Diploma work: Extraction replicas for steel, Al, Cu, and Ni-alloys for matr

The research institute Swerim provides applied research within mining engineering, process metallurgy and materials and manufacturing engineering, mainly for the mining, steel and metals industry. Swerim has 190 co-workers in two locations in Sweden - Luleå and Stockholm.

Background
Precipitation of particles in metals often have the functionality to strengthen the material, but it can also be detrimental for the mechanical properties. A lot of research in alloy design is spent on optimizing the type, size distribution, and volume fraction of such precipitates, in order to get wanted properties in an alloy, e.g. strength or ductility.  Such information is also highly important for verification of the predictions from the computational tools that are used by companies for alloy development.
 
Since many of the precipitates at the early stages of formation typically are in the nanometre scale, quantitative metallography with high precision is required, and often electron microscopes are needed to characterize them. The precipitates can be of different type/phase and in many cases they have a composition where the major element is also strongly occurring in the surrounding matrix, and they may have a similar structure as the surrounding material. This can make them really hard to characterize unequivocally. For such cases, it is possible to dissolve solely the matrix and collect the precipitates. Using a method called extraction replica, thin amorphous films containing the remaining precipitates can be produced. This method is harder to use for some alloys than for others.
 
Goal
In this diploma work, the mission is to investigate and evaluate existing methods for producing extraction replicas for different types of steels, Aluminium-, Copper-, Zirconium-, and Nickel-base alloys and develop a best practice for the different metal alloys so that high quality replicas can be produced. The quality of the replicas will be evaluated using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).
 
The diploma work will be performed at Swerim AB in Kista and will be financed by Swerim´s member research consortia in Metallography and Microanalysis; MRC META. The consortia consist of 10 companies, and representatives from the companies will have an active interest in the work and will contribute with metal alloys with research questions relevant to their activities.
 
Your profile
We are looking for you who are at the end of your Master of Science studies, preferably in materials science, materials chemistry or similar. Experience from and a strong interest in (electron) microscopy is an advantage. 

The diploma work will be performed at Swerim AB in Kista and will be financed by Swerim´s member research consortia in Metallography and Microanalysis; MRC META. The consortia consist of 10 companies, and representatives from the companies will have an active interest in the work and will contribute with metal alloys with research questions relevant to their activities. The student will be rewarded with 50 000 SEK for an approved master thesis (30hp).
 
Starting date
Flexible starting date.  Applications are received on an ongoing basis. 

Contacts for more info
Fredrik Gustavsson, Swerim: fredrik.gustavsson@swerim.se, 070-350 72 98
Peter Hedström, KTH: pheds@kth.se, 08-790 62 17

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