A contribution of INAA to the determination of the provenance of the fourteenth century sculpture

The object of the investigation is the so called Madonna Jackowa, or St. Hyacinthus's Madonna, a gothic alabaster figurine dated from the XIVth century. The purpose of the investigation is to provide an answer to the question whether Madonna Jackowa was made of native alabaster. Samples of alabaster from five various quarries located along the line Cracow-Lvov as well as in Lower Silesia were analyzed and the content of trace elements was compared with that of the sculpture. The determination of trace elements was carried out by means of the instrumental neutron activation analysis

Tribological Properties of AISI 316L Steel Surface Layer Implanted with Rare Earth Element

Stainless steels with their very good corrosion resistance are used in nuclear, petrochemical, chemical, pulp and paper chemical industries as well as in food processing and others. Unfortunately, poor tribological properties of this kind of steel can be the limitation in the situations in which wear can be responsible for material degradation, like corrosion-erosion. Improvement of the wear resistance of austenitic stainless steels can be achieved using different methods of surface modification, for example: enrichment of the surface layer with reactive elements. Rare earth elements were implanted to AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel using the MEVVA type implanter (65 kV). Different rare earth elements implanted doses: 10¹⁵, 5×10¹⁵, and 5×10¹⁶ ion/cm² were applied. Initial and modified surfaces were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, elemental analysis with the energy dispersive spectroscopy method, X-ray diffraction analysis and the Rutherford backscattered spectroscopy. Tribological properties were investigated using the Amsler method. The most important result was that the surface layers of AISI 316L steel implanted with rare earth elements showed improvement of tribological properties as compared with the initial material

Application of nuclear techniques for characterization of materials surfaces : own investigations examples

Different methods and techniques for material characterization are often used as a standard procedure for the determination of material properties. Nuclear techniques provide new and more detailed information about the investigated materials. The main goal of the carried out experiments was to improve surface properties including wear, corrosion and high temperature oxidation resistance. Modification processes were carried out using high intensity pulsed plasma beams - HIPPB (106-108 W.cm-2) generated in a rod plasma injector (RPI). In most solid materials such treatment leads to a fast transient melting of the surface layer of the substrate followed by rapid crystallization. Heating and cooling processes are of non-equilibrium type. Initial and modified materials were characterized using different investigation methods including nuclear techniques. Results of the used nuclear techniques such as nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), Rutherford backscattered spectroscopy (RBS) and conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) are presented in the paper

Changes of stainless steels surface morphology as a result of interaction with intense pulsed plasma beams containing ions of rare earth elements

Among different methods used in surface engineering such as CVD, PVD, ion implantation etc., the techniques using high intensity ion or plasma beams are relatively new ones. The results reported thus far show that the treatment of steel surface with high intensity plasma pulses can lead to changes of its morphology and mechanical properties. Stainless steels have very good corrosion resistance, but they have low hardness and poor tribological properties. The intense pulsed plasma beams were used for modification of alloyed steels especially austenitic (1.4301 and 1.4401) and ferritic (1.4016) stainless steels with various content of alloying elements. Samples were irradiated with 2, 5 or 10 short (μs scale) intense (density of energy was about 5 J/cm2) pulses. Heating and cooling processes were of non-equilibrium type. In all samples the near surface layer of the thickness in μm range was melted and simultaneously doped with cerium and lanthanum. The aim of this work was to investigate the changes of stainless steel surface morphology after melting, rare earth elements (REE) addition and rapid solidification after interaction with intense pulsed plasma beams. The surface morphology was analyzed using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique. Changes of surface roughness were determined by profilometric measurements. The efficiency of REE addition process was also determined

The origin and chronology of medieval silver coins based on the analysis of chemical composition

Medieval Central Europe coins – the Saxon coins, also called as the Otto and Adelheid denarii, as well as the Polish ones, the Władysław Herman and Bolesław Śmiały coins – were examined to determine their provenance and dating. Their attribution and chronology often constitute a serious problem for historians and numismatists. For hundreds of years, coins were in uncontrolled conditions and in variable environment. Destructed and inhomogeneous surface were the effect of corrosion processes. Electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS)), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis (energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF)), and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) were applied. The results of these investigations are significant for our knowledge of the history of Central European coinage, especially of Polish coinage

Enrichment of AISI 316L Steel Surface Layer with Rare Earth Elements Using Ion Beams

Enrichment of AISI 316L steel surface layers with rare earth elements was carried out using two methods with ion beam applying. The first one was the ion implantation with the doses in the range of $1 \times 10^{15} cm^{-2}$ up to $5 \times 10^{17} cm^{-2}$ where mishmetal (Ce+La) was used as the ion source. The second method was the high intensity pulsed plasma beams. The plasma pulses contained both ions/atoms of Ce+La from the electrodes material (mishmetal). The pulse energy densities $(3 J/cm^2)$ were sufficient to melt the near surface layer of the steel and introduce those elements into the surface layer. The aim of this work was to investigate the changes of stainless steel surface properties (morphology, rare earth elements concentration, presence of identified phases) after the rare earth elements addition with or without melting. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersion spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis were used for initial and modified surface characterisation. Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction shows differences in the identified phase presence in the modified surface layer connected with the modification method