Deep cryogenic treatment (DCT) is gaining popularity as a treatment used to modify structures obtained during heat or thermo-chemical treatment. The article presents the influence of DCT, carried out during heat treatment before and after gas nitriding processes, on the formation of gas nitrided layers on X153CrMoV12 steel. It was found that the use of DCT between quenching and tempering performed prior to gas nitriding processes, increases the hardness, thickness and wear resistance of the nitrided layers. At the same time, if we apply cryogenic treatment during post-heat treatment of nitrided layers, we also get very high wear resistance and increased thickness of nitrided layers, in comparison with conventional gas nitriding of X153CrMoV12 steel. In this case, DCT significantly increases also the hardness of the core by the transformation of retained austenite and the precipitation of fine carbides of alloying elements.

This work deals with the characterization of structure, magnetic and mechanical properties of (FeNiCo)100-x(AlSi)x (x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 25) multicomponent alloys prepared by casting. The results of X-ray diffraction measurements, scanning electron microscopy observations and hardness and magnetic properties investigations are presented. The studies show that cast (FeNiCo)100-x(AlSi)x alloys reveal dendritic morphology and their phase composition depends on (Al + Si) content. For x ≤ 10 a face-centered cubic phase is observed, while the increase of Al and Si content results in a body-centered cubic phase formation. It leads to a fivefold increase of hardness from 88 HV to 526 HV. The investigated alloys have high magnetic induction reaching 170 emu/g, while their coercivity value is even up to 2.9 kA/m for x = 15, and strongly depends on chemical and phase composition.

The results of research on preparations of alloy Ni-B/B composite coatings produced by chemical reduction method on a carbon steel substrate are collected in this paper. The alloy Ni-B coatings were also investigated for comparative purposes. The produced coatings were subjected to a heat treatment process. The boron powder with the particles size below 1 µm was used as the dispersion phase. The structure of the coatings was examined by X-ray diffraction method. Boron powder particles as well as surface morphology and topography were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The roughness test, microhardness and corrosion resistance by potentiodynamic method and surface wettability tests were carried out. Analysis of the chemical composition by the EDS method showed that the boron powder particles were evenly embedded in the entire volume of the coating. Ni-B/B composite coatings are characterized by higher hardness than alloy Ni-B coatings. As a result of heat treatment, the Ni3B phase crystallized, which increased the hardness of the coating material. The incorporation of boron powder particles and heat treatment reduce the corrosion resistance of coatings. All produced coatings exhibited hydrophobic properties.

The aim of these studies was to obtain single phase cubic modification of Li7La3Zr2O12 by mechanical milling and annealing of La(OH)3, Li2CO3 and ZrO2 powder mixture. Fritsch P5 planetary ball mill, Rigaku MiniFlex II X-ray diffractometer, Setaram TG-DSC 1500 analyser and FEI Titan 80-300 transmission electron microscope were used for sample preparation and investigations. The applied milling and annealing parameters allowed to obtain the significant contribution of c-Li7La3Zr2O12 in the sample structure, reaching 90%. Thermal measurements revealed more complex reactions requiring further studies.