Metallurgical analyses and chemical characterizations were carried out on historical cannonballs from the Fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz, México. Cannonballs dating from the 18th and 19th centuries share metallurgical characteristics similar to those of material coming from a shipment of ammunition found in the wreck of a sunken French ship from the battle of Trafalgar. The analyses show that the base material is grey cast iron with a carbon equivalent of 4.94 and a ferritic–perlitic matrix, in which the high phosphorus content has led to the formation of iron phosphide compounds in conjunction with a homogeneous distribution of carbon graphite flakes of Type C. In addition, corrosion products from samples revealed the presence of various crystalline iron compounds (X‐ray diffraction), mostly highly chlorinated iron compounds identified as akaganeite. X‐ray fluorescence identified various characteristics of the corrosion products as a function of the sampling depth. FT–IR spectroscopy revealed that the main difference between the corrosion products (internal and external) is determined by the number of organic species. Differential scanning calorimetry corroborated that these corrosion products are thermally stable compounds at elevated temperatures.
The present study evaluates and correlates the morphology of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and sodium alginate (SA) nanofibres with their internal structure to determine dielectric and tensile properties for future applications as long-lasting and resistant cell scaffolds. This work generates electrospun nanofibres mixing SA concentration in a PVA solution cross-linked in calcium chloride media. The dielectric properties of the nanofibres that were obtained using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) show that at higher amount of SA in the PVA/SA fibres, the cross-linking process occurs at shorter times, indicating the modification of the internal structure of the PVA/SA. The X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) demonstrate that the chemical composition of the nanofibres varies depending on the depth profile. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) proves that the PVA/SA is formed as a core-shell coaxial nanofibre. The tensile testing demonstrates that with a higher SA concentration, the mechanical properties show brittleness.
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