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The present study is focused on the structural correlation of magneto-electric coupling that exists in polycrystalline TbMnO 3 . The X-ray diffraction patterns are collected at various conditions, which are (1) at 300 K without a magnetic field, (2) at 2 K without magnetic field and (3) at 2 K with 7 Tesla magnetic fields. The structural transition in TbMnO 3 has been observed at 2 K and some lattice modulation after applying the magnetic field at 2 K. The Rietveld refinement of TbMnO 3 confirms the orthorhombic phase with centrosymmetric space group Pnma at 300 K. We have observed that the inversion symmetry breaks at 2 K and the polycrystalline TbMnO 3 has been refined using a non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic space group which can be either Pn2 1 a or P2 1 ma. This structural transition confirms the presence of a ferroelectric phase at 2 K. After the application of 7 Tesla magnetic field, the signature of an incommensurate phase has been observed in polycrystalline TbMnO 3 at 2 K. The DC magnetization behaviour with temperature M(T) and field M(H) reveals the antiferromagnetic behaviour of polycrystalline TbMnO3 below 42 K. We have also measured magneto-dielectric property of polycrystalline TbMnO 3 at the low temperature, which confirms the strong magneto-electric coupling in polycrystalline TbMnO 3 below the transition temperature.

We have investigated the structural and magnetic phase transitions in Sr doped polycrystalline Tb0.55Sr0.45MnO3, using temperature-dependent high-resolution neutron powder diffraction in the HRPT diffractometer at PSI to address the origin of magnetization reversal at low temperature. The solid solution Tb0.55Sr0.45MnO3 crystallizes in O′ type orthorhombic structure having the Pnma symmetry. The substitution of the divalent cation of Sr2+ at the site of Tb3+ dilutes the Mn–Tb interaction and affects the magnetic structure, which was observed by the field and temperature-dependent dc magnetization and neutron diffraction study. The temperature-dependent zero field-cooled and field cooled dc magnetization study reveals the indication of spin reversal phenomena, which is the nature of canted antiferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic transition at 100 Oe because of Mn–Mn sub-lattices interaction below 65 K. By increasing the applied magnetic field up to 20 kOe, a weak ferromagnetic type of behaviour is observed. The field-dependent magnetization shows weak coercivity due to the canted spin structure at low temperatures. The low-temperature neutron diffraction study of polycrystalline Tb0.55Sr0.45MnO3 reveals the non-collinear canted antiferromagnetic structure due to Tb ordering at 1.5 K, which turns into a non-collinear ferromagnetic structure along with spin canting followed by the spin reversal phenomena at 25 K.

In present investigation, the selective removal of Al from the quasi-lattice sites of quasicrystalline alloy surface was examined in order to produce the nano-particles of metal/metal oxides within the micro-porous network. Al was selectively etched from both the as-cast as well as annealed Al63Cu25Fe12 quasicrystalline alloys through the treatment with 10 mol NaOH solution at different time interval. In the as-cast sample, higher density of porosity was observed compared to that of annealed alloy. However, dealloying specifically for 4 and 8 h yielded nano-size particles on quasicrystalline surface (of both the alloys) in which very fine particles were detected at 8 h. The increase in density and decrease in size of the nano-particles was found with dealloying duration. X-ray diffraction analysis was performed to characterize the samples. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis were carried out to investigate the surface microstructure, internal morphology and chemical composition. The chemical dealloying treatments yielded nano-particles of Cu and Fe along with their oxides on the quasicrystalline surface. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of leached quasicrystalline materials was evaluated towards degradation of non-biodegradable and hazardous methylene blue (organic dye).

This paper reports mischmetal (Mm) as an effective catalyst for fast desorption kinetics (3.7 wt% in 60 min in which ∼3.3 wt% observed in 30 min and ∼5 wt% in 180 min at the desorption temperature of 150 °C for the 2 mol% Mm-doped material) and rehydrogenation (up to 35 cycles) of the light weight hydrogen storage material NaAlH 4 . In fact this catalyst Mm has been shown to be better than the presently known catalyst Ti. For Mm, its presence when admixed in NaAlH 4 is discernible. Also the higher reversible hydrogen storage capacity (4.77 wt% which is 86% of the total reversible storage capacity) of the total is achievable in the 12th cycle. The possible modes of catalyst Mm for fast desorption kinetics has been outlined and the most feasible mechanism in terms of weakening of Na and AlH 4 bonding has been put forward.

The Ti–Zr–Ni forms one of the interesting systems of quasicrystals and related structures. It is the only system in Ti-based quasicrystalline phases which belongs to Bergman class and at the same time gives rise to a stable quasicrystalline structure. We report the formation of nanoquasicrystalline phase directly from melt spinning of molten Ti 53 Zr 27 Ni 20 alloy. Such a phase has been obtained at an optimum copper wheel speed (40 m/s) and jet pressure of 90 atm. We have also measured the mechanical response of this material by the microhardness technique. It shows much better ductility, strength and fracture toughness than the usual alloy having micron-sized quasicrystalline phase. Even at higher load (200 g) no crack seems to appear. We do observe shear bands suggesting the better toughness of bulk material containing nanoquasicrystalline/nanocrystalline phase.