The European Ceramic Society

2022 YCN Photo Contest

The result of the 2022 YCN Photo Contest was announced by the YCN Committee on the 12th July during the 2022 YCN Students Evening in Krakow, Poland. 

      
The 3 winners of this photo contest are : YCN NEW LOGO 

  1. Christian Bechteler for his micrograph “Petronas Towers”. Description : Silicon based crystals grown in an Argon plasma during field assisted sintering (flash sintering) of Silicon Carbide.                                                    
  2. Isabela Reis Lavagnini for her picture “Dandelion-like structures of hydroxyapatite/zirconia composite materials via Flash Sintering”. Description : In this micrograph, one can observe the beautiful recrystallization of hydroxyapatite in the dandelion-like crystals. This unique shape was obtained when an electric field was applied during the sintering of the composite, which led to a thermal runaway event (Flash Sintering). This is the first time that a dandelion-shaped crystalline structure has been observed in flash sintered specimens. This crystals structure exhibits special surface characteristics and has a high surface area. Thus, this morphology may open a new window for potential applications to this material.                                                                                                                                                                                 
  3. Ana Castellanos-Aliaga and David G. Calatayud for their micrograph “Vertical Micro-garden”. Description : SEM micrograph of a Zn film fully oxidized in presence of oxygen. Exhaustive control of the heat treatment conditions results in a capricious distribution of ZnO flakes. 

          

You can find the 16 other contributions below. 

  1. Sunil Kumar Kashyap "Landscape of oxide". Description : Oxide scale showing La2Si2O7 on the outermost surface of the ZrB2-SiC-LaB6 composite after creep at 1300°C under 78 MPa pressure in atmospheric air.                                                                     
  2. Mohamed Abdelmoula "Ceramic whirlpools". Description : The SEM images shows small holes in the from of whirlpool on the top surface of Alumina samples formed during manufacturing of 10 mm× 10 mm ×10 mm Cubes of Alumina by Selective Laser Melting techniques using Island-Concentric out-in scanning strategy (as shown below). These whirlpools were formed mainly due to the concentration of the heat and the short scanning path at the center of each island.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  3. Salimkhani Hamed "The cubic morphology of Na-Zeolite with dodecahedron crystal habit synthesized via the hydrothermal method to cease toxic hexavalent chromium ions". Description : The micrograph demonstrates intertwined dodecahedron crystals of A-type zeolite with 110 facets on the edge synthesized via the hydrothermal method. The precursors for this synthesis were Kaolin, Al2O3, and NaOH. These crystals form in a Teflon-lined autoclave at 80 oC for 8 hours. At pH of 3, the crystals are capable of adsorbing Cr6+ to an extent of almost 100 % rate at room temperature. This material can be used to purify the drinking water and save the environment and ecosystem from toxic ions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
  4. Muhammad Qaisar Khushi "Identation-induced "Star of David" in Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ)". Description : The image (a) features a 4N indent, created at 600 °C with the Berkovich pyramidal indenter on the (111) surface of 9 mol.% YSZ single-crystal specimen taken via Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) after polishing and chemical etching. (b) Activated slip sustems are labeled. The plastic zone with the mesoscopic structure of dislocations is visualized via etch pit technique imitating the "Star of David" pattern.                                                                                                                                                                                      
  5. Nima Amousa "Nano-Islands". Description : “The image shows Ti3C2Tx MXene nanoflakes that resemble two islands each representing the residential and agricultural sector respectively.” (Ti3C2Tx MXene flakes were collected from colloidal solution prepared via the in-situ method. MXenes are two-dimensional metal carbides and nitrides with attractive properties. The general idea of this work was to connect the real world with the nanomaterial world observed in a scanning electron microscope (SEM).)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
  6. Khalissa ARIANE "MicroFloral garden". Description : A micrograph of Magnesium aluminum silicate (MAS) glass-ceramic produced by controlled crystallization.                                                                                                                                      
  7. İpek Döş "The Owl". Description : SEM image of anodized zinc.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
  8. Subhadip Bhandari "The Starry Composite". Description : This is a SEM micrograph from the conventionally sintered NiO (50 vol.% ) and 8YSZ composite at 1400 deg. C for 2 hours. The powders were mixed in a tumbler mixer without any grinding media. As a result of which, we see large agglomerated phases. The 8YSZ phase is shown in yellow colour while the NiO is depicted in blue colour. This microstructure was captured with a tabletop SEM (Phenom, Fei Company, Oregon, USA) at  Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-1), Forschungszentrum Jülich. This SEM micrograph reminds us of one of the most prominent oil-on-canvas paintings,The Starry Night by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The image depicts a night sky roiling with blue and yellow swirls, a glowing yellow moon and stars rendered as radiating orbs.                                   
  9. Lucie Pejchalova. Description : Colourized SEM picture of the beta-tricalcium phosphate 3D printed scaffold. I took the SEM picture with FEI Verios 460L microscope at 50 000x of magnification (HFW is 4.14 microns). The title is 'On the Coral reef'.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
  10. Valencia Blasco Andrea "Vanadium sesquioxide conifer". Description : Vanadyl ethylene glycolate is obtained via polyol synthesis giving particles with this particular morphology. After a thermal cycle in hydrogen atmosphere, the vanadyl etheylene glycolate is reduced to vanadium sesquioxide (V2O3) which preserves the original conifer morphology.                                                                                                                                                                                       
  11. Antonio Vinci "Molten sandworm". Description : Molten silica glass shaped into needles by the action of an oxy-acetylene torch flame at an angle of 10°.                                                                                                                                                                       
  12. Vojtěch Mařák "Crack a smile". Description : Equipment: Lyra 3, Tescan, Czech Republic - Settings: 350x magnification in BSE mode - A few cracks in a ZrO2/Al2O3/BaTiO3 laminate.                                                                   
  13. Mehrzad Soleimany "Weave patterns on ceramics by mechanical indentation". Description : An optical microscope image of plastic zones produced on the (001) surface of a SrTiO3 crystal by syclic indenation. Horizontal and vertical slip traces can be observed inside each plastic zone which almost formed the same weave pattern on a smaller scale. The picture on the left-hand side shows a part of a woven basket. Each strap itself has been made of many tiny horizontal and vertical threads.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
  14. Simone Failla "Micro Trekking". Description : The photo I propose is of an alumina cleavage fracture characterized by the sliding of the crystals along specific crystallographic planes, cutting the grains boundary.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
  15. Vojtěch Nečina "Sea monster" Description: On the photo you can see thermally etched surface of spinel ceramics doped with combination of LiF and NaF sintering additives. The residues of these additives are probably responsible for emergence of such peculiar structure.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
  16. Stefan Pfeiffer "Microleaves". Description: These beautiful lamellar structures were found on a cross-section of a laser-manufactured Al2O3 ceramic part and are most probably contaminations.

         

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