[Image above] Poster session at HTCMC, GFMAT in Toronto, Canada. Credit: Fu, SIU
Student report by Zhezhen Fu, Southern Illinois University
The poster session of 9th International Conference on High Temperature Ceramic Matrix Composites (HTCMC 9) and the Global Forum on Advanced Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Development (GFMAT 2016) took place at the Toronto Marriott Eaton Centre Hotel on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, and it was a huge success.
With more than 65 posters, researchers from more than 20 different countries presented their recent research related to high-temperature ceramic materials for various applications. More than one hundred professors, researchers, and students participated in this session to learn what other researchers did recently, exchange research ideas, and discuss for potential improvements. It should be mentioned that more than half of the posters were presented by students, even some undergraduate students. All of them did excellent jobs on both experiments and presentations.
One student, Kameda, worked with Professor Toshima, from National Institute of Technology, Toyama College, Japan, and Prof. Tafu. He showcased his research on the recycling of gypsum powder from waste plasterboard. The effects of paper fiber impurities on the recycling of gypsum was investigated, further improvement was made by using a dissolve/precipitation process.
Another student, Lu, worked with Professor T. Zhao, from Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, to showcase a novel precursor method to synthesize ultrahigh temperature TaC-SiC nanocomposite powders. Derived from polymer precursors, a homogenous composite can be synthesized at 1,600°C with nanoparticle size. Various characterizations were also applied to indicate the reaction process and the high quality of the synthesized powders.
Besides students, there were also a lot of professors/researchers in the poster session to present their research. Dr. Tavakoli from Clemson University in the U.S. presented a method that can enhance the densification of SiC using a B contained polymer precursor. With the adding of excess B source, the sintered density of SiC has been improved from ~87% relative density to above ~95%. The influence of B source on the crystal structure was also studied.
In summary, the poster session was an outstanding session for the conference and provided an excellent opportunity to present many researchers’ most recent results with each other.
Updated 8/2/2016