Generation of dislocation dipole at an amorphous intergranular boundary is followed by

emission of a partial dislocation into an adjacent crystalline grain in a deformed nc

ceramic specimen (schematically).



SEM micrograph of the diamond film surface SEM micrographs of alumina ceramic foam
deposited under high perpendicularity conditions prepared from polyurethane sponge "C"
and synthesized alumina.





The height and amplitude images of a composite material consisting of carbon bers embedded in an epoxy matrix
are shown in Figures 8a,b. The contrast in the height image, which shows the surface topography, is much less
than in the forcemodulation image, which shows the stiffness of the surface. The oscillation amplitude image
shows more pronounced contrast between the hard carbon ber (darker: higher amplitudes) and soft epoxy matrix
(brighter: lower amplitudes).
Figure 1. Generation of dislocation dipole at an amorphous intergranular boundary is followed by
emission of a partial dislocation into an adjacent crystalline grain in a deformed nc ceramic specimen
(schematically). (a) Initial, dislocation-free state. Four grains I, II, III and IV are divided by amorphous
intergranular boundaries (grey strips). (b) Generation of a dipole of edge dislocations with Burgers vectors
s at crystalglass interfaces A and B due to local shear events (ellipses) within the boundary region. (c)
Further plastic shear in the amorphous boundary region results in increase of dislocation Burgers vectors
up to b
a
. (d) Splitting of one of the dislocations of the dipole results in formation of both a residual
immobile dislocation and a mobile partial dislocation that glides in grain IV. The glide of the partial
dislocation is accompanied by formation of stacking fault (wavy line). Magnified insets (a)(d) illustrate
evolution of the dislocation structure at the crystalglass interface B.
Diamond films deposition
Plate 1 shows a typical scanning electron microscopy (SEM) overview of the diamond film surface
deposited during one hour with the high perpendicularity conditions obtained with the micropositioning
system. The film consists of diamond crystallites with sizes of the order of 15-20m forming a circular disk
around 4 mm in diameter and 20m in thickness. Similar morphology was observed in films deposited
under non-perpendicularity conditions. In both cases, the films are nearly transparent in the center,
degrading to a gray-brown color at the edges. The incorporation of nitrogen on the diamond film surfaces
was studied by the FTIR spectroscopy technique, which provides detailed information on the nature of
chemisorbed species formed during diamond deposition. In particular, FTIR spectroscopy is superior for
the observation of hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen atoms bonded to carbon atoms on a diamond net
(Ando et al., 1993). Nitrogen is the major impurity found in natural and synthetic diamonds and gives rise
to characteristic absorption in the one-phonon region of the optical spectrum, between 1,400 and 1,000
cm
1
. Figure 7 shows the FTIR spectrum of diamond surface taken near the area shown in Plate 1. A very
weak peak around the nitrogen absorption band is observed. Meanwhile, Figure 7B shows the presence
of some nitrogen when the deposition process is performed out of the perpendicularity conditions. Since it
is known that the synthesis of polycrystalline diamond films under strict perpendicularity conditions
ensures a turbulent flame with very low levels of incorporation of nitrogen impurities, the control of the
substrate alignment is key to having a repetitive, large-scale film production system.
Morphology of ?-alumina ceramic foams
Figure 9 shows a micrograph of the ceramic alumina foam obtained employing sponge "C" and the synthesized
alumina, where it can be appreciated the presence of regular shaped pores (between 0.3 and 0.5 mm) with some
smooth surfaces and channels. From the comparison of Figs. 9 and 3, the template effect of the PU sponge
procedure is evident.
The combined results of the present study demonstrate the feasibility of producing Al
2
O
3
ceramic foams with high
surface areas and porosities, showing relatively good mechanical strength, which could have potential interest for
applications in adsorption and catalysis.