Kantesh Balani

• Ph.D.
• Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Manufacturing of complex-shaped UHTCs occasionally requires joining of dissimilar materials. Herein diffusion bonded (1800 °C and 40 MPa) two dissimilar composites, ZrB2-20vol%SiC (ZS) and HfB2-20vol% SiC (HS), are compared with similar ones i.e., ZS-ZS. The ZS-ZS joints exhibit a seamless interface with uniform hardness (~20 GPa) and Young’s Modul...

Designing lattice structures is crucial for effective bone tissue engineering, as it significantly influences mechanical responses (compressive yield strength and Young’s modulus) and biological compatibility (bioactivity and cell culture/differentiation). Traditional lattice structure offers consistent and varied properties but may fail to mimic t...

Treating segmental bone anomalies in orthopedic surgery, particularly in highly stressed regions caused by fracture, malignancy, or infection, is a difficult procedure. The use of artificial scaffolds in Tissue Engineering has had considerable influence on tissue healing. In the formation of bones, scaffolding should offer mechanical stability, all...

Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) based lattices are extensively explored as a scaffold design for bone regeneration. TPMS maintains zero mean curvature at each point and offers a large surface area comparable to a trabecular bone. The best four TPMS minimal surfaces (IWP. Neovius, primitive, and F-RD) were selected, designed, and fabricated u...

Bone regeneration is still a challenge, and designing scaffolds with complex structures that can mimic the complex structure of a native bone is highly required. Also, adequate waste and nutrient exchange of the scaffold with the surrounding tissue is a major concern. Thus, scaffolds with better mass transportation and mechanical properties are des...

Antimicrobial potential of bioactive glass (BAG) makes it promising for implant applications, specifically overcoming the toxicity concerns associated with traditional antibacterial nanoparticles. The 58S composition of BAG (with high Ca and absence of Na) has been known to exhibit excellent bioactivity and antibacterial behaviour, but the mechanis...

Each year, more than four million people around the world undergo bone grafts and prosthesis transplants to treat bone defects and injuries by repairing and/or replacing native bone. As a result, the scaffold holds great promise for the regeneration of damaged or diseased bone tissues. One of the key components is the design of scaffolds that can m...

Acetabular cup liners made of ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), in hip implants fail mostly due to wear debris generation and poor wear resistance. Consequently, strengthening UHMWPE becomes essential. The current work exhibits how the addition of 5 vol% carbon nanotubes (CNT) and functionalized carbon nanotubes (fCNT) in UHMWPE (d...

Bioactive glass 58S (BG58S) is widely recognised for its bioactivity and antibacterial properties, making it a promising material for orthopaedic implant applications. This study investigates the effects of incorporating silver (BG58S-2.5Ag) and cerium oxide (BG58S-5C) into BG58S on early-stage bacterial adhesion and subsequent bacterial growth inh...

Antimicrobial potential of bioactive glass (BAG) makes it promising for implant applications, specifically overcoming the toxicity speculation associated with traditional antibacterial nanoparticles. The 58S composition of BAG (with high Ca and absence of Na) has been known to exhibit excellent bioactivity and antibacterial behaviour, but the mecha...

Finite Element Analysis on the Biomechanical Stability of TPMS Based Scaffold for Large Segmental Femur Bone Defect

The mechanical properties, such as hardness and elastic modulus, of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composites for acetabular cup liner are improved by adding hydroxyapatite (HAp) and carbon nanotubes (CNT). However, the weak adhesion of HAp (H) and CNT (C) with UHMWPE (U) limits the enhancement of mechanical properties. Thus, the...

Mesoporous silica‐based materials are currently being explored as a new type of bioscaffold for bone regeneration applications. Zinc(Zn) ion incorporation is shown to play an important role in promoting bone regeneration and also providing antimicrobial activity to the scaffold materials. In this work, the role of pore size, geometry, and ordered s...

Ultra-high temperature ceramics, especially di-borides, are regarded as potential candidates for thermal protection system in hypersonic vehicles by virtue of their high thermal conductivity. However, studies on thermal conductivity behaviour of ultra-high temperature ceramic di-borides exhibit scattered data at high temperatures. Herein, we report...

Biomaterials are the evidence of advancements imbibing the foundation and appreciating the multidisciplinary nature of materials sciences and engineering. The stringent requirements mandate materials to sustain the body’s immune response while being exposed to a severe corrosive body environment with incidental thermal, mechanical, and other uninte...

In order to study the relative effectiveness of oil-based and graphene-based lubrications towards suppressing the friction and wear damage of zircaloy-4 during low amplitude linear reciprocatory wear, fretting wear tests were performed with varying normal loads (5–20 N) under unlubricated, oil-lubricated (using Castrol TDN-81) and graphene-lubricat...

Fully dense (ZrC-TaC-WC-TiC)-SiC (named as ZTaWT-S) based high entropy carbide (HEC) composites were fabricated using spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1750 °C. Herein, effect of carbonaceous reinforcements (multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT), graphite (G) and graphene (GNP) on microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites is assessed. T...

The effect of solid solution and aging treatment on microstructure evaluation and resulting mechanical properties of as-cast Mg-9wt.%Li-5wt.%Al-3wt.%Zn-1wt.%Sn (LATZ9531) light-weight alloys were investigated for the application in automobile, aerospace, and bio-medical field. The hardness of the Mg-rich (α-phase, hardness: 2.13 GPa) and the Li-ric...

HfB2-ZrB2 based ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) are used as protective tiles for nose cones and leading edges of the hypersonic vehicles that face harsh service conditions of temperatures >2000 °C. The present work assesses the effect of SiC (20 vol.%) and carbon nanotubes (CNT, 6 vol.%) incorporation on isolating the phononic and electroni...

A finite element modeling (FEM) approach is carried out to estimate the contact stresses such as Von-Mises and shear stress on the acetabular cup liner, made up of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)-hydroxyapatite (HAp)-carbon nanotubes (CNT) based composites. The Highlights of this work include the effects of liners' material (UHMWP...

Being a bioactive material, hydroxyapatite (HAp) is regarded as one of the most attractive ceramic biomaterials for bone and hard-tissue replacement and regeneration. Despite its substantial biocompatibility, osteoconductivity, and compositional similarity to that of bone, the employment of HAp is still limited in orthopedic applications due to its...

Difficulties associated with the manufacturing of diboride based large and complex shapes mandate them to be joined for extreme applications. In the present work, spark plasma sintering is utilized to join HfB2-ZrB2-SiC-B4C-CNT (HZSBC) based composites with Ni-interlayer at 1100 °C and without interlayer at 1800 °C. Microstructural analysis has eli...

Magnetic and anticorrosive properties of NiCu alloy-based composite coatings prepared by pulsed electrodeposition reinforced with CNT (Ni-Cu-CNT), graphene (Ni-Cu-G), and diamond (Ni-Cu-D) have been assessed in the current work. The corrosion behavior of the composite coatings was evaluated in a 3.5% NaCl corrosive medium. Linear polarization test...

Real-life applications of ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) mandates the joining processes to realize the final complex shapes, often resulting in the compromised performance of metallic interlayer. In the present work, two pre-sintered HfB2-ZrB2 (HZ) and HfB2-ZrB2-SiC (HZS) composites were joined using interlayer of Ni powders via spark plas...

Ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) have played a significant role in fulfilling demands for the thermal protection system (TPS) in the aerospace sector, however, a promising candidate has not emerged yet. This critical review provides typical inconsistencies and new perspectives related to UHTCs in terms of: (i) material and processing: i.e.,...

In the present study, the effect of Laser Shock Peening (LSP) on wear characteristics of armor steel is investigated to mitigate the material degradation in tank barrels and prolong their service life. Tank barrels are exposed to enormous temperatures and pressures during rapid firing rounds, which invoke the material's failure and calls for a barr...

Zirconium (Zr) based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have emerged as a potential material for various engineering applications due to their unique and tunable mechanical properties. Heat treatment of the BMGs plays a vital role in changing the mechanical as well as tribological properties. In the present work, the effect of the fictive temperature (Tf...

Improving the wear resistance of ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), the gold standard polymer for acetabular component in hip joint arthroplasty, is the most important challenge in joint arthroplasty. The possible ways that have been approached to this challenge are by: (i) engineering multi‐phase that is, both carbonaceous and nonc...

Sintering mechanisms are investigated by determining activation energy of densification (in the temperature range of 1650 °C to 1950 °C) during spark plasma sintering of ZrB2 and SiC-reinforced ZrB2 ceramic composite. The fractured surfaces of sintered composites reveal completely dense microstructures above 1800 °C, whereas porous microstructure p...

Laser surface texturing is a widely accepted technique to alter the surface properties of different biomaterials. The present work investigates the influence of texture shape and texture area fraction on the wettability and bacterial adhesion properties of a metallic (Ti–6Al–4V), ceramic (hydroxyapatite, HAp), and polymeric (polymethyl methacrylate...

In this investigation, the ionic conduction mechanism in mixed ionic electronic conductors composites of Sr2TiCoO6/YSZ has been studied with the help of universal dynamic response. 3 mol% and 8 mol% yttria stabilized ZrO2 have been mixed with Sr2TiCoO6 (STC) double perovskite in 1:1 ratio to prepare STC/3YSZ and STC/8YSZ composites via solid-state...

In the current study, electro-deposition of hybrid coatings consisting of Cr simultaneously reinforced with nano-scale 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) along with hexagonal boron nitride (Cr-YSZ-BN), graphene (Cr-YSZ-Gr), and diamond (Cr-YSZ-D) was performed using an environmentally-benign trivalent Cr bath. Abrasive wear with ploughing for...

The technology of prediction of mass of carried over slag plus retained slag in refining vessel as well as the thickness of slag deposited on lance surface is described. The technology of on-line and off-line dynamic control of the refining process through the ratio of actual to theoretically predicted post combustion ratio (BETA control). The bene...

Axial plasma spray is one of the thermal spray techniques to deposit multifunctional advanced coatings. The present work explores the use of this process to deposit thin, continuous, and adherent Ca5 (PO4)3OH (hydroxyapatite, HAp) coatings and characterize its microstructure, phases, hardness and adhesion strength. Three different suspension-deposi...

Structural failure in gas-turbine engines due to reciprocating relative motion between the structural components were nullified with compliant thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). In TBCs, ceramic coatings encountered with structural parts in a relative motion with amplitude of 100–500 μm was leading to failure, namely fretting wear. So, a high hardnes...

Hafnium and Zirconium based di-borides are good choices as ultra-high temperature ceramics because of their high melting point (3380 °C and 3245 °C, respectively), high thermal conductivity (104 Wm-1K-1 and 60 Wm-1K-1, respectively), chemical inertness etc. In the present work, dense pellets (densification > 88 %) are obtained in (Hf, Zr)B2 composi...

Sterilization of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) based composites used for acetabular cup liner via UV or gamma-irradiation before surgery is inevitable. Thus, understanding the alteration of mechanical properties and wear resistance of cup liner via irradiation process requires investigation. This paper aims to understand the eff...

An automated bio-tribometer with four reciprocating geometries – linear, circle, square and eight/butterfly – was used to study the tribological properties of stainless steel (SS) 304 and the titanium–6 wt.% aluminium (Al)–4 wt.% vanadium (V) (Ti6Al4V) alloy under dry conditions and when lubricated with simulated body fluid (SBF) against a zirconia...

Herein, enhanced damage tolerance of electrochemically processed Cr-based coatings reinforced with BN (Cr–BN), diamond (Cr–D) and graphene (Cr–Gr) is presented. The effect of micro-meter sized BN and diamond particles as well as 2D graphene nano-flakes in Cr matrix is studied due to its excellent mechanical properties and lubricating nature. The hi...

AC Conductivity and Electrical Modulus analysis of STC/8YSZ Composites

Accumulatively roll bonded (ARB) Mg-LaNi5-Soot hybrid has emerged as a promising hydrogen storage material with enhanced hydrogen storage characteristics, which is amenable to scaled-up production. The key to understanding the hydrogen storage behaviour lies in the nanoscale structure of the hybrid and the associated mechanisms. The focus of the cu...

The primary stage of adhesion during implant infection is dominated by interactions of the surface proteins of the bacteria with the substrate atoms. In the current work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been utilized to investigate the mechanics of the associated adhesion forces of bacteria on different surfaces. The unfolding of these adh...

Global corrosion damages mandate the synthesis of superhydrophobic, self-cleaning protective surfaces possessing excellent mechanical, chemical, and thermal stability. Thus, a self-cleaning, superhydrophobic carbon nanofiber (CNF) coating on structural alloys AISI 1020 mild steel (MS) and Mg alloy (AZ31) with water contact angle (CA) 145°-150°and s...

Non-isothermal simultaneous thermal analysis technique elicited the peak oxidation and mass gain shifts to higher temperatures with SiC addition prompting enhanced activation energy (323 kJ/mol to 593 kJ/mol in ZrB2 and 199 kJ/mol to 207 kJ/mol in HfB2). On one hand where the peak oxidation temperature in ZrB2-SiC pellet could not be observed affir...

The engineered role of coarse‐SiC (D50 ≈72 μm) and fine‐SiC (D50 ≈3 μm) particles on the wear damage of zirconium boride (ZrB2) is assessed at different length scales. Monolithic ZrB2 and 20 vol% SiC reinforced ZrB2 with SiC of two different particle sizes are consolidated via spark plasma sintering. Wear tests conducted on sintered samples for exa...

Effect of B4C addition on the lower damage tolerance of spark plasma sintered (Hf, Zr)B2 based ceramics has been elucidated. Increased densification (from 89% to 95%) with B4C addition has elicited hardness and elastic modulus increase from 25 GPa to 38 GPa (52%) and 439 GPa–635 GPa (45%), respectively. Systematic 3–9 vol% B4C addition resulted in...

Palladium has long been used as a hydrogen sponge because of its ability to store hydrogen under ambient conditions (room temperature and 1 bar pressure). However, Pd suffers from a low storage capacity. The current investigation pertains to the enhancement in the reversible hydrogen storage capacity of Pd, by using hollow sphere geometry. Addition...

ZrB2 composites reinforced with SiC of two different particle sizes (coarse ~30 μm and fine ~5 μm) were processed using spark plasma sintering. The oxidation behaviour of the synthesised composites was investigated at 1500 °C under two different partial pressures of oxygen. At higher oxygen partial pressure of 0.21 atm, coarse SiC reinforced ZrB2 c...

Polypropylene (PP)‐based composites with reinforcements of CaCO3and rice husk ash (RHA, agricultural waste) are extensively used in textile industry and manufacturing of plastic yarns, tapes, etc. Tribological properties of the PP‐CaCO3‐RHA based composite are studied using constant‐ and progressive‐load scratching. The progressive load scratching...

Tribaloy T400 (CoCrMoSi) caters to heavy-duty industrial tribological demands, but exhibits low fracture toughness with compromised resistance to crack propagation owing to the disparity in % Laves phases. In response to this limitation, hybrid suspension-powder plasma-sprayed novel Cr3C2 (d50 of 3.8 μm)/TiC (d50 of 2.2 μm) reinforced T400 (average...

The effect of B4C and CNT on the multi-length wear damage tolerance as well as the high temperature oxidation behavior of HfB2-ZrB2-SiC composites has been elucidated. Wear results indicated that the synergistic addition of reinforcements (B4C and CNT) and solid solutioning in (Hf,Zr)B2 has led to enhancement in the wear resistance up to ∼42% (duri...

HfB2-ZrB2 based ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTCs) are used as protective tiles for leading edges and nose cones of the hypersonic vehicles that face harsh re-entry conditions. In the present work, the effect of SiC (20 vol.%) and carbon nanotube (CNT, 6 vol.%) incorporation on the room temperature damage initiation and wear damage tolerance o...

In the present study, the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of as-cast Mg-9 wt.%Li-7 wt.%Al-1 wt.%Sn (LAT971) alloy during solid solution treatment are investigated. Further, the age softening of solid solution treated alloys is analyzed at 50 °C and 100 °C from 0.5 h to 5 h. The hardness of the α- and β-phase of LAT971 alloy is ob...

Hydroxyapatite [Hap, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2] is one of the most preferred bioceramic material for orthopedic implants and coatings due to its stoichiometric similarities with human hard tissues. However, foreign body implantation inside human body sometimes leads to bacterial film formation over the implant surface causing the implant failure, thereby nee...

In the present work, electrodeposited chromium coatings were strengthened with 3 mol% yttria-stabilised zirconia nanoparticles (YSZ) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) to analyse anti-corrosive and wear properties of the coatings. Highest hardness (~24 GPa), minimum scratch wear rate i.e. ~3 × 10⁻¹¹ m³/Nm and highest corrosion resistance of ~3.9 kΩcm² was...

Gas filled Pd nanocontainers can serve as model nanochambers for reaction and phase equilibria studies. In the current study, palladium hollow spheres (PdHS) filled with oxygen are brought in intimate contact with hydrogen filled PdHS at room temperature (with internal pressure in both the spheres at 20 bar). The molecular hydrogen gets chemisorbed...

Mg-based hybrids have shown promise via enhanced hydrogen storage properties. The Mg–Mg2Ni-carbon hybrid can be synthesized by accumulative roll bonding (ARB), which is amenable to ‘scaled-up’ synthesis. In spite of the ‘bulk’ nature of the samples synthesized, they display fast kinetics of absorption and desorption of hydrogen. In the current work...

Lower damage tolerance of (Hf,Zr)B2 based refractory ceramics restrict them to be used for re-entry conditions. B4C as sintering additive helps in improving the damage tolerance by enhancing the densification. Herein novel equimolar HfB2/ZrB2 composite with 6 vol% B4C reinforcement are spark plasma sintered at 1850 °C and 30 MPa pressure. Boron car...

Ni has applications in batteries, microchips, aerospace, medical equipment, power generation, and automotive industries but corrosion, erosion, and wear can destruct the surface and make it inept for the applications mentioned above. Carbonaceous reinforcements of carbon nanotubes (CNT), graphene, diamond, diamond‐like carbon, and fullerene have su...

The present study compares the mechanical properties and electrochemical behaviour of austenitic (AISI 316 L) stainless steel compacted at different pressures (200, 400 and 600 MPa), which are conventionally sintered at supersolidus temperature of 1,400°C. As expected, increase in compaction pressure (from 200 MPa) to 600 MPa has shown decreased sh...

Hydroxyapatite [HA, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2] based ceramics are a potential candidate for orthopedic implants, bone cements, and bioactive coating over metallic implants due to their compositional similarities [Ca/P = 1.67] with human bone. Cobalt doping in HA can greatly enhance angiogenesis and vascularization along with incorporating antimicrobial prope...

The present work studies the effect of thermal ageing and 1 mol.% Yb2O3 co-doping on the metastable tetragonal phases present in 8-9 mol.% Sc2O3-ZrO2. Dense ceramic discs of xYb2O3–(y-x)Sc2O3–(100-x-y)ZrO2 (x = 0 and 1 mol.%; y = 8 and 9 mol.%) are prepared using conventional solid-state route. XRD, TEM and Raman spectroscopy analysis confirmed the...