This book guides beginners in the areas of thin film preparation, characterization, and device making, while providing insight into these areas for experts. As chemically deposited metal oxides are currently gaining attention in development of devices such as solar cells, supercapacitors, batteries, sensors, etc., the book illustrates how the chemical deposition route is emerging as a relatively inexpensive, simple, and convenient solution for large area deposition. The advancement in the nanostructured materials for the development of devices is fully discussed.

The Special Issue “Synthesis and Modification of Nanostructured Thin Films” highlights the recent progress in thin film synthesis/modification and characterization. New methods are reviewed for the synthesis and/or modification of thin films based on laser, magnetron, chemical, and other techniques. The obtained thin nanostructures are characterized by complex and complementary techniques. We think that most of proposed methods can be directly applied in production, but some others still need further elaboration for long-term prospective applications in lasers, optics, materials, electronics, informatics, telecommunications, biology, medicine, and probably many other domains. The Guest Editor and the MDPI staff are therefore pleased to offer this Special Issue to interested readers, including graduate and PhD students as well as postdoctoral researchers, but also to the entire community interested in the field of nanomaterials. We share the conviction that this can serve as a useful tool for updating the literature, but also to aid in the conception of new production and/or research programs. There is plenty of room for further dedicated R&D advances based on new instruments and materials under development.

Nickel-Titanium Smart Hybrid Materials: From Micro- to Nano-structured Alloys for Emerging Applications describes advanced properties that can be adapted in NiTi-alloys. Nickel-Titanium (NiTi) systems are receiving wide demand in growing industries due to their smart, high-temperature or biocompatible behavior. These influenced behaviors are carefully described in the micro-scale and nanoscale range, with NiTi smart materials described on the basis of their shape memory effect (SME) and super-elastic (SE) properties for sensor and actuator application. This book discusses novel properties of nickel-titanium systems, helping materials scientists and engineers produce smart technologies and systems for the aeronautical, automobile, mechanical, healthcare and electronics industries. - Describes the use of nanotechnology and microtechnology in nickel-titanium-based systems - Outlines the major properties of Nickel-Titanium Nanoalloys - Assesses the major challenges of manufacturing nickel-titanium nanoalloys at an industrial scale

This book presents select proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Materials, Metallurgy and Manufacturing (ICEMMM 2018), and covers topics regarding both the characterization of materials and their applications across engineering domains. It addresses standard materials such as metals, polymers and composites, as well as nano-, bio- and smart materials. In closing, the book explores energy, the environment and green processes as related to materials engineering. Given its content, it will prove valuable to a broad readership of students, researchers, and professionals alike.

Nanocrystalline Ni-Co alloys were synthesized using pulsed electrodeposition from a Watts-type bath, and the various plating parameters were systematically varied to examine their effect on the composition, quality, and structure of the resulting deposits. Increasing the pH of the plating bath and/or the average plating current density increased the Ni content of the deposits, but both of these parameters exhibited rather narrow processing windows for the preparation of high-quality deposits. The addition of saccharin during plating was observed both to reduce the crystallographic texture of the Ni-Co alloys and to refine the grain structure. Owing to the low stacking fault energy of Co, many of the alloy deposits exhibited a large density of nanoscale twins. The unique dual-scale grain and nano-twin structure found here caused apparent discrepancies in the grain size measured by XRD and by other microscopy techniques, and also resulted in unique trends in hardness. This thesis lays the groundwork for future tailoring of nanostructured alloys to explore how twins and stacking faults influence their strength and ductility.

Nanocrystalline (nc) thin films exhibit a wide range of enhanced mechanical properties compared to their coarse-grained counterparts. Furthermore, the mechanical behavior and microstructure of nc films is intimately related. Thus, precise control of the size, aspect ratio and spatial distribution of grains can enable the synthesis of thin films with exceptional mechanical properties. However, conventional bottom-up techniques for synthesizing thin films are incapable of achieving the microstructural control required to explicitly tune their properties. This dissertation focuses on developing a novel technique to synthesize metallic alloy thin films with precisely controlled microstructures and subsequently characterizing their mechanical properties using in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Control over the grain size and distribution was achieved by controlling the recrystallization process of amorphous films by the use of thin crystalline seed layers. The novel technique was used to manipulate the microstructure of structural (TiAl) and functional (NiTi) thin films thereby exhibiting its capability and versatility. Following the synthesis of thin films with tailored microstructures, in situ TEM techniques were employed to probe their mechanical properties. Firstly, a novel technique was developed to measure local atomic level elastic strains in metallic glass thin films during in situ TEM straining. This technique was used to detect structural changes and anelastic deformation in metallic glass thin films. Finally, as the electron beam (e-beam) in TEMs is known to cause radiation damage to specimen, systematic experiments were carried out to quantify the effect of the e-beam on the stress-strain response of nc metals. Experiments conducted on Al and Au films revealed that the e-beam enhances dislocation activity leading to stress relaxation.