Author: Matheus A. Tunes

An experimental physicist who enjoys the company of intriguing people and is able to endure many cups of coffee and engage in endless scientific discussions.

On the 3D printing of novel aluminium crossover alloys

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Aluminium crossover alloys are one of the more interesting recent developments in light metals. Rather than staying within the traditional wrought families, they deliberately blend the chemistries of the AA5xxx and AA7xxx systems, and in doing so they form the compositionally complex T-phase, Mg32(Al,Cu)49, which gives a remarkable hardening response and has already attracted serious … Continue reading On the 3D printing of novel aluminium crossover alloys

Rethinking how cold spray really bonds dissimilar metals

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Cold spray sounds almost too simple to work: fire a metal particle at a surface fast enough, and it sticks – no melting, no welding, just brute plastic deformation smashing a bond into place. That has been the textbook story for two decades. But in our latest paper with colleagues at Politecnico di Milano and … Continue reading Rethinking how cold spray really bonds dissimilar metals

One-grain-at-a-time: how in situ EBSD rewrote sink-strength theory for space aluminium

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Ultrafine-grained (UFG) aluminium alloys are strong candidates for space structures: their dense grain-boundary network acts as sinks that absorb radiation-induced defects (more in our perspective review https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmaterialsau.5c00139). But that advantage only survives if the microstructure does — and in Low-Earth Orbit, sunlit components reach ~200 °C, right where severely deformed aluminium begins to recrystallise. The … Continue reading One-grain-at-a-time: how in situ EBSD rewrote sink-strength theory for space aluminium

Folding, thinner, lighter, and stronger wings signals a quiet retreat for aluminium in aerospace

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Airbus has just announced the next phase of its Wing of Tomorrow programme: a three-year flight-test campaign, unveiled at Farnborough, that will bolt full-scale wing extensions onto an A321neo to trial the longer, higher-aspect-ratio wings destined for the successor to its best-selling single-aisle family. The extensions are several metres long and stand in for a … Continue reading Folding, thinner, lighter, and stronger wings signals a quiet retreat for aluminium in aerospace

Rethinking copper metallurgy for the future of fusion reactors

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We are delighted to share a new preprint that takes on one of fusion energy's most stubborn materials problems: building a heat sink that can survive inside a reactor. Commercial fusion demands components that withstand intense neutron bombardment while extracting punishing heat loads for conversion to electricity, and CuCrZr — a copper alloy strengthened by … Continue reading Rethinking copper metallurgy for the future of fusion reactors

How much radiation damage can you do in seconds?

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Qualifying materials for future fission and fusion reactors is painfully slow. Neutron irradiation is costly, time-consuming and leaves samples radioactive, while ion-beam alternatives require competitive proposals and scheduled beam time at oversubscribed accelerator facilities. In a new preprint, we ask whether an instrument already sitting in many microscopy labs — the plasma focused ion beam … Continue reading How much radiation damage can you do in seconds?

Professor Milos Djukic Brings Hydrogen Masterclass to Leoben

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This week we had the great pleasure of welcoming Professor Milos B. Djukic (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering) to Leoben — a world-class authority on hydrogen embrittlement and one of the most influential voices in the field today. Professors Djukic and Keckes at ESI. Professor Djukic visited at the invitation of Professor Jozef … Continue reading Professor Milos Djukic Brings Hydrogen Masterclass to Leoben

University of São Paulo: Among the best institutions in the world!

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Congratulations to my alma matter -- The University of São Paulo (USP)in Brazil -- for being selected among the world's top institutions! It has been an honour and a pleasure to be one of your students =] From USP Journal: QS World University Ranking places USP as Brazil’s highest-ranked university In four indicators assessed, USP … Continue reading University of São Paulo: Among the best institutions in the world!

A new way to “see” inside aluminium alloys

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What if a single microscope image could simultaneously show nanoclusters, dislocations, grain boundaries, and corrosion pores – all in under a minute? We have found a way to do exactly that and we described recently in a paper published it in Small Methods! The method, called differential phase contrast (DPC), is not new to electron … Continue reading A new way to “see” inside aluminium alloys