The austenitic stability and strain-induced martensitic transformation behavior of a nanocrystalline FeNiCrMoC alloy were investigated. The alloy was fabricated by high-energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering. The phase fraction and grain size were measured using X-ray diffraction. The grain sizes of the milled powder and the sintered alloy were confirmed to be on the order of several nanometers. The variation in the austenite fraction according to compressive deformation was measured, and the austenite stability and strain-induced martensitic transformation behavior were calculated. The hardness was measured to evaluate the mechanical properties according to compression deformation, which confirmed that the hardness increased to 64.03 HRC when compressed up to 30%.

In this study, Ag-impregnated silica aerogel composites were fabricated via wet impregnation. In this approach, silver salt was reduced with ethylene glycol in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) at reaction temperature 80°C. PVP was used as a capping agent to protect the Ag nanoparticles (NPs) from agglomeration. Wet impregnation was used to synthesize the Ag/SiO2 composite by combining the reduction of AgNO3 with a silica aerogel slurry. Experimental results showed that the AgNO3 concentration and PVP: AgNO3 ratio had an active influence on the growth of Ag NPs on silica surfaces. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the composite material showed no imprints of impurities or parasitic materials except for Ag and SiO2. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images revealed that the Ag NPs were well impregnated into the porous silica aerogel structure. It was found that SiO2 aerogel surfaces were homogeneously surrounded by the Ag NPs.