The complex concurrent processes of ordering and phase transformation in nanocrystalline SmCo₇ are for the first time characterized on the atomic scale revealing the hexagonal Sm₂Co₁₇ superstructure as a precursor of the stable rhombohedral Sm₂Co₁₇.

The prediction of the equilibrium and metastable morphologies during the solidification of Ni-based superalloys on the mesoscopic scale can be performed using phase-field modeling. In the present paper, we apply the phase-field model to simulate the evolution of solidification microstructures depending on undercooling in a quasi-binary approximation. The results of modeling are compared with experimental data obtained on samples of the alloy Inconel 718 (IN718) processed using the electromagnetic leviatation (EML) technique. The final microstructure, concentration profiles of niobium, and the interface-velocity–undercooling relationship predicted by the phase field modeling are in good agreement with the experimental findings. The simulated microstructures and concentration fields can be used as inputs for the simulation of the precipitation of secondary phases.

Investigations on the thermodynamics of alloy-type anode materials have been carried out for the quaternary Li–C–Si–Sn system. Phase equilibria and phase stabilities were characterized in the binary subsystems Li–C, Li–Si, Li–Sn. The Calphad method was first used to optimize or completely re-establish all binary subsystems containing Li. For reasons of consistency, the binary subsystem Si–C had to be revisited and its Calphad description was modified. The ternary phase diagrams were then tentatively calculated by extrapolation from the binary subsystems and confirmed by key experiments. No ternary compounds were found. In order to verify the applicability of the anode materials in real batteries, some of the materials were nanostructured by ball milling and spark plasma sintering, the corresponding nanostructures were characterized. Theoretical predictions that nanograined Li₂C₂ can also be used as cathode material were verified experimentally. The methodologies worked out in the present project (e. g. nanoscale structure transmission electron microscopy analysis, glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy) were also employed in other projects and led to publications concerning other materials such as Mg alloys, carbon nanofibers and an Mn-based antiperovskite.

The solidification of Inconel 718 alloy (IN718) from undercooled liquid is studied. The solidification kinetics is evaluated in melted and undercooled droplets processed using the electromagnetic levitation (EML) technique by the temperature–time profiles and solid/liquid (S/L) interface movement during recalescence. The kinetics is monitored in real time by special pyrometrical measurements and high-speed digital camera. It is shown that the growth velocity of $\gamma$-phase (the primary phase in IN718), the final crystalline microstructure (dendritic and grained), and the mechanical properties (microhardness) are strongly dependent on the initial undercooling $\Delta T$ at which the samples started to solidify with the originating $\gamma$-phase. Particularly, with the increase in undercooling, the secondary dendrite arm spacing decreases from 28 μm to 5 μm. At small and intermediate ranges of undercooling, the solidified droplets have a dendritic crystalline microstructure. At higher undercooling values reached in the experiment, $\Delta T>160$ K (namely, for samples solidified with $\Delta T=170$ K and $\Delta T=263$ K), fine crystalline grains are observed instead of the dendritic structure of solidified drops. Such change in the crystalline morphology is qualitatively consistent with the behavior of crystal growth kinetics which exhibits the change from the power law to linear law at $\Delta T\approx 160$ K in the velocity–undercooling relationship (measured by the advancement of the recalescence front in solidifying droplets). Study of the local mechanical properties shows that the microhardness increases with the increase in the ${\gamma }^{″}$-phase within interdendritic spacing. The obtained data are the basis for testing the theoretical and computational of multicomponent alloy samples.