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Copper nanofoams were processed by dealloying for a prospective application as a Li-ion battery anode. The precursor material was produced by pack cementation. The effect of length of pack-cementation time on the pore structure and the microstructure of the struts was investigated in this study. It was found that for high pack-cementation times a hierarchical pore structure with nano- and micro-sized pores was formed. In addition, the longer the pack-cementation time, the lower the crystallite size and the dislocation density in the struts. A very high twin fault probability was also detected, irrespective of pack-cementation time.

Commercial interstitial free steel was processed by high pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature up to 5 revolutions. HPT resulted in strong grain refinement. The microstructure after HPT was inhomogeneous with refined grains mainly in regions near the specimen periphery, while coarse only slightly fragmented grains were observed in specimen centre. The microstructure inhomogeneity was continuously smeared out with increasing number of rotations by extending the fine grain region from specimen periphery towards its centre. However, even after 5 revolutions the microstructure remained inhomogeneous characterized by slightly coarser grains in central regions as compared to peripheral regions of the specimen. Positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) and X-ray line profile analysis (XLPA) were employed to characterize the structure inhomogeneity in individual specimens. Microstructure and dislocation density evolution were correlated with mechanical properties characterized by a detail microhardness measurement throughout the individual specimens.

This work is devoted to the creep-resistant AX41 magnesium alloy (Mg-4 wt.% Al-1 wt.% Ca), processed by extrusion and consecutive Equal Channel Angular Pressing (EX- ECAP) up to total of eight passes, via route A, Bc and C at 220 °C. Beyond the deformation behavior the change of the microstructures was studied by electron back-scattering and X-ray diffraction methods. Significant grain refinement was found for all processing routes (grain sizes decreased below 1 pm after 8 passes). The X-ray line profile analysis performed by Convolutional Multiple Whole Profile (CMWP) fitting method has not revealed differences between the particular dislocation structures. Route A was found to be the most effective processing route from the point of view of grain size refinement and the room temperature strength. The influence of the texture and the dislocation structure on the plastic deformation processes is discussed in detail.

Supersaturated Cu – 3 at.% Ag alloy was processed by rolling at liquid nitrogen temperature and subsequent annealing at 623 K up to 20 min. It was found that after annealing, an inhomogeneous solute atom distribution developed, since the Ag particles with small size and/or large specific interfacial energy were dissolved due to the Gibbs-Thomson effect. In the region where the solute concentration increased, a high dislocation density was retained in the Cu matrix even after annealing, while in the region where the Ag solute content did not increase, the dislocation density decreased by more than one order of magnitude. Therefore, in the cryorolled and annealed samples, heterogeneous microstructures were developed where both the dislocation density and the solute concentration varied considerably.