide the self assembly capabilty. Under this conditions Prof. Wiesner´s group has developed mesoporous inorganic materials of both metals and ceramics. About this subject he teached the Spring Lecture at the ICV entitled "From Self-Assembled Polymers to Nanostructured Ceramics and Metals". During the three days of his visit we discussed about some cooperative works to process samples with the nanomaterials and polymers his group is developing.

       
    Materials Chemistry and Physics 29th March. New Paper online. I. Gonzalo-Juan, B. Ferrari, M.T. Colomera, M.A. Rodriguez, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, P-Y. Koh, A.S. Teja, "Synthesis and dispersion of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) nanoparticles in supercritical water" Materials Chemistry and Physics, doi: 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2012.03.016
       
    Walid

    23th February. Dr. Walid Mohamed Daoush, Research Associate Professor at Central Metallurgical R&D Institute in Cairo, visited our group. We have many common points with his research interest in synthesis and processing of metal-ceramic composites. He give to the Institute the talk entitled "Improving of the Properties of Powder Metallurgy Products by Powder Coating Process " presenting his later develpment in the field.

       
    Electrophoretic Deposition of Nanomaterials January. Begoña Ferrari coauthors the chapter entitled "Nanoparticles Dispersion and the Effect of Related Parameters in the EPD Kinetics" included into the book Electrophoretic Deposition of Nanoparticle, edited by Aldo Boccaccini and James H. Dickerson. This book is a reference book highlighting the basic research, materials science, and engineering of the electrophoretic deposition of nanomaterials
      2012
    Greetins 2011 23th December The Group wishes to all the people a Merry Christmas and a Happy Year 2012. Please hit here to see our Season´s Greetings animated card.
       
    Back to home 19th December After the research stays in other countries, A. Javier Sánchez, B. Ferrari and S. Cabanas are back to the Institute. All the three are to continue their activities after a short Christmas break.
       
    6 th December. A. Javier Sánchez had an invited talk at the International Conference on Powder Processing, Consolidation and Metallurgy of Titanium hold in Brisbane (Australia). He presented the talk entitled "Improvement of Ti Processing through Colloidal Techniques" by R. G. Neves, J. Escribano, B. Ferrari, E. Gordo, and A.J. Sanchez-Herencia that contains some of the recent results achieved in the frame of the COMETAS (MICINN)project
       
    10th November. A. Javier Sanchez has given a seminar at the University of Melbourne entitled "Tailoring through Colloidal Processing" which presented some of the lines of research and the prospectives on collidal processing of ceramics and metal ceramic structures.
       
    Corrosion Science Cover 23 rd October. New Paper online. S. Cabanas-Polo, R. Bermejo, B. Ferrari, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, "Ni–NiO composites obtained by controlled oxidation of green compacts" Corrosion Science, doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2011.10.016
       
    2nd October. Two members of the group attended the 4th International Conference on Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD 2011) held in Puerto Vallarta (Mejico). Begoña Ferrari presented the keynote entitled "ASSEMBLING AND PACKING OF NANOSTRUCTURES UNDER AN ELECTRIC FIELD" and María Verde presented the work entitled "ASSEMBLING OF ZnO NANOFLAKES WITHIN ORGANISED THICK FILMS". Two other conference and three posters has been signed for members of the group. Posters are:
    - Ni-based films by electrophoretic deposition of Ni(OH)2 nanoflowers and nanoflakes [PDF]
    - Functionalizing surfaces through EPD of HAp/Y2O3 coatings [PDF]
    - An AFM studyof nanoparticles arrangement with deposition time [PDF]
       
    Cover J. Coll. Interface Sci. 24th September. New Paper online. M. Verde, M. Peiteado, A.C. Caballero, M. Villegas and B. Ferrari "Electrophoretic deposition of transparent ZnO thin films from highly stabilized colloidal suspensions" Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2011.09.039
       
    Sandra

    15th September. Supported by a "CSIC-JAEPre" Grant, Sandra Cabañas has started a three month stay at the National Technical University of Athens. Under the supervision of Professor Christos Argirusis, from the School of Chemical Engineering, she will study the direct synthesis of nanosized metals in aqueous and organic media assisted by ultrasound.

       

    1st July. Two members of the Group have started a sabatical stay at the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Melbourne (Australia) until December.

    A. Javier Sánchez has joined the group of Professor George V. Franks to deep in the processing of porous structures from slurries by using food additives.

    Begoña Ferrari has joined the group of Professor Frank Caruso to study the layer by layer technology and explore its capabilities in the self assembly processing of inorganic structures.

       
    Ultrasound Sonochemistry 12th May. Paola Parente has presented at the Instituto the conference entitled "Positron anihilation spectroscopy applied to the microstructural characterization of ceramic materials" ("Espectroscopia de aniquilación de positrones aplicada a la caracterización microestructural de  materiales cerámicos") were she has presented her background in the application of this technique to ceramic materials.
       
    Amsterdam

    8th May. Our group has presented 6 posters at the 1st International Symposium on Colloids and Materials, held in Amsterdam. The meeting has been focused on the new expectatives and developments of colloids on Energy, Biology, and advanced processing. The title of the works are:
    - Relevance of surface chemistry of inorganic colloids in liquid-phase processing. (PDF1)
    - An AFM study of nanoparticles arrangement with deposition time. (PDF2)
    - Dispersion of NiO and Ni(OH)2 in aqueous media. (PDF3)
    - Assembling and Packing of Nanoparticles under an Electric Field. (PDF4)
    - Role of Zn3P in the Hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanoparticles. (PDF5)
    - Effect of reaction conditions on size and morphology of ultrasonically prepared Ni(OH)2 powders. (PDF6)

       
    rose 29th April. Our skills with the AFM are improving with the very helpful assistance of Sara Serena. An arrangement of nanosized circonia particles hydrothermally synthesized and processed in the synthesis media by EPD has been observed. At this moment this is the higher magnification image we have achieved with this equipment. (JPG image)
       
    Solid State Ionics 31st March. New Paper online. I. Gonzalo-Juan, P. Parente, A.J. Sanchez-Herencia, F. Rubio, R. Pareja and B. Ferrari, "Positron annihilation study of defect distribution in 8YSZ nanostructure"Solid State Ionics, doi:10.1016/j.ssi.2011.03.007
       
    Paola 15th February. We say hello to Paola Parente who joins the group as a post-doc. She started to cooperate with our team three years ago during a three months stay working in processing and microstructural characterization by Positrons Annihilation of multilayers. This cooperation has been maintained and extended.
    2011  
    Ultrasound Sonochemistry 4th December. New Paper online. S. Cabanas-Polo, K. Suslick and A.J. Sánchez-Herencia, "Effect of reaction conditions on the size and morpholgy of ultrasonically prepared Ni(OH)2 powders", Ultrason. Sonochem. doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2010.11.017
       
    MICINN 9th October. Our Group has been awared by the Ministry for Science and Innovation with an INNPACTO Projet in the 2010 call (IPT-310000-2010-012). The proposal "Apantallamiento del campo magnético (ACAM) - Magnetic Field Shielding" is dealing with the synthesis and colloidal processing of materials for shielding the low frequency (50Hz) magnetic emissions of Prefabricated Transformer Substations.
       
    A. Javier Sanchez-Herencia

    1st October. A. Javier Sánchez-Herencia has been promoted to Vicedirector of the Institute. We hope he will make a good work in this "administrative-focused" way of research. Good luck!

       
    Marta Palacios

    29th September. We say goodbye to Marta Palacios who has gotten a Resarcher Position at the ETH Zürich. She has been developing with us a program in rheology and additives for self-compacting cements that has opened new and interesting views of the colloidal processing. Best wishes for your new live in Switzerland !

       
    Welcome Juan 15th September. Juan Antonio Escribano has joined our group as a Graduated Student. He will be supported by the FPI program and his work will be linked to the objectives of the project COMETAS that we earned in the 2009 MICINN Call-for-Proyects.
       
    Isa

    1st September.We say goodbye to Isabel Gonzalo who has achieved a Postdoc Research Associate position at the department of Physics and Astronomy (University of Vanderbilt). She has join the Professor J. Dickerson Group. Good luck Isabel!

       
    Isa 28th June.Isabel Gonzalo defended it´s Ph.D Memory entitled "Hydrothermal Synthesis of Ytria and Ytria/Scandia Doped Zirconia nanoparticles and its processing as a thin film by EPD" in the Hall of the Institute of Ceramic and Glass. The evaluation commitee will be composed by Prof. V. Fernández (UAM), Prof. P. Bowen (EPFL), Dr. N. Lapeña (Boeing-España), Dr. F. Rubio (CSIC) and Dr. M.A. Rodríguez (CSIC). Qualification of the Thesis was "Sobresaliente Cum Laude". Congratulations Isabel.

    3rd June. Congratulations to Sandra Cabañas who won the Poster contest at the 12th European Society of Sonochemistry meeting hold in Crete last 30 May to 3 June 2010. The poster "Effect of reaction conditions on the size and morphology of ultrasonically prepared Ni(OH)2 powders", by S. Cabanas-Polo, A. J. Sanchez-Herencia, K. S. Suslick includes the results obtained during her three months stay at the K. Suslick Group in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.