Metal borides are widely used as heat-insulating materials, however, the range of their application in high-temperature conditions with oxidative medium is significantly restricted. To improve the thermal stability of structural materials based on titanium boride, and to prevent the growth of TiB₂ crystals, additives based on alumina-magnesia spinel with chemical resistant and refractory properties have been used. The aim of this work is to study the structure of TiB₂ with alumina-magnesia spinel additives obtained by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). TiB₂ structure with uniform fine-grained distribution was obtained in an MgAl₂O₄ matrix. The material composition was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis (DRON-3M, filtered Со kα-emission), FTIR spectroscopy (Thermo Electron Nicolet 5700, within the range of 1300–400 cm⁻¹), and scanning electron microscopy (Philips SEM 515). The obtained material represents a composite, where the particles of TiB₂ with a size of 5 µm are uniformly distributed in the alloy of alumina-magnesia spinel.

The structural state and the quantitative phase analysis of the TiAl system, alloyed with rare-earth metals synthesized using hydride technology, were studied in this work. Using the Rietveld method, the content of the major phases in the initial system Ti(50 at.%)–Al(50 at.%), as well as Ti(49 at.%)–Al(49 at.%), with alloying additions Ta, Y and Dy having a high accuracy was determined. The methods of scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope and X-ray spectral microanalysis of the local areas of the structure for studying the distribution of alloying elements were used. The energies of lattices of separate phases were also determined after the full-profile specification. All the lattices of the identified structures (about 30) turned out to be stable. It was established that in the Ti(49 at.%)–Al(49 at.%) systems under study with alloying additions of metals Ta, Y and Dy, there were intermetallides composed of AlTi₃, TiAl in the hexagonal, tetragonal and triclinic units. It is known that after microalloying alloys by Y and Dy metals, the mass fraction of TiAl phases increases significantly (>70%).

The influence of the environment and bacterial cultures on the degree of gold leaching from Au-containing raw materials of different compositions, origins, and with different contents of gold, selected in the Ural Federal District (Russia), was determined. The leaching degree was determined according to the change of the gold concentration in the ore by means of mass-spectrometry with inductively-coupled plasma. It was demonstrated that the degree of Au bioleaching from carbonaceous-argillaceous slates, containing 2.17 g/t of gold, and from pyritic technogenic raw materials, containing 1.15 g/t, when holding them in peptone water and Leten medium reached 92.17% and 87.83%, respectively.