Lime (material) | EPFL Graph Search

Lime is an inorganic material composed primarily of calcium oxides and hydroxides, usually calcium oxide and/or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for calcium oxide which occurs as a product of coal-seam fires and in altered limestone xenoliths in volcanic ejecta. The International Mineralogical Association recognizes lime as a mineral with the chemical formula of CaO. The word lime originates with its earliest use as building mortar and has the sense of sticking or adhering. These materials are still used in large quantities as building and engineering materials (including limestone products, cement, concrete, and mortar), as chemical feedstocks, and for sugar refining, among other uses. Lime industries and the use of many of the resulting products date from prehistoric times in both the Old World and the New World. Lime is used extensively for wastewater treatment with ferrous sulfate. The rocks and minerals from which these materials are derived, typically limestone or chalk

Tragverhalten und Bemessung von Holz-Glas-Verbundträgern unter Berücksichtigung der Eigenspannungen im Glas

Klaus Kreher

The construction principles of "Timber-Glass-Composite-Girders" demand practical and theoretical research to ensure reliable designs. Toward this objective the mathematical description of load-bearing and the non-rigid bond is the subject of this work, i.e. to define the contributing parameters for the design of these girders. The non-rigid-bond of the adhesive joint is of great importance because of its influence on the load-bearing of the system as a whole. The loading of girders is dominated by permanent forces thus leading to the obligation of knowing the long-term behaviour of the system and its components. The definition of the characteristic values, taking into account the long-term load-bearing, is an intrinsic part of this investigation. It can be shown that the load-bearing of the girders depends on the fracture of the glass panes. The properties of glass-fractures are a function of the residual internal prestresses due to the heat-strengthening of the panes. The load-bearing, particularly the post-cracked behaviour, changes with respect to the intensity of these internal prestresses. The timber is able to reinforce the cracked glass, leading to a ductile load-bearing behaviour as in the girders, with a dependency upon the size of the remaining fractures. A model based on the differential equations of the non-rigid bond is defined in order to calculate the loading-peaks of the adhesive joint and the material loading itself. The characteristic values of the non-rigid bond, such as the number and distances between cracks and the load introducing length, were evaluated in tests on composite slabs and small scale girders. The existing calculation models which take into account non-rigid bonding were modified to adapt the influence of the width and thickness of the adhesive joint. In order to calculate the stressing of the material the existing calculation models were adapted to calculate the post-cracked situation. The load-bearing behaviour of glass-panes bent with respect to its strong neutral axis needs other safety-considerations than panes, bent off their plane. It is shown that the existing safety considerations subject to the use of glass can not easily be adapted onto the composite girders. The bending with respect to the strong neutral axis and the reinforcement of the glass of the timber demands a different hypothesis to adapt the fractural mechanical analysis and to establish a safe limit conception. This is part of the performed research of this document. The following descriptions present briefly the obtained results: Depending on the quality of the glass (residual stresses due to heat-strengthening, e.g. annealed glass, heat-strengthened glass, fully tempered glass), the ductility and the mode of failure of the girders does change. As a result of its failure mode, annealed glass without internal prestresses offers the highest remaining load-carrying potential after the first crack has appeared. This ductility and thus the structural safety, diminishes with an increasing degree of internal prestressing due to thermal treatment. Heat-strengthened glass (with various degrees of prestressing, various residual stresses) shows a decrease in remaining load-carrying capacity with an increasing degree of prestressing until it fails in a brittle mode as fully toughened glass does. This has to be well considered in respect to safety considerations. Girders with panes made of glass having internal residual stresses due to heat strengthening below 50N/mm2 are considered to collapse ductily, residual stresses bigger than 50N/mm2 cause brittle failure. The effective stiffness of the girders decreases under permanent loads in function of the bondage. Both, timber and adhesive take part in this decrease; the influence of both of the involved materials has been defined. Since the design of conventional glass constructions which uses the concept of principle stresses cannot be adapted, unidirectional shear stresses had to be determined for the shear strength of glass, which is defined as 25N/mm2 for annealed glass. The characteristic values of the adhesive to define the non-rigid bonds have been determined, likewise the influence of the width and thickness of the adhesive joint. The load introducing length, the distances between cracks and the number of cracks are defined with tests on composite slabs. A model to describe the theoretical bond with the defined parameters based on the differential equations was developed. This model allows the calculation of the material stressing at the load introduction and on both sides of a crack. To calculate the stressing of glass and timber existing calculation models which take into account non-rigid bonding were modified to adapt the influence of the width and thickness of the adhesive joint. In order to calculate the stressing of the material the existing calculation models were adapted to calculate the post-cracked situation. The safety factors for the influences of the glass surface, environmental conditions, load duration and the parameters of fracture mechanical analysis as developed as they are known for semi-probabilistic safety concepts for glass constructions cannot easily be adopted. The bending with respect to the strong neutral axis demands a different hypothesis in order to adapt the fractural mechanical analysis and to develop the safety parameters. For the reliable design of timber-glass-composite-girders a contribution to the appropriate use of probabilistic, semi-probabilistic and deterministic safety concepts are given. A realised construction (Hotel "Palafitte" in Monruz (NE)) shows an example and the experience made in designing girders.

EPFL2004

Electronic properties of nano-crystalline titanium dioxide thin films

Alain Bally

Titanium dioxide is a cheap, chemically stable and non-toxic material. However its electrical properties are unstable and it is a modest semiconductor and a mediocre insulator. For several applications it would be interesting to make it either more insulating or more conducting. The goal of this work was to modify the electrical properties of nano-crystalline TiO2 thin films deposited by reactive sputtering and to understand the mechanism leading to these modifications. The principal factors that influence the electrical conductivity are on the one hand the concentration and nature of the chemical impurities incorporated in TiO2, and on the other hand the morphology of the thin films. The study was split into two parts. The fist part describes the modifications of the sputtered material obtained by chemical doping of the TiO2 thin films. Niobium, cerium, iron, and fluorine were incorporated successfully in TiO2. The second part describes the modifications obtained by modifying the reactive gas used during the sputtering process: thus oxygen was substituted with water vapor. Several analysis techniques have been used to characterize the TiO2 thin films. They are essentially divided in four categories. The chemical analyses included electron probe microanalyses, x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. The structure and morphology analyses of thin films were carried out with x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. The electrical properties in dc or ac mode were measured between room temperature and 350°C. Finally optical transmission provided information on the electronic states and morphology of the thin films. With an appropriate choice of impurities, titanium dioxide can be made more insulating (TiO2:Ce), more conducting with an n-type electrical conductivity (TiO2:Nb) or p-type electrical conductivity (TiO2:Fe). Chemical doping is also the cause of important structure and morphology changes, for example it can force the transformation from the anatase to the rutile structure. It is shown in particular that dopant atoms generate defects such as oxygen vacancies. These defects impede the variation of the electrical conductivity produced by the impurities, thus, in spite of dopant concentration in the percent range, the variation of the electrical conductivity is an increase or a decrease of three order of magnitude at most when compared with undoped TiO2. Thin films deposited with water vapor as the reactive gas present an increase in the electrical conductivity by height order of magnitude compared to samples prepared with oxygen in similar conditions. No atom other than titanium or oxygen could be detected in the thin films in significant concentration. The dramatic conductivity increase is due to the injection inside TiO2 grains of electrons donated by unsaturated titanium atoms lying on the grain surface. A nanometric grain size is a requirement to make such high doping levels possible. Depending on the impurities or reactive gas selected, titanium dioxide can be made either into a good insulator with a high breakdown field and a high permittivity or into a reasonably conducting, transparent film. The electrical conductivity of the samples prepared for this study cover the range from 10-10 to 103 S m-1.

EPFL1999

Electrophoretic deposition of multi-scale structured TiO2 surfaces

The long term fixation of biomedical implants constitutes an issue in the clinical praxis. Implant fixation can be improved by functionalizing its surface. In fact, the tissue response around an implant is conditioned by its surface morphological and chemical properties. Coatings for implants (orthopedic and dental) function at the bone-implant fixation interface. As proved by research activities in the biomedical field, coatings with topographic features in the nano- and micro-range are promising in terms of enhanced osteointegration, thus improved implant fixation. As for surface chemistry, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is an estabilished material for biomedical implants thanks to its outstanding physical and chemical properties such as high corrosion resistance and good biocompatibility. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is a simple and versatile coating technique. According to literature, EPD is an emerging potential coating technique for biomedical implants. In this work, the use of EPD in the preparation of TiO2 coatings characterized by a controlled multi-scale structured surface was addressed. For this aim, EPD was combined with a new procedure of particle functionalization and with the use of a fugitive spacer (polystyrene, PS) for the sintering treatment. A control and better understanding of the EPD process were achieved through a preliminary parametric study on EPD of TiO2 nanoparticles and PS microbeads. Particle concentration was found to play a key role in the EPD deposit formation of TiO2 nanoparticles (cathodic) and PS microbeads (anodic). A threshold value of particle concentration was identified, below which no deposit growth occurred. An interpretation of this finding was provided on the base of a new formulation of the EPD deposition mechanism. The results of the particle concentration study contributed to the preparation of suspensions with TiO2-PS composite particles, which could be used for cathodic EPD. Composite TiO2-PS particles with TiO2 nanoparticles covering PS microbeads were obtained in a newly developed wet colloidal process based on heterocoagulation and the use of polyelectrolytes. The resulting TiO2-PS particles were cathodically deposited on Ti6Al4V substrates. A sintering post-treatment caused the burning out of the PS beads and the densification of the TiO2 nanoparticles. The desired coatings with controlled micro- and nano-topography were achieved. The investigation on the role of particle concentration in EPD and the new interpretation of the deposition mechanism bring a deeper understanding of the EPD process. The achievement of TiO2 coatings with controlled morphology in the micro- and nano-range prepared by cathodic EPD on Ti6Al4V substrates is a contribution to the ongoing research on biomedical implants. Mechanical tests and surface analysis evaluating wettability and in vitro cell behavior with the achieved coatings are relevant topics for further research.

EPFL2009