Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

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B4C and its composites with TiB2 as second phase continues to be extensively used as the preferred ceramic material in military applications as armor systems for absorbing and dissipating kinetic energy from high velocity projectiles. It also exhibits a high melting point (2427 °C), and high neutron absorption cross section. Pressureless sintering of the B 4C-nanoTiB2 nanocomposite using small amount of Fe and Ni (≤3 Wt%) as sintering aids was investigated in order to clarify the role of Fe and Ni additions on the mechanical and microstructural properties of B4C-nanoTiB2 nanocomposites. Different amount of Fe and Ni, mainly 1 to 3 Wt% were added to the base material. Pressureless sintering was conducted at 2175, 2225 and 2300 °C. It was found that Addition of 3 Wt% Fe and 3 wt% Ni and sintering at 2300 °C resulted in improving the density of the samples to about 99% of theoretical density. The nanocomposite samples exhibited high density, hardness, and microstructural uniformity.

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In this study, the adsorption of hexavalent chromium and zinc ions from the solution is investigated by raw red mud and mechanical-chemical activated red mud along with the possibility of selective reclamation of these ions from the solution. The mechanical-chemical activation of red mud was done by employing high-energy milling and subsequent acid treatment with HNO₃. Raw red mud (RRM) and mechanical-chemical activated red mud (MCARM) adsorbents were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) methods. In order to determine the suitable adsorption conditions, effects of pH of the solution, amount of adsorption, temperature, and time of adsorption were investigated. It was found that the optimum pH for the adsorption of hexavalent chromium and zinc ions by MCARM adsorbent was 2 and 6, respectively. According to these pH values, MCARM had the ability to separately adsorb more than 95 and 79% of hexavalent chromium and zinc ions from the solution, respectively. Experimental results were in good agreement with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. By considering the kinetic models of adsorption, the kinetics of the adsorption of both ions followed the pseudo-second-order reaction model. It was also determined that almost 25.8 and 61.8% of the hexavalent chromium and zinc ions adsorbed in MCARM could be recovered