In the present work, the effect of different percentages of nano-montmorillonite (NM) powder on the mechanical and microstructural properties of hardened cement paste and mortar were studied. The portland cement was replaced with montmorillonite nanoparticles with 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 weight percentages of cement. The mechanical properties of cement mortar including compressive strength, tensile strength, and flexural strength according to the ASTM standard and the microstructure of cement paste were investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-powder, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques. The obtained results revealed that adding cement with replaced montmorillonite nanoparticles up to 1.5% will enhance the compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, and improve the microstructure of cement because of filler effect and acceleration of cement hydration th...

The performance of multilayers has been widely investigated in metal/metal systems. Shrinking this system down to less than 10 nm dislocation blocking occurs. We should thus try to find a way to get a structure with less dislocation, and/or strain because low diffusivity ultra high vacuum chamber is the basic requirements for growing ultra thin films and nano scale materials. We used William–Hall relation based on Scherr equation in X-ray powder spectrum and drawn the stress–strain diagrams. It shows that Al–Fe–Cr–Ti composites have very low diffusivity and equilibrium solubility in Al (0.05 at.% Fe, >0.02 at.% Cr, and >0.3 at.% Ti). Al–Ti–Fe–Cr composite powders have also been prepared from sol–gel method starting from elemental powders at both ambient and elevated temperatures. The obtained results from XRD (X-ray Diffraction), AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy) and X-ray powder techniques indicate that nano-grains with 0.03 at %Cr can cause a reduction of leakage current through the SS chamber due to its amorphous structure.