MajlisMenandatanganiMOU antara USM

dan INTEL, Malaysia

Nibong Tebal, 15 Mac - UniversitiSains Malaysia telah menandatanganisatu lagi Memorandum Persefahamandengan INTEL, Malaysia di DewanSeminar, Bangunan Pentadbiran KampusKejuruteraan. Majlis ini adalah sebagaisimbol satu usahasama yang erat diantara institusi pengajian tinggi danpihak industri di Malaysia. Majlismenandatangani ini turut dihadiri olehAhli Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri PulauPinang, Y. Bhg. Dato' Koay Kar Huah bagipihak Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang.

Pada Majlis ini Naib Canselor, Prof.Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razakmenandatangani dokumen tersebut bagipihak USM manakala INTEL, Malaysiadiwakili oleh pengarah urusan En. YoonKhai Cheow. Di majlis yang sama INTELMalaysia turut menyerahkan peralatanFourier Transformation Infra Red yangbernilai RM120,000 kepada PPKBSMuntuk digunakan di dalam pengajarankursus Pembungkusan Elektronik bagi

Sarjana Kejuruteraan Bahan (modcampuran) yang diperkenalkan hasil ker-jasama USM dan INTEL Malaysia. MoU inijuga bertujuan untuk menggalakkanperkongsian penemuan dan penyelidikanantara kedua-dua institusi selainpertukaran kepakaran dan latihan stafserta pelajar. Semoga kerjasama erat iniakan beterusan. Diharapkan ianya dapatmemberi satu dimensi baru antara pusatpengajian tinggi dan pihak industri untukmenjana perkembangan ilmu sertapenyelidikan yang cemerlang di peringkatkebangsaan dan antarabangsa.

Syarahan UmumPelantikan Profesor

Hanafi

Nibong Tebal, 2 Februari - Satusyarahan umum pelantikan profesorbertajuk "Pengitaran Semula Sisa-sisaBuangan Getah: Kepentingan,Pendekatan dan Insentif" telahdisampaikan oleh Profesor HanafiIsmail dari Pusat PengajianKejuruteraan Bahan dan SumberMineral. Syarahan umum ini merupakansatu usaha penyebaran danpendedahan ilmu untukmemperkenalkan ketokohan ProfesorHanafi bersempena dengan pelantikanbeliau sabagai Profesor USM.

Profesor Hanafi telah dilantikmenjadi profesor USM pada 19Disember 2003. Pengiktirafan beliausebagai Profesor adalah berdasarkanpenglibatan cemerlang beliau dalambidang penyelidikan di dalam dan luarnegara. Gelaran 'rubber man' mungkinagak sinonim dengan Profesor Hanafiberdasarkan kejayaan cemerlang beliaudalam bidang penyelidikan getah. Selainitu, Profesor Hanafi juga seorang yangaktif dalam bidang sukan serta aktivitikemasyarakatan. Beliau juga terkenaldengan penghasilan buku motivasi, sertasering dijemput memberikan ceramahmotivasi, kemahiran belajar danpembangunan diri kepada mahasiswa/mahasiswi USM dan pelajar-pelajarsekolah.

Syabas dan tahniah daripada semuawarga PPKBSM. Diharapkan ProfesorHanafi akan terus menyumbangkan ideadan pembaharuan disampingmengharumkan nama PPKBSM padamasa akan datang. Semogakecemerlangan ini akan tetap diteruskanpada masa-masa akan datang dan dapatmembantu dan membimbing wargaPPKBSM untuk sama-sama mencapaikecemerlangan.

ENJINIERBuletin Pusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Bahan dan Sumber Mineral

Bulletin for the School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering Universiti Sains Malaysia

JIL.07 - BIL. 01 No. ISSN: 1511-5275 http://www.usm.my Jun 2005

Y. Bhg. Dato' Koay Kar Huah diiringi oleh En. Yoon Khai Cheow dan Prof. Dato'Dzulkifli Abdul Razak melawat pameran yang diadakan sempena majlis MoU antara

USM - INTEL, Malaysia

Profesor Hanafi sedang menyampaikansyarahan umumnya

AUN/Seed-Net FieldWise Seminar

Penang, 16-17 May - The SixthAUN/Seed-Net Field Wise Seminar wasorganized by SMMRE under theAUN/Seed-Net Materials Engineeringprogram and sponsored by JICA. Thetheme for this seminar was“Biomaterials, Nanomaterials,Advanced Materials & Composites”. Theseminar was held at The Gurney ResortHotel & Residences.

The seminar was attended by 50participants including from UP(Philiphines), NUL (Laos), HUT (Vietnam),HCMCUT (Vietnam), BU (Thailand), KKU(Thailand), ITB (Indonesia), UM(Malaysia), and NUS (Singapura), USMand AUN/Seed-Net sponsored students.Three invited speakers from Japan, Prof.Dr Tsutomu Takeichi (TUT, Toyohashi),Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suong-Hyu Hyon (IFMS,Kyoto) and Prof. Dr Kazuyuki Kuroda (WU,Waseda) were present in this seminar.The main advisor for AUN/Seed-Netproject, Prof. Dr. Kazuo Tsutsumi and afew delegates from AUN/Seed-Netsecretariat at Bangkok were also presentin this seminar. The chairman of thisseminar was Prof. Dr. Zainal Arifin Ahmad.

On the first day of seminar, 3 workingpapers were presented by the invitedspeakers from Japan. Prof. Dr. RadzaliOthman from SMMRE also presentedabout the research and facilities atSMMRE. The seminar was continued withthe presentation of project proposals andon going projects that are beenconducted at the Universities involvingthe 3 research umbrellas.

The second day of seminar was heldat SMMRE where 10 students under theAUN/Seed-Net sponsorship presentedtheir research projects. Later in theafternoon the participants had a shorttour of the school laboratories.

The 6th FWS ended with a dialogbetween member institutions.A proceeding has been published whichcomprises all the papers presented in thisseminar.

3 Perak, 2 Gangsa diITEX 2005

Kuala Lumpur, 21 Mei - Sekumpulanpensyarah PPKBSM sekali lagi mencatatkejayaan yang membanggakan diPertandingan Antarabangsa, Penciptaan,Inovasi Dan Rekabentuk Industri (ITEX)2005 yang berlangsung di PusatDagangan Dunia Putra, Kuala Lumpurpada 19-21 Mei. USM memenangi 27anugerah pada pertandingan ini sekaligusmemartabatkan USM sebagai pemenangterbesar dari kalangan semua institusi.

Penyelidik PPKBSM menyumbang 3pingat perak hasil penyelidikan 'CeramicFoam Sandwich for Lightweight BuildingMaterials' oleh Prof. Dr. Zainal ArifinAhmad dan kumpulan penyelidiknya,'Super-K CCTO' oleh Dr. Sabar DeritaHutagalung dan kumpulan penyelidiknyadan 'Development of Lead Free SolderPaste for Electronic Applications' oleh En.Ahmad Badri Ismail dan kumpulanpenyelidiknya.

Manakala 2 pingat Gangsa dimenangimelalui hasil penyelidikan Jeraglas(Jerami Waste (paddy stalk) turned toGlass) oleh Prof. Dr. Radzali Othman dankumpulan penyelidiknya dan'Environment Friendly High DensityFishing Weight Tackles' oleh Prof. MadyaDr. Luay Bakir Hussain. Jumlah pingat iniadalah sebahagian daripada keseluruhanpingat yang dimenangi oleh KampusKejuruteraan USM di pameran tersebutiaitu 4 pingat emas, 6 pingat perak dan 3pingat gangsa. Syabas dan tahniah darisemua warga PPKBSM. Semuakecemerlangan ini akan menjadi satutradisi yang dibanggakan oleh PPKBSMdalam mencapai misi pusat pengajianuntuk cemerlang di peringkat global.

Ir. Dr. Mior Termizi Mohd Yusof

Prof. Zainal Arifin Ahmad

Encik Samayamutthirian Palaniandy

Encik Mohd Nazri Idris

Prof. Hanafi Ismail(Ketua Pengarang)

Dr. Azura A. Rashid

Penolong Pengarang

Sidang Pengarang

Mohd Al Amin Muhamad Nor

Yeoh Cheow Keat

Delegates of the Sixth AUN/SEED-NET Field Wise Seminar

Shortcource onNanomaterials

Nibong Tebal, 31 January - 4February - SMMRE was honored toorganize a shortcource on"Nanomaterials: Theory, Synthesis andCharacterization", which was officiatedby Deputy Vice Chancellor Researchand Development, Honourable Dato'Profesor Muhammad Idiris Salleh on 31January 2005.

Originally shortcourse was designedfor only 30 participants. However, dueto the overhelming response 75participants were accepted for thisshortcourse. The participants weremainly academicians and postgraduatestudents from higher learninginstitutions such as USM, UTM, UKM,KUiTTO and UiTM. The speakers wereProfessor P. Pramanik, a visitingprofessor from India at SMMRE,Professor Amarnath Maitra fromUniversity of Delhi and ProfessorVladimir Piven, the visiting profesor atAMDI, USM Penang who are experts innano technology field. Associate ProfessorDr. Azizan Aziz from SMMRE was also oneof the speakers at this shortcourse.

This shortcourse was aimed to createawareness about the importance of nanotechnology. In developed countries, nanotechnology is already being used in theareas of medical, sciences, industries,agriculture etc. It is high time to activatethe Malaysian scientists for more effectiveinvolvement. This shortcourse provided aplatform to researchers in nanomaterialsto interact and exchange information forthe present and future collaboration. It'sworth mentioning that this shortcoursewas an initial step by SMMRE to promoteMalaysia towards nano technologydevelopment for the 21st century.

Bengkel OBE

Bukit Merah, 3 - 5 April - USMKampus kejuruteraan telahmenganjurkan Bengkel bagi MengkajiPerlaksanaan “Outcome BasedEducation” (OBE) untuk stafakademik di Kampus Kejuruteraan.Sehubungan dengan itu PPKBSMtelah menghantar 10 staf akademiksebagai wakil ke bengkel tersebut.Bengkel ini bertujuan untuk memberimaklumat dan panduan awal kepadastaf akademik tentang OBE yangbakal digunakan dalam mengakreditasisesuatu program pengajiankejuruteraan.

Antara objektif bengkel ini diadakanadalah untuk:

i. memberi pendedahan dankesedaran kepada semua staf akademiktentang kepentingan pendekatan OBEtersebut selari dengan kehendak dankeperluan Lembaga Jurutera Malaysiadan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi;

ii. memberikan latihan untukmenetapkan objektif sesuatu programatau kursus itu diadakan dan hasil yangdiharapkan daripada graduan;

iii. memantap dan memperkasakanprogram pengajian dan mengkajisemula kurikulum dan kandungankursus yang sesuai dengan pendekatanOBE. Ini bagi meningkatkan kualitiprogram secara berterusan dan lebihrelevan dengan industri;

iv. meletakkan tanda-aras bagiprogram kejuruteraan di peringkatantarabangsa kerana pendekatan yangsama juga digunakan oleh semua ahliWashington Accord yang lain.

Committe members of shortcourse on Nanomaterials

Call for Papers ICXRI 2006

INTRODUCTIONThe X-Rays techniques have contributed a lotto research and services especially in qualitycontrol and characterization study. Theadvancement of knowledge in materialscience, solid-state physics, catalysis,medical and other fields have also benefitedmuch from these techniques. With the recentinclusion of powerful software, plottingfacilities to provide quick results and withhigh precision analysis, these techniqueshave gained much interest and have greatlywidened its application in many new fields.

Submission of AbstractInterested authors are requested tocomplete the registration form and submit tothe ICXRI 2006 Conference Secretariat. Anabstract of 150-200 words should be senteither by post or e-mail attachment files tothe Secretariat not later than 31st Dec 2006.Please include the title of presentation,authors' name, affiliation, addresses,telephone, fax and e-mail addresses forcorrespondence. All abstracts will bereviewed and if accepted, the authors willbe required to submit a full paper for publi-cation in the conference proceeding. Onlythose who register will have their paperspublished. Selected and refereed papers willbe published in Journal of Nuclear andRelated Technologies.

31st December 2005 : Deadline forabstract submission31st January 2006 : Notification ofabstract acceptance31st June 2006 : Full paper sub-mission

XAPP/MNS, MSNDT, EM Members: RM450,Non Member : RM 550, Student : RM300,Exhibition (Space only) : RM1200,Pre-Conference Workshop : RM400

Further InformationConference Executives Secretary ICXRI2006. c/o Malaysian Institute for NuclearTechnology Research (MINT), Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor DarulEhsan, Malaysia.

Website:http://www.mint.gov.my/mns/Seminars/ICXRI2006/fistannouncement.htm

Contact Person:Dr. Meor Yusoff Meor Sulaiman e-mail: Meor@mint.gov.my Tel: (603)-89250510 Ext: 1156

Fax: (603)-89250907 Miss Nadira Kamarudin e-mail: nadira@mint.gov.myTel: (603)-89250510 Ext: 1706Mobile: (012)-3381522 Fax: (603)-89250907

Perasmian Taman SeriIlham

Nibong Tebal, 29 Januari - JawatankuasaKampus Sejahtera PPKBSM telah berjayamengadakan Majlis Hari PerasmianTaman Seri Ilham dan acara gotong-royong menceriakan pusat pengajian.Perasmian Taman Seri Ilham ini telahdisempurnakan oleh Dekan, Prof. MadyaDr. Khairun Azizi Mohd Azizli. Bersempenadengan itu beberapa aktiviti gotong-royong telah dijalankan berdasarkanpembahagian kumpulan-kumpulantertentu yang diwakili oleh setiap lapisanwarga PPKBSM. Antara aktiviti yangdijalankan termasuklah pembinaan mercutanda Taman Seri Ilham, pemuliharaantaman, mengecat, penyediaanmakanan/BBQ dan kitar semula kertasterpakai. Aktiviti ini secara tidak langsungdapat mengeratkan tali silaturrahim danhubungan yang lebih akrab antara setiapwarga pusat pengajian. Dekan sebagaiwakil pusat pengajian turut merakamkanucapan terima kasih kepada Dr. MariattiJaafar selaku pengerusi kampus sejahteraperingkat pusat pengajian serta jawatankuasanya dan semua staf yang terlibat.

Jamuan Perpisahan danMeraikan Kakitangan Baru

Pusat Pengajian

Nibong Tebal, 15 Jun - Kelab Sukandan Reakreasi PPKBSM telahmenganjurkan satu jamuan makantengahari bagi menghargai jasa dansumbangan kakitangan yang akanmeninggalkan pusat pengajian danmengalu-alukan kehadiran kakitanganbaru ke pusat pengajian ini. Dalam majlisini pihak pusat pengajian turutmerakamkan terima kasih kepadaEn. Mokhtar Alfakari Anurbek danDr. Sutapa Roy Ramanan atas jasa dan

pengajian mengalu-alukan kehadirankakitangan baru dan berharap dapatbekerjasama erat bagi meningkatkannama pusat pengajian. Jamuan inidihadiri oleh semua warga PPKBSM.

Ucapan Tahniah StafAnugerah Perkhidmatan

Cemerlang 2004

Prof. Madya. Dr. Azizan Aziz Dr. Azhar Abu Bakar

En. Samayamutthirian Palaniandy En. Mohamad Hasnor Husin

En. Kemuridan Md. Desa Pn. Intan Rahayu Md Ramli

Perlantikan Dekan,Timbalan-Timbalan Dekandan Pengerusi-Pengerusi

Rancangan

Prof. Madya Dr. Khairun Azizi Mohd AzizliProf. Madya Dr.Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Noor

Prof. Madya Dr. Azizan AzizProf. Dr. Zainal Arifin Ahmad

Ir. Dr. Mior Termizi Mohd YusofDr. Azhar Abu Bakar

Gotong-royong menyiapkan mercu tanda Taman Seri Ilham

CALL FOR PAPERS

2nd Post Graduate Research Paper2005/2006

School of Materials & MineralsResources Engineering

This compilation of postgraduate researchpapers is the second in the series of PostGraduate Research Papers Proceedings. Thesole purpose is to nurture the writingskills of the Master and PhD students as wellas being informed of their progress. Paperspublished cover a wide range of researchinterest including ceramics, metals,polymers, alloys, intermetallic composites,nanostructured materials, environment,construction materials and extraction ofmetals from natural resources.

All the research mode students arerequired to submit a paper on their researchwhile the mix-mode students are allowed tosubmit a literature review paper. It is theresponsibility of the students to ensureproper usage of grammar.

Submission of papersElectronic copies of the final paper shouldbe submitted in CD-ROM format or cansend via e-mail to ibnuazlan2005@yahoo.com. The deadlineof final paper is on December 30, 2005.

Payment:Post-graduate student:

RM 10.00 per student

Format of the paper: 1. The font type to use for the whole paperis Times New Roman, single spacing withfont size 11 unless stated. Should be in twocolumns (justified) except for title, authorsand affiliations.

2. Title - Caps Lock, Font size 12, Bold,Centered. Leave 1 line blank after title andcontinue with authors' / author's name(s).

3. Authors' name(s) - Centered.

4. Affiliations - Centered. Leave 1 line blank.

5. Abstract Body - Italic, Bold.

6. Section headings - Word "Abstract" andother headings such as "Introduction" and"Materials and Methods" - Caps Lock, Bold,Centered.

7 .Margins - Left 1.3" others 1.0". Paper sizeA4.8. Tables, Charts, Figures - Title of table ontop of the table, font size 10. Title of chartsor figures is below each chart or figure, fontsize 10.

9. Full paper should not exceed 3 pageswhile abstracts are recommended to be notmore than 120 words.

Kakitangan PentadbiranYang Baru

Aktiviti MIMATES

Malam KebudayaanFestival MIMATES

Nibong Tebal, 17 Februari - Satujamuan makan malam bagi meraikanpelajar tahun akhir dan warga PPKBSMsempena Malam Kebudayaan FestivalMIMATES telah dianjurkan oleh MIMATESbertempat di Dataran Kompleks DewanKuliah. Festival ini telah dimeriahkandengan kehadiran semua lapisan wargapusat pengajian dan diserikan lagidengan kehadiran Dekan, Timbalan-Timbalan Dekan dan semua PengerusiRancangan. Jamuan makan malamberkenaan juga turut diceriakan denganpersembahan daripada pelajar-pelajar.

Majlis perasmian penutupan FestivalMIMATES sidang akademik 04/05 ini telahdisempurnakan oleh Dekan dan dalammasa yang sama beliau turutmenyampaikan amanatnya kepada semuapelajar agar lebih tekun dan gigih dalamusaha mencapai ilmu dan cita-cita yangdihajati. Sehubungan dengan itu bagimenghargai semua pelajar tahun akhir,pihak MIMATES telah menyediakancenderamata sebagai tanda kenang-kenangan kepada semua pelajar tahunakhir sidang akademik 04/05.

Mahasiswa Turun Ke Sekolah

Daerah Kerian, 19-20 Februari -Pelajar-pelajar tahun satu dengankerjasama MIMATES telah mengadakansatu Khemah Kerja Mahasiswa TurunSekolah, (MTS) bagi mempromosikanPPKBSM kepada pelajar-pelajar sekolah disekitar USM Kampus Kejuruteraan. Dalamaktiviti ini tiga buah sekolah telah dipilihiaitu Sek. Men. Keb. Agama Nibong Tebal,Sek. Men. Keb. Panglima Bukit Gantangdan Sek. Men. Keb. Seri Perak. Programini keseluruhannya berkonsepkan bahawasetiap pelajar perlu tahu minat dankursus-kursus yang ditawarkan oleh pihakuniversiti sebelum menjejakkan kaki kemenara gading.

Dalam aktiviti MTS ini, pelajar-pelajarsekolah berkenaan telah diperkenalkandengan kursus-kursus yang terdapat diPPKBSM dan bidang kerjaya yang bolehdiceburi apabila berijazah kelak disamping memberikan program-programmotivasi pembelajaran kepada pelajarpelajar yang terlibat. Program ini jugaturut mendapat kerjasama padu daripadaProf. Madya Dr. Ahmad Fauzi Mohd Noor,Prof. Madya Dr. Azizan Aziz, Prof. HanafiIsmail, Dr. Nurulakmal Mohd Sharif, Dr.Zulkifli Mohamad Ariff dan pihak sekolahyang terbabit.

Aktiviti Kelab IjazahTinggi

Sambutan Perayaan 3dalam 1 meriah

Nibong Tebal, 28 Januari - Kelabijazah tinggi telah menganjurkanaktiviti sambutan perayaan 3 dalam 1yang bertempat di bilik kakitanganPPKBSM. Majlis ini bertujuanmengeratkan lagi perpaduan kaumyang sedia terjalin antara ahli-ahlikelab, sejajar dengan seruan kerajaanuntuk bersatu hati sebagai warganegaraMalaysia. Pelbagai jenis makanandisediakan mengikut perayaan masing-masing. Aktiviti yang julung-julung kalidiadakan ini memberikan kesempatankepada ahli-ahli kelab untuk meraikandan merasai juadah yang berbeza darikebiasaan.

Majlis Sambutan Hari Assyura

Nibong Tebal, 26 Februari -Sempena Hari Assyura pada 10Muharram 1426 hijrah, Kelab IjazahTinggi telah mengambil inisiatif untukmenyediakan bubur assyura dandiagihkan kepada warga PPKBSM. Ahlikelab dan beberapa orang staf PPKBSMtelah bekerjasama dalam menyediakanjuadah tersebut. Kemeriahan aktiviti initurut dirasai oleh para pelajar bukanIslam dan pelajar luar negara. Secaratidak langsung, aktiviti bukan akademikini berjaya mengeratkan kemesraanantara ahli kelab berbilang kaum disamping memperkenalkan makananMalaysia kepada pelajar luar negara.

Lawatan ke SIRIMBerhad, Kulim

Kulim, 16 Januari - Satu lawatan keSIRIM Berhad, Kulim (AMREC) telahdianjurkan oleh pihak MIMATES kepadasemua pelajar yang berminat terutamapelajar yang akan menjalani latihanindustri pada tahun ini. Seramai 30peserta telah menyertai lawatantersebut. Lawatan tersebut bertujuanmengenali dengan lebih dekat tugasdan fungsi AMREC terutama dalambidang bahan termaju. Di samping itu,pelajar-pelajar turut mendapat gam-baran yang lebih jelas secara teori danpraktikal berkenaan bidang penye-lidikan yang dilakukan dan peluang-peluang kerjaya yang boleh diceburi diAMREC.

Mesyuarat AgungTahunan Kelab Ijazah

Tinggi PPKBSM 2004/2005

Nibong Tebal, 12 Mei - Kelab IjazahTinggi PPKBSM yang dianggotai olehbarisan sekretariat lama sesi 2004/2005telah mengadakan suatu mesyuaratagung tahunan bertempat di BilikMultimedia. Kehadiran Prof. Madya Dr.Azizan Aziz selaku Timbalan Dekan(Pengajian Siswazah & Penyelidikan)dan juga penasihat utama Kelab IjazahTinggi telah menyerikan lagi suasanamajlis. Majlis yang bermula jam 2.30petang telah dipengerusikan olehsaudari Ainur Sharida. Ucapan PresidenKelab Ijazah Tinggi 2004/2005 iaitusaudara Huzaimi Ghazali telahmembawa banyak pengertian kepadasemua ahli-ahli kelab yang terdiridaripada para pelajar Ijazah TinggiPPKBSM sepanjang pimpinanbeliau.

Selain itu, pembentangan laporanaktiviti kelab oleh saudara Presiden danlaporan akaun kelab oleh Puan NadrasOthman sesi 2004/2005 telahdipersetujui oleh semua ahli. Majlisjuga telah dihiasi dengan agenda-agenda pembubaran barisan lama sesi2004/2005 dan perlantikan barisanbaru sesi 2005/2006 secara undian.Berdasarkan keputusan undiantersebut, saudara Umar Al-Amani telahdilantik sebagai presiden Kelab IjazahTinggi manakala saudara Mahadir Amirtelah dipilih sebagai Naib Presiden bagisesi 2005/2006. Majlis juga memberipeluang kepada saudara UmarAl-Amani untuk memberi sedikit ucapantentang harapan beliau bersamasekretariat yang baru dipilih terhadapkelab dan pusat pengajian. Majlisberakhir dengan penyampaianbeberapa hamper kepada ahli yangberjaya dalam cabutan bertuah padakali ini.

Berikut merupakan keseluruhanbarisan sekretariat kelab baru untuk sesi2005/2006 yang telah dilantik.

Presiden:Umar Al-AmaniNaib Presiden: Mahadhir Amir Setiausaha: Arjulizan Bendahari: Ong Hui Lin

Wakil setiap bahagian yang dilantik oleh barisan sekretariat yang baru adalah:Wakil pelajar luar: Hosta Wakil pelajar Bahan: Khairul Anuar Wakil pelajar Sumber Mineral: Saravana

KEJURUTERAAN BAHANTahun 1Khor Gaik Hooi Lee Chen WenLeong Wei ChengLim Shu Lee Quah Hock Jin

Tahun 2Chang Poh LingEng Siew TzeHo Jung KitJohn Paul Wang Sing SiewKhoor Siang TianLai Kin ThengLiew Kein Fee Lim Chin SengLoh Poh LinNg Chi SiangOng Chooi CheowOng Yee WeiTan Kean BengWong Gar ShenSiew Sok Fun Tan Choon Shih Nik Nadiah Nik Khamsani

Tahun 3Gan Sin Seng Ho Kar Fei Lim Ling ChingLim Shwu ChooLim Soo WahLoo Siaw Choon Lum Sek Yew Mohana Pria a/p Rainoo RajNg Mei ChanNg Soo BeeOng Ghee MeiOoi Li YingPeter Chin Ting Soon Soon Li LianTan Ruo Yee Wong Pei Pei Wong Yoong Yoong

Woon Wu Siang

Tahun 4Amalina binti Amir Cho Cheong ChangChua Boon KweanDiana Farahdilla Fadli Daniel PaulEng Kok Mooi Farrah Noor binti Ahmad Foong Yuan Mei Hoong Chee Hoe Kong Chia Wei Lee Boon Yeow Lee Hong Guan Lee Jian Huei Leong Chee Kit Lee Jian Huei Mohd. Faisall bin Saad Mok Boon Yong Ong Chiew Siang Pathmavathy a/p Loganathan Puah Lee SanRohaida Salleh @ Ramlee Sangeet Kaur a/p Bhajnik Singh Soo Siew Suan Tay Poh Leong Tee Dee In Vegneswary a/p Ramalingam Vemal a/l Raja Manikam Wong Yoke Pei

KEJURUTERAAN POLIMERTahun 1Ho Chee Fung @ Jonathan Lim Wei Chin Phua Yi Jing

Tahun 2Ho Kar Wei Ho Hui Ling Lim Cheng See Lim Ee MayLim Kong Fei Tay Hong Kang Tay Min Min

Tahun 3Foo Pei MingLam Seow Fong Lee See YinLiew Chee FooNg Lay Ping Ong Soo Shin Tay Lee Hwa

Tahun AkhirTIADA

KEJURUTERAAN SUMBER MINERALTahun 1TIADA

Tahun 2Ong Gaik Pheng Yap Yu Heng

Tahun 3Elvina Cassandra YumbodHariyanto bin Salleh

Tahun AkhirEe Xun Hong Heng Chooi LongHerneyta binti Mahmud Khoo Wei Wei Lau Hong CheeLee Siew Wee Lim Chek Hai Nor Azila Sarmin Nurhafiza Kamaruddin Oh May Ling Rusya Azrina Yahaya Siti Hajar Mohd. Noor Sow Hon Swen Tan Choon ThaiNg Heng HooiTeoh Cheng See Terence Michael Tung Wai Chee Wan Adura Yantie Wan Yeit Wan Suriati Zulkhefli

SIJIL DEKAN PUSAT PENGAJIAN KEJURUTERAAN BAHAN DAN SUMBER MINERAL

SEMESTER 2, SIDANG 2004/2005

Date Visitors Address Purposes

28 Jan.- 3 Feb. Prof. Ariga Tadashi Tokai University, Japan

24 -27 Feb. Prof. Ariga Tadashi Tokai University, Japan

Collaboration in the area of “joining of materials in the application of lead free solders, properties and reliability”

15 Feb. Mr. Stacy Goldsworthy Metso Minerals, New Zealand

Collaboration in the are of “High Technology Aggregates and Manufactured Sand Technology”

3-4 March Assoc. Prof. Toda Hiroyuki Toyohashi University, Japan Collaboration in the area of ‘Mechanical and Microstructure response on thermal behaviour of TiAl alloy system’

15-19 March Prof. Toshio Maruyama Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Collaboration in the area of “High Temperature Oxidation”

18-20 April Assoc. Prof. Dr. Esah Hamzah UTM, Skudai, Johor VIVA Mix-Mode

20 April

Mr. Ishihara Shinichi Ms. Kalayaporn Tengfung

Secretariat JICA , Bangkok AUN/Seed-Net Project

28 April Dr. Bob Knecht Dr. David R. Munoz

Design (EPICS) Division Colorado School of Mines

Discussion on collaboration with Mineral Resources Engineering Programme

18 May Prof. Tsutomu Takeichi Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan

Project ‘Mechanical and Microstructure response on thermal behaviour of TiAl alloy system’

16-17 June Prof. Dr. Ir. Arief S. Sudarsono Prof. Dr. Ir. Irwandy Arif Dr. Eddy A Basuku Dr. Ir. Budi Sulistianto Dr. Ir. Totok Darijono

Department of Mining Engineering, Institute of Technology Bandung, Indonesia

Discussion for future collaboration between Department of Mining ITB, Indonesia with Mineral Resources Engineering Programme, USM.

Visitors to the SMMRE during the period January to June 2005

Characterization ofChemically Modified

Steam-exploded Acacia Mangium Fiber

R. Mat Taib, Z. A. Mohd Ishak, H. D.Rozman, and W. G. Glasser

ABSTRACTIn this work, steam-exploded Acaciamangium fiber (AEF) was chemicallygrafted with maleated polypropylene(MAPP) either Epolene E-43 or EpoleneG-3003. The treated fibers werecharacterized with scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM), fourier transmissioninfrared spectroscopy (FTIR), electronspectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA)and wetting analysis. SEM and ESCAinvestigations showed the presence ofMAPP on the fiber surfaces. FTIRinvestigation, however, was unable todetect ester link to confirm a chemicalreaction between MAPP and AEF. Wettinganalysis confirmed the change of surfaceproperty of AEF from hydrophilic tohydrophobic as a result of the treatment.

INTRODUCTIONIt is known that wood fillers/fibers are notcompatible with thermoplastic polyolefins.Blending them together often leads tocomposites with inferior mechanicalproperties particularly tensile strength,impact strength, and elongation at breakdue to poor interfacial adhesion as well asfiller/fiber dispersion in the polymermatrix (Kazayawoko & Balatinecz, 1997).Wood fillers/fibers are hydrophilic whilemost of polyolefins are hydrophobic. Thisdifference gives rise to above mentionedproblems concerning wood plasticcomposites (WPCs). Hydrophilic nature ofwood fillers/fibers can be minimized byfiber surface modification using chemicalssuch as MAPP.

This work is concerned with surfacemodification of AEF with maleatedpolypropylenes (MAPPs) which in thefuture will be used as filler forpolypropylene. The effect of suchmodification on the surface properties ofAEF is reported.

EXPERIMENTALFiber preparationAEF was generated by steam explosion ofAcacia mangium wood chips using aseverity of log Ro 4.3. This was followed

by water and alkali extractions at 700oCfor 30 minutes.

Esterification with maleatedpolypropylene (MAPP)The treatment of AEF with MAPP wasconducted in a solvent system without a

catalyst. MAPP at a concentration of 5wt% of fiber dry weight was mixed with1.5 L of toluene in a glass reaction flask.The mixture was heated under reflux for1 hour to ensure complete dissolution ofMAPP. 200g of AEF were immersed in thesolution mixture. After 5 minutes ofreaction, the mixture was cooled to roomtemperature and filtered to isolate thereacted fiber. The fiber then wassubjected to soxhlet-extraction withtoluene for 24 hours to remove allcomponents not covalently bonded to thefiber. After the extraction, the fiber wasoven-dried at 70oC until a constantweight was achieved.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)Qualitative observations of untreated andtreated AEF surface morphology werecarried out with a scanning electronmicroscopy model Leica Cambridge S-360at an acceleration voltage of 10 kV. Fillersamples were mounted on aluminumstubs and then gold-coated with a PolaronSEM coating unit SC515 to minimizeelectron charging effects duringexamination.

Fourier transmission infraredspectroscopy (FTIR)FTIR spectra of untreated and treatedAEF were obtained with the KBrtechnique, using a Nicolet FTIRspectrophotometer (Avatar system 360).All the FTIR spectra were recorded inabsorbance units within the wavenumberrange of 4000-400 cm-1, with a resolution

of 4 cm-1. There were 32 scans for eachspectrum.

Electron spectroscopy for chemicalanalysis (ESCA)The surface chemistry of wood fillers wasalso investigated with ESCA. An ESCA-850spectrometer (Shimadzu) with Mg-KaX-ray source, at 6 kV and 30 mA, wasused. Spectra of C1s and O1s for eachsample were obtained and the peak areaof each spectrum was determined. Thechanges in the relative atomic ratios ofoxygen-to-carbon on AEF surface asresults of the treatments with MAPPswere monitored. The atomic ratio,was calculated from:

where Io(IS) and I are peak areas for

oxygen and carbon, respectively.

'Wetting' analysisBoth untreated and treated AEF sampleswere tested for their qualitative relativeability to be wetted by water and diethylether following the method proposed byTakase and Shiraishi (1989). The fillers

were immersed in test tubes containingwater/ether two-phase mixture. Themixtures were shaken briefly and thenallowed to stand overnight at roomtemperature. Subsequently, the mixtureswere examined to determine whether thefillers had fallen to the bottom of thewater layer or remained at the water-ether interphase.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONScanning electron microscopy (SEM)Morphological changes of AEF followingthe treatment with MAPP are presented inFigure 1. The treated fibers evidentlyshow different surface morphology fromthat of untreated AEF. Deposits are visibleon the fiber surfaces which can beattributed to MAPP. Deposits associatedwith Epolene G-3003 grafted AEF sample,however, are more noticeable. This isprobably due to the higher molecularweight of Epolene G-3003 as compared toEpolene E-43. The presence of thesedeposits suggests some kind ofinteraction by means of physical and/orchemical between AEF and MAPP(Kazayawoko & Balatinecz, 1997).Epolene E-43 has higher acid numberthan Epolene G-3003. One thereforewould expect to observe more depositson the fiber surface grafted with EpoleneE-43 than Epolene G-3003. This, however,is not significantly obvious in the SEMmicrographs. Possible explanations are:1) self-entanglement or overlapping ofMAPP molecules on the fiber surface(Rana et al., 1998) and/or 2) mechanicalinterlocking of MAPP on AEF surface.

Figure 1 SEM micrographs of (A) AEF(B) Epolene E-43 grafted AEF and (C)Epolene G-3003 grafted AEF atmagnification of 5000 X.

Electron spectroscopy for chemicalanalysis (ESCA)Samples of untreated and treated AEFwere examined using ESCA. The changesin the O/C atomic ratios on the surface ofAEF before and after the treatment withMAPP were determined. As can be seen inTable 1, the treatment of AEF with MAPPcaused a decrease in the O/C atomicratio. Treatment of AEF with Epolene E-43decreased the atomic ratio from 54.7% to42.8% while Epolene G-3003 decreased itto 29.1%. The results suggest an increasein the concentration of carbon atoms onthe surface of AEF as a result of thetreatment with MAPP. This is notsurprising given the fact that MAPP is richin aliphatic carbon atoms originated fromPP chains. Therefore, it can be concludedthat MAPP is concentrated on the treatedAEF surface. The O/C atomic ratio ofEpolene G-3003 grafted AEF wasdistinctly lower than that of Epolene E-43grafted AEF. This is probably due to thehigher molecular weight or the greaterlength of PP chains of Epolene G-3003 ascompared to Epolene E-43 (Kazayawokoet al., 1997a).

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)Successful reaction of AEF with MAPPleads to the formation of ester bonds. Toconfirm the formation ester bonds, FTIRstudy was performed on the treated AEFsamples. Since the ester functionalgroups absorb in the 1750 1720 cm-1

region (Kazayawoko et al., 1997a), thediscussion will be focused on this region.The FTIR spectra of AEF treated withMAPP are shown in Figure 2. The FTIRspectrum of untreated AEF was alsopresented for comparison. The generalfeatures of the spectra are almost similarto that of untreated AEF. No visiblechanges in the absorption band intensitiesare observed particularly in the 1750-

1720 cm-1 region where the ester bondsabsorb. The digital subtraction spectraobtained also do not indicate thepresence of any distinct absorption bandswithin the region. The absence of suchbands may be attributed to: (i) the lowamount of MAPP added with respect tothe amount of AEF, (ii) the fact that AEFalso has some ester functional groupsthat absorb within the same region, and

up by the long PP chains of MAPP, whichmakes them difficult to detect(Kazayawoko et al., 1997a). Both digitalsubstraction spectra, however, show weakabsorption bands at 1709 and 1714 cm-1,respectively, for Epolene E-43 grafted AEFand Epolene G-3003 grafted AEF.According to Kazayawoko et al. (1997b),these absorption bands may be attributedto carbonyl stretching vibrations ofcarboxyl groups present in MAPP. Theresults, therefore, marginally suggest thepossible presence of Epolene E-43 andEpolene G-3003 on AEF surface.

'Wetting' analysisIn this experiment, the wettability ofuntreated and MAPP grafted AEF sampleswas examined. The samples wereseparately shaken in ethyl ether-watermixture with a shaker and then allowed tostand at room temperature overnight.Figure 3 showed the results of thisexperiment. As shown in the photograph,untreated AEF precipitated completely atthe bottom of the lower layer (waterlayer), while both the MAPP grafted AEFsamples gathered together around theinterface between water and ethyl ether.These observations imply that AEF ishydrophilic, while the MAPP grafted AEFsamples are hydrophobic. Woodfillers/fibers with hydrophobic surfacesare beneficial because they would resultin: 1) greater compatibility withthermoplastic polymers (Hill & Abdulkhalil, 2000a), 2) better fiber dispersion in

thermoplastic matrices (Matuana et al.,1999), 3) enhanced fiber/matrixinterfacial adhesion (Matuana et al.,1999), and 4) a reduce moisture uptake(Hill & Abdul Khalil, 2000a). Incorporationof MAPP grafted AEF in thermoplasticpolyolefins such as PP therefore, wouldprobably lead to composites withsatisfactory mechanical performance.

CONCLUSIONS

The following conclusions can be drawnfrom above results:1. Both SEM and ESCA investigationsrevealed that the treatment with MAPPhas modified the AEF fiber surfaceproperties.2. Both investigations also confirmed thepresence of MAPP on the surface of thetreated fiber.3. FTIR studies were unable to provideany evidence that esterification betweenAEF and MAPP had occurred.4. 'Wetting' analysis qualitatively revealedthe change of fiber surface characteristicfrom hydrophilic to hydrophobic.

REFERENCESKazayawoko, M. and Balatinecz, J. J.

(1997). Adhesion mechanisms in wood-fiber-polypropylene composites. In: Proc.Woodfiber-Plastic Composites Conf.Forest Prod. Soc., Madison, Wis., p. 81-93.

Takase, S. and Shiraishi, N. (1989).Studies on composites from wood andpolypropylenes. II. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 37,645-659.

Rana, A. K., Mandal, A., Mitra, B. C.,Jacobson, R., Rowell, R., and Banerjee, A.(1998). Short jute fiber reinforcedpolypropylene composites: Effect ofcompatibilizer. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 69, 329-338.

Kazayawoko, M., Balatinecz, J. J.,Woodhams, R. T., and Law, S. (1997a).Effect of ester linkages on the mechanicalproperties of wood fiber-polypropylenecomposites. J. Reinf. Plast. Comp., 16(15),1383-1406.

Kazayawoko, M., Balatinecz, J. J., andWoodhams, R. T. (1997b). Diffusereflectance fourier transform infraredspectra of wood fibers treated withmaleated polypropylenes. J. Appl. Polym.Sci., 66, 1163-1173.

Hill, C. A. S. and Abdul Khalil, H. P. S.(2000a). Effect of fiber treatments onmechanical properties of coir or oil palmfiber reinforced polyester composites.J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 78, 1685-1697.

Matuana, L. M., Balatinecz, J. J., Park, C.B., and Woodhams, R. T. (1999). Surfacecharacteristics of chemically modifiednewsprint fibers determined by inverse gaschromatography. Wood Fiber Sci., 31(2),116-127.

Table 1. Results of atomic oxygen-carbonratio (O/C) of untreated and treated AEFby ESCA.

Figure 2. FTIR spectrum of untreated andMAPP grafted AEF. (A) untreated AEF, (B)Epolene E-43 grafted AEF, (C) Epolene G-3003 grafted AEF, (D) digital subtractionof [(B)-(A)], and (E) digital substraction of[(C)-(A)].

Figure 3. A photograph from the 'wettability' test. The existence of (A) AEF, (B)Epolene E-43 treated AEF, and (C) Epolene G-3003 treated AEF within the ethyl

A glimpse on the careerprospect of the mineralresources engineering

graduates

Mior Termizi Mohd Yusof

IntroductionMany first year students for the mineralresources engineering at USM are a bitunsure of what they should be doingafter finishing the course. There arevarious reasons for their uncertainties.Some took up the course by choice andsome by chance.

The word mineral is synonymous tomining and that led to the term "sunsetindustry" of tin mining. So the badimage about tin mining give mixedfeelings amongst some of the students.Some students are a bit apprehensiveand those with positive thinking will seethat the mineral resources may leadthem to a challenging and rewardingcareer.

The mixed feelings are due to themisunderstanding and negativeattitudes of the students and the publicat large. In actual fact it is not as badas it seems.

Purpose of the courseThe main purpose of the Bachelor inEngineering course in mineral resourcesengineering is to provide manpower forthe nation for the mineral andquarrying industry. Maybe there are notmany mines as compared to the timesprior to 1985, but quarries must staybecause the nation always needsquarries for development, constructionand raw materials for manufacturingpurposes

The requirement of mineral is stillimportant. For example Malaysia usedto produce a lot of tin ore and Malaysiawas number one producer. Tin miningis no more number one revenue for thenation, but we still need tin for ourmanufacturing and we are now a net tinimporter. The irony is that we still havesome remaining deposits in the KintaValley and another huge tin deposit inSelangor which is almost equivalent toKinta Valley. The deposit was mined fora short period by a prestigious miningcompany but gave up due to the verylow price of tin in 1985 and due to achange of visions of the topmanagement of the company. Howeverthe deposit is still there to be mined.

So that is one of the examples, thereare many other potential mineralprospect as already identified by theDepartment of Mineral and Geosciencesas stated by Chen (2000).

Malaysia has many other mineralresources that can be exploited but dueto hiccups in the state policies, miningcannot be done in the most economicway. There are interests from foreignmining companies and they realised thepotential but the current policies do notreally up to the mark that makes anyoperation becomes time consuming andexpensive.

However the federal governmentrealised that we must developed ourearth resources. The only way to do isthrough research. Research will nothappen if the people is lacking inknowledge about the mineralresources. So the university is the bestplace. For example mineral resourcesengineering graduates produced fromthe university, may work in the quarriesand this may enhance the knowledgewithin the quarrying fraternity. Thisknowledge may give inputs to theuniversity through joint researchbetween the university and thequarrying companies.

The curriculum If we look at the curriculum itself, thecourse is made up of core subjects andelective subjects. The core subjects aremade up of basic science andengineering subjects and followed bythe disciplinary subjects. The basicscience subjects are to reinforce thestudent's capability in mathematics andscience. The basic engineering subjectssuch as engineering drawing,engineering mechanics, strength ofmaterials, fluid mechanics, electricaltechnology, workshop practice andothers will form a basis inunderstanding the concept of generalengineering. Generally an engineerwho understands these subjectsthoroughly will appreciates more of anyengineering project or gadget,regardless from what discipline he is in.

For the mineral resources engineeringcourses, there is a fair bit of alldisciplines lumped into one, thatinclude geology, surveying, civilengineering, mechanical engineering,electrical engineering and chemistry.These combinations of disciplines arerequired to run a mine or a quarry.Logically the quarry or mines would

prefer to hire mineral resourcesengineering graduates for its operationrather than other graduates unlesswhen they have no other choice.

The current outlook of a career inmineral related industry.USM produced about 40 mineralresources engineering graduates peryear. The number is not that big if wecompare to the number of quarries,mines or mineral related plants.Currently the demand for the mineralresources engineering graduates isfrom the quarrying sector, but USM donot have enough graduates to fulfilltheir requirement. This is mainlybecause most of the quarries prefermale candidates. The graduates fromUSM are more than 50% ladies.Penjom Gold Mine will accept ladies butthe number is limited. Some petroleumcompanies or petroleum servicecompanies may also accept ladies butthe competition with other engineeringdisciplines is very stiff. There are alsoopenings in the tin smelting plant andsteel plants.

ConclusionThe job prospects for the mineralresources graduates is actually just asgood (or just as bad in bad times) asany other engineering graduates. Theopenings are from the quarries, mines,mineral related industries andgovernment service. Even somemanufacturing companies will alsoaccept mineral resources engineeringgraduates. However the trend nowthere are more ladies than men in alluniversities, so there is a genderlimitation in some jobs. Big companiesmay accept ladies but small companiescannot afford to hire lady engineers. Asfor now, that is a fact in Malaysia.

When anybody is called for a jobinterview, there is a prospect of gettinga job. Before going for the interview,the graduates are advised to do someresearch about the company and aboutthe applied post. With the world wideweb from the internet, this is not reallya problem.

Reference:Chen Shick Pei (2000). Malaysia'sMineral Resources: Opportunities forDevelopment. In Proceedings ofnational Seminar on the MalysianMinerals Industry held at Kota Kinabaluin June 22 - 24, 2000. Kuala Lumpur:Malaysian Chamber of Mines.

Formation of CrystalSteps, Domain and Twin

Lamella In Barium TitanateBased Materials

Srimala Sreekantan, Ahmad FauziMohd Noor, Zainal Arifin Ahmad& Radzali Othman

AbstractBarium Titanate (BT) and BariumStrontium Titanate (BST) powder wasprocessed at temperature 80 oC byreacting TiO2 sol in aqueous solutionsthat contained BaCl2 and NaOH at

atmospheric pressure. The powders werethen compacted and sintered at 1300 oCand 1400 oC. The micostructurecharacteristic of the sintered pellet werestudied using Scanning ElectronMicroscopy (SEM) and TransmissionElectron Microscopy (TEM). Interestingfeatures such as crystal steps, domainsstructure such as wedge shape lamellardomains and {111} twins formation wereobserved in the sintered sample. Theelaboration of this observation isdescribed in detail in this paper.

IntroductionBarium titanate based materials, a goodferroelectric material having a perovskitestructure, is widely used as the electroniccomponent materials for multilayercapacitors, positive temperaturecoefficient resistors, high-density opticaldata storage, ultrasonic transducer,piezoelectric devices and semiconductors(Hertling, 1999). Since the electricalproperties of BT based materials varywidely with its microstructure, a numberof investigations (Hu, et al., 1986; Lee et.al., 2003; Lee and Kang, 1987) have beenconducted to understand itsmicrostructural development duringsintering and control its finalmicrostructure. The purpose of this paperis to show the presence of theconventional domain, fringes and fewother interesting features which wasobserved in BT and BST prepared by lowtemperature chloride aqueous method.

Experimental ProcedureTitanium butoxide [Ti(OBu)4] (99 %Fluka Chemical Co.) was used as aprecursor and butanol [BuOH] (99.9%J.T.Baker) was used as a solvent. Nitricacid (HNO3) (Merck) were used as thepeptizing agent.TiO2 precipitation wasobtained by adding 0.4 M of the Ti(OBu)4into distilled water. The details regardingthe titania sol preparation have beenreported elsewhere (Srimala et. al.,2004). BT (Ba1.0Sr0.0TiO3) and BST

(Ba0.9Sr0.1TiO3) was synthesized byadding the titania sol to solution thatconsist of BaCl2.2H2O (Merck, 99%),

SrCl2.6H2O (Merck, 99%) and 1 M NaOH(Merck, 99.9%). After mixing, the bottlewas back-filled with argon, sealed andplaced in an oven for reaction. Afterreaction, the bottle was removed from theoven and excess solution was decanted.The powder was washed and then placedin petri dishes and dried in an oven at a

temperature of 80 oC for 24h. Afterdrying, the powder was uniaxially pressedinto pellet at about 100MPa and sinteredat 1300 oC and 1400 oC for 2h. Themicrostructure was observed using SEMand TEM. Bright-field (BF) images of TEMwere obtained using an objective aperturethat selects only the transmitted beam.

Result and DiscussionFigure 1(a) and (b) shows SEMmicrograph of as-sintered surfaces for BTand BST sample sintered at 1300 oC. Ascan be observed, there are bimodaldistribution in the grain size, the fine onesis in the range of 0.3 m to 0.5 m whereelse the large ones approximately 1.5 mto 2.0 m. EDAX analysis shows the largegrain is Ti-rich or Ba-rich but it is difficultto confirm which element due to theoverlapping of Ba and Ti energy line.However based on XRD analysis whichshows the presence of secondary phaseB6T17, implies that the grain growth isdue to the Ti-rich phase ((Srimala et. al.,

2004). However, at 1400 oC, the grains ofthe BT and BST samples have grownexceptionally large (80 m to 90 m).There is a crystal growth step on thesurface of the grain as shown in Figure 2.The abrupt grain growth is closely relatedto the formation of liquid phase, whichmight have originated from Ti- rich phase(Lee et. al., 2002; Henning et. al., 1987;Rios et. al., 1998). It should be recalledthat there exists a eutectic reaction at1332 oC for the BT-TiO2 system (Lee et.al., 2000) which have caused the abrupt

grain growth at 1400 oC for theserespective systems.

The sintered samples were also examinedusing TEM and the micrograph in Fig. 3(a)

and (b) show a bright field and dark fieldTEM image of BST. Ferroelectric domainsare clearly visible when viewed fromZ=[100]. Domains of widths between100nm to 150nm appear in alternatebands of dark (indicated by A) and bright(B) contrast representing the changing ofpolarization direction from one domain toits immediate neighbour. Furthermore,asymmetric dark-bright and bright-darkfringes ( -fringes) on both sides of eachferroelectric domain is shown in the brightfield image of Figure 3(a), indicated as(C-D). Fringes contrast is observedbecause the boundary is inclined 45o tothe plane of the thin foil. The presence of-fringes shows these domains are theconventional 90o type. And it is believed

that the 90o ones reduce the elastic strainenergy incurred by tetragonal symmetryupon cubic to tetragonal phase transition.-fringes are actually produced from theoverlapped ferroelectric domainboundaries of the thin domains. When apair of the domain boundaries inclining tothe foil plane at an angle become too closeto each other and produce overlapped -fringes, two initially asymmetric fringespatterns develop to become effectivelysymmetric ones along the centre line of thedomain. The overlapped fringes withinthe thin domains appear fainter in contrastas indicated by the arrow in Figure3(a).The fact of the extreme (first and last)fringes exhibiting the same contrast inbright and dark field (Figure 3(b)) suggestthat they are d-fringes. Similar fringespatterns of the symmetric dark-brightcontrast have often been found in sinteredBaTiO3 ceramic before [Chou et. al., 2000].

Figure 1: SEM micrographs of sample

sintered at 1300oC (a) BT and (b) BST

Figure 2: SEM micrographs of sample

sintered at 1400oC (a) BT and (b) BST

Figure 3: The 90o type ferroelectric domains(a) bright field image of asymmetrical fringesfrom two adjacent domain walls. (b) dark fieldimage of the same grain shows the extremefringes exhibiting the same contrast as inbright field.

The micrograph in Figure 4(a) shows abright-field image of BT where wedge-shaped lamellar domains are clearlyvisible. The wedge-shaped domains are acommon microstructural feature in mostferroelectric phase transition. It is wellknown that this type of domains appearswhen the 90o walls terminate within thegrain (Forsbergh, 1949; Park and Chung,1994) and the TEM image shown inFigure 4(a) is in agreement with thereported observations. Its cause is not yetclear, although redistributing excesspolarisation charges had been proposed(Chou, et. al., 2000). A closer look at theother grains also reveals that the wedge-shaped domains appear to have stoppednot only by grain boundaries but also bythe other domains, as indicated by twodifferent domains X and Y in Figure 4(b)and {111} twin boundary as shown inFigure 4(c).

Another interesting feature which wasobserved in this study is the formation of{111} twin lamella in the presence of thefaceted secondary phase B6T17. Accordingto an investigation by Lee et. al., (2003),{111} twins form when BT grains growaround faceted B6T17 particles. The same

study also proved that B6T17 interface acts

as the nucleation site of {111} twins in BT.The TEM micrograph in Figure 5 indeedshows that the interface between BST andB6T17 is well-faceted and the twin lamellaare attached to B6T17.

ConclusionThe possibility of obtaining submicron-sized BT and BST at 1300oC usingchloride aqueous method wasdemonstrated. Sintering at 1400oC, haveleads to grain growth with crystal steps.Domains formation and the presence of-fringes show the existence of 90o

conventional domain in this material.Evidence was obtained for the existenceof the wedge shaped domains and itappeared to have stopped not only bygrain boundaries but also by the otherdomains and {111} twin. This study alsoreveals B6T17 encourage {111} twinlamella formation.

AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank thecontribution from the Department ofMaterial Engineering, University ofSheffield, UK for the TranssmissionElectron Microscopy.

ReferencesChou, J. F., Lin, M. H. and Lu, H. Y.

(2000). Ferroelectric Domains inPresureless-Sintered Barium Titanate.Acta Materialia. vol. 48, p. 3569-3579.

Henning, D. F. K., Janssen, R. andReynen, P. J. L. (1987). Control of Liquid-Phase- Enhanced Discontinuous GrainGrowth in Barium Titanate. Journal of theAmerican Ceramic Society. vol. 70, p. 23-27.

Hertling, G. H. (1999). FerroelectricCeramics: History and Technology.Journal of the American CeramicSociety.vol 82, p. 797

Hu, Y. H., Chan, H. M., Wen, Z. X. andHammer, M. P. (1986). Scanning ElectronMicroscpy and Transmission ElectronMicrscopy Study of Ferroelectric Domainsin Doped BaTiO3. Journal of the AmericanCeramic Society. vol. 69, p. 594-602.

Lee, B. K. and. Kang, S. J. L. (2001).Second-Phase Assisted Formation of{111} Twins in Barium Titanate. ActaMaterialia. vol. 49 p. 1373-1381.

Lee, B. K., Chung, S. Y. and Kang, S. J.L. (2000). Necessary Condition for theformation of {111}Twin in BariumTitanate. Journal of the American CeramicSociety. vol. 83, p. 2858-2860.

Lee, B. K., Yang, I. J., Kang, S. J. L andNowotny, J. (2003). {111}Twin Formationand Abnormal Grain Growth in BariumStrontium Titanate. Journal of theAmerican Ceramic Society. vol. 86,p. 155-160.

Lee, S. B., Sigle, W. and Ruhle, M.(2002). Investigation of Grain Boundariesin Abnormal Grain Growth Structure ofTiO2-Excess BaTiO3 by TEM and EELS.Acta Materialia. vol. 50, p. 2151-2162.

Rios, P. R., Yamamoto, T., Kondo, T. andSakuma, T. (1998). Abnormal Grain

Growth Kinetics of BaTiO3 with an ExcessTiO2. Acta Materialia. vol. 46, p. 1617-1623.

Srimala, S., Ahmad Fauzi, M.N., ZainalArifin, A. and Radzali Othman. (2004)Microstructure Characterisation of BSTprepared by low temperature chlorideaqueous method. 13th ScientificConference of Electron MicroscopySociety of Malaysia. 13-15 December2004. Putrajaya, Malaysia. p. 252-258

Silicon Carbide (SiC) as anElectronic Material

Cheong, Kuan Yewe-mail: cheong@eng.usm.my

AbstractThe superb electrical, chemical, andphysical properties of silicon carbide (SiC)as an electronic material have beenintroduced in this paper. However, thismaterial has yet been fully developed formain-stream electronic-device applications;since it was first discovered in the early19th century. The reasons for these havebeen briefly mentioned in this paper.

IntroductionSilicon carbide (SiC) was initiallydiscovered by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, aSwedish scientist, in 1824 when hesynthesized diamond (http: //www. ele. kth.se/SiCEP/english/highlights.html). Eightyyears later (1907), its electroluminesceneproperty was demonstrated by a Britishengineer named Henry Joseph Round. Atthat time, it is extremely difficult toproduce a high-quality single crystal SiC(http://www.ele.kth.se/SiCEP/english/highlights.html). Without this, it is impossiblefor this material to be use as a substratefor electronic-device applications. Until1955, J. A. Lely has developed a newtechnique, which uses sublimationprinciple to grow a single crystal SiC atextremely high temperature but still thequality is not as good as its silicon (Si)counterpart http: //www. ele.kth. se/SiCEP/english/highlights.html). Since then, withthe available of relatively good quality SiCcrystal, it has influence future SiCresearch and development. Numerouselectronic devices, such as gas sensors,high power and high frequency devices,optoelectronic devices, and non-volatilememory, have been fabricated based onthis material (Choyke et. al ,2004). EvenShockley, convinced by its unmetelectrical and physical propertiescompared to Si, predicted in 1950s thatSiC would replace Si in the near future(Feng,2003). Recently, Zolper andShanabrook, 2002 reported that SiC hasbeen considered as the third generation

Figure 4: TEM micrograph of the (a)wedge-shaped lamellar domains in BT (b)wedge-shaped lamellar domains stopped byanother domain and (c) stopped by twin

Figure 5: TEM micrograph shows {111} twinlamella and faceted B6T17 in BST

semiconductor material, after germanium(Ge) and Si, (which is the 1st generation)and gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indiumphosphide (InP) (which is the secondgeneration). The questions arises hereare: why SiC is used as an electronicsubstrate in the above-mentionedapplications and what are theadvantages of using this materialcompared with other semiconductormaterials? Therefore, it is the mainobjectives of this paper to address thequestions and propose some technolog-ical hinders in the development of SiC asthe main-stream electronic material.

Advantages of SiC as an electronicmaterial.SiC is a IVB-IVB semiconductor, which hasbeen identified as one of the emergingwide bandgap semiconductors that canrevolutionize electronic devices. The basicstructural unit of a SiC consists of atetrahedrally bonded Si-C. It forms over170 polytypes (Fisher and Barnes, 1990),which means the chemical contents of thepolytypes are the same and only thestacking sequence of the tetrahedrallybonded Si-C bilayers changes along thec-axis of the lattice. Generally they caneither be classified into zinc-blend [orcubic (C)], wurtzite [or hexagonal (H)](Fig. 1), or combination of thosestructures. The greater the wurtzite(hexagonal) component is, the larger thebandgap. A more common andconvenient way to differentiate thesepolytypes is by Ramsdell notation (Harris,1995), which consists of a numberfollowed by a letter. The numberrepresents the number of bilayers instacking sequence, whereas the letterrepresents crystal structure. About 95%of all publications on SiC research areabout the three main polytypes: 3C, 4H,and 6H (Goldberg, 2001).

SiC with its large bandgap, high break-down field, comparable thermalconductivity to copper, high saturationelectron velocity, tremendously lowintrinsic carrier concentration, just toname a few properties, has providedmuch attention to researchers andmanufacturers. These superb propertieshave been reviewed and edited byGoldberg et al., 2001, Harris et al., 2001,Neudeck, 2000, and Choyke and Pensl,1997. These impressive properties areable to fill the needs unmet by othersemiconductors, such as Si, in high-temperature, high-frequency, high-power,and nonvolatile-memory applications(Choyke et al., 2004; Feng, 2003; Cheongand Dimitrijev, 2002; Li et al., 2003). Therevolution in SiC stems primarily from theexploitation of the unique propertiesoffered by SiC compared to Si, GaN, and

GaAs and these properties have beensummarized in Table 1.

The melting point, bandgap, criticalbreakdown field, thermal conductivity,peak electron mobility, and intrinsiccarrier concentration of SiC are,respectively, 2 , 3 , 10 , 3 , 2 , and 10-17of Si (Choyke et al., 2004; Feng, 2003).Consequently, SiC-based devices arepredicted to operate at temperature 3higher compared with Si-based devices.While the expected breakdown voltageand switching speed of SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor(MOSFET) power devices would be 10higher than its Si-based counterparts.Since it has been recognized in late 1980sthat power switching MOSFET in Si wereapproaching their theoretical limits andthe usage of this material in hightemperature is only limited to operationbelow 200oC, the impressive properties inSiC are able to fill the needs unmet by Siin high temperature and high powerapplications. These ranges from improvedhigh-voltage switching for energy savings,in public electric power distribution andelectric vehicles, to sensors and controlsfor cleaner-burning ore fuel-efficient jetaircraft and automobile engines. Besides,low intrinsic carrier concentration and lowthermal generation rate of SiC enablesnonvolatile memory, such as Flashmemory and random-access memory tobe built on various polytype of SiC(Cheong and Dimitrijev, 2002; Li et al.,2003). These are some of the interestingintrinsic properties demonstrated by SiC,compared with other semiconductormaterials.

Similarly, SiC also reported somefascinating technological properties. SiC isthe only wide bandgap semiconductormaterial that enables native oxide (SiO2)to grow using thermal oxidation andnitridation techniques ( Li et al., 2003).With this, it is possible for this material tobe used as the substrate for MOSFET,which is the the technology driver forcontemporary electronic gadgets.

Issues in SiC as an electronic material.There are six technological andeconomical issues in SiC that can preventit to become the main-stream electronicmaterials (http://www.ele.kth.se/SiCEP/english/highlights.html; Choyke etal., 2004; Feng 2003; Cheong andDimitrijev, 2002, and Li et al., 2003),there are (1) quality of substrate, (2)semiconductor-oxide interface quality(3) Ohmic contact on p-type substrate,(4) selective doping, (5) device packag-ing, and (6) substrate cost.(1) Quality of substrate: One of the most

serious defects that can significantlyaffect the quality of the SiC substrate ismicropipe, a hollow core caused bydislocation. Currently, the density ofmicropipe is 1 cm-2, which is considerablyhigh for device application. (2) Semiconductor-oxide interfacequality: Without a good SiC-SiO2interface, a functional and reliableMOSFET could not be built. The interfaceissue is due to accumulation of carbonclusters during oxidation process, whichdirectly affect the density of interfacetrap, near interface trap and the quality ofthe bulk oxide. By using nitridationprocess to grow the oxide, those densitiescould be reduced significantly. (3) Ohmic contact on p-type substrate: Itis very difficult to form a low resistivitycontact on p-type substrate. There are noexact theories to explain thisphenomenon. Most researchers believethat the intrinsic wide bandgap propertiesmay contribute to this issue.(4) Selective doping: The diffusitivity ofany elements in SiC is extremely slow.This is the main reason why dopingprocess cannot be done by diffusiontechnique. The only solution to this is byhigh temperature ion-implantation andannealing process. (5) Device packaging: For hightemperature and high power applications,special packaging materials need to bedeveloped.(6) Substrate cost: Currently, the SiCsubstrate cost is extremely high;approximately 50 higher than Sisubstrate. There are two reasons attrib-ute to high cost: (a) small substrate size -maximum size of commercial availablesubstrates is 3 inches and (b) slow crystalgrowth process.

ConclusionsIn this paper, the advantages of SiC as anelectronic material have been highlighted.A total of six issues have been identifiedto hinder this material to be widely usedas the main-stream electronic material.

References:Highlights in SiC research. [Online]

http://www.ele.kth.se/SiCEP/engl ish/highlights.html

W.J. Choyke, H. Matsunami, and G. Pensl,Silicon carbide, recent major advances,Springer, 2004.Z.C. Feng, SiC power materials and devices.

Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2003.J.C. Zolper and B.V. Shanabrook, Proc.

IEEE, vol. 90, 2002, pp. 1-3.G.R. Fisher and P. Barnes, Phil. Mag. B, vol.

61, pp. 217-236, 1990.G.L. Harris, Properties of silicon carbide.

Exter: IEE & Inspec, 1995.Y. Goldberg, M. Levinshtein, and S.L.

Rumyantsev, Properties of advanced semi-conductor materials - GaN, AlN, InN , BN,

SiC, SiGe, M. Levinshtein, S.L. Rumyantsev,and M.S. Shur Eds., New York: Wiley, 2001,pp. 93-148.

C.I. Harris et al., Appl. Surf. Sci., vol. 184,pp. 393-398, 2001.

P.G. Neudeck, The VLSI Handbook, W.K.Chen Ed., New York: CRC & IEEE Press,2000, pp. 6-1 - 6-32.

W.J. Choyke and G. Pensl, MRS Bull., pp.25-29, March 1997.

K.Y. Cheong and S. Dimitrijev, IEEEElectron Dev. Lett., vol. 23, pp. 404-406,2002.

C. Li, J.S. Duster, and K.T. Kornegay, IEEEElectron Dev. Lett., vol. 24, pp. 72-74, 2003.

K.Y. Cheong, S. Dimitrijev, and J. Han, J.Appl. Phys., vol. 93, pp. 5682-5686, 2003.

Surface Activation ofFumed Silica Prior to Filler

Application in Polymer

Ong Hui Lin,Hazizan Md Akil andZainal Afifin Mohd Ishak

Silica has been used widely as filler inpolymer composites but due to thedifferences in terms of their surfacechemistry, the adhesion betweensilica and the non-polar PP matrix isrelatively poor. It has also beenreported that using the couplingagent alone will not considerablyimprove the adhesion especially whenthe coupling process is performed inair atmosphere. The aim of this workis to activate the silica surface usingdifferent concentration of NaOH inorder to promote more hydroxylgroup to interact with the reactivesite of the coupling agent and thusincrease the level of adhesion and toestablish the optimum concentrationof NaOH for the activation process.

Fumed silica is commonly synthesizedvia high-temperature hydrolysis(about 1400 K) of SiCl4 in the O2/H2flame (V.M. Gun'ko et. al., 1998) andusually low in concentration ofhydroxyl groups on the surface whichis the key parameter that influence

the interaction between couplingagents or compatibilizer and thematrix. It is expected that byincreasing the number of hydroxylgroup on the fumed silica surface viaactivation process will enhance theadhesion between inorganic filler andorganic polymer matrix. In order toevaluate the effectiveness of theactivation process, the amount of OH-group was calculated using Equation(1). The amount of calculated OH-group after activation process atvarious concentrations of NaOHsolution is summarized in Figure 1.From the Figure1, it can be observedthat fumed silica activated with 1mol% and 10 mol% of NaOH give thehighest amount of -OH groups whichare 1.09 mM/g and 1.11 mM/grespectively (about 150% higher thanthe un-activated fumed silica). Theincreased of the -OH groups indicatedthat silica surface has been activated,and the 1 mol% of NaOH is clearlyeffective to play its role in theactivation process.

Where:X: is the amount of the surface -OHgroups per unit weight of the silicaparticles (mM/g).B: Volume of HCl for neutratization(ml)A: Volume of HCl in control solution(ml)

1.111.09

0.87

0.44

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

0 mol% 1 mol% 5 mol% 10 mol%

NaOH Concentration

-OH

Grou

ps (m

M/g)

TABLE 1: Comparison of the properties for selected important semiconductors at 300 K(Goldberg et al., 2001;Harris et al., 2001 and Neudeck, 2001)

Figure 1: Concentration of -OH group onthe modified fumed silica surface withdifferent concentration (mol %) of NaOHsolution

Fig. 1: Side and top view along the stackingdirection of a cubic and a hexagonal type ofSiC.

Empat Pensyarah PPKBSM Terima

Anugerah SanggarSanjung

Pulau Pinang, 12 Februari -Berlangsung di Hotel Equitorial, PulauPinang seramai empat pensyarahPusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Bahandan Sumber Mineral (PPKBSM) telahmenerima Anugerah SanggarSanjung 2004. Antara penerima Anugerah Sanggar

Sanjung ialah Profesor Hanafi Ismail,Profesor Zainal Arifin Ahmad,Profesor Radzali Othman dan Prof.Madya Dr. Luay Bakir Hussain.Mereka menerima anugerah bagikategori Produk Penyelidikan. Antara

tetamu kehormat Majlis SanggarSanjung ialah Seri Paduka BagindaYang DiPertuan Agong, Tuanku SyedSirajuddin Ibni Al-Marhum TunkuSyed Putra Jamalullail dan SeriPaduka Baginda Permaisuri Agong,Tuanku Fauziah Binti Al-MarhumTengku Abdul Rashid, Pemangku RajaPerlis, Y. Bhg. Dato’ Dr. Shafie SallehMenteri Pengajian Tinggi, Y. Bhg.Prof. Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak danbeberapa pegawai-pegawai utamaUSM.

Malam Anugerah Sanggar Sanjungmerupakan satu malam keraian bagimenghargai jasa budi staf yang telahmengharumkan nama Universiti SainsMalaysia di peringkat nasional danantarabangsa sepanjang tahun 2004.

Research Grants Received

No. Project

Researcher Amount

1. Development of Woven Fabrics Composites for Engineering Application

Dr. Mariatti Jaafar @ Mustapha Dr. Azhar Abu Bakar Dr. Nurulakmal Mohd Sharif Ms. Khatijah Aisha Yaacob Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khalil Shawkat Ali

RM 138,000.00

2. Development of Localized-Selective-Stress Etch-Stop Layer (ESL) for a New CMOS Integration Scheme

Dr. Cheong Kuan Yew Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luay Bakir Hussain

RM 18,278.00

3. An Investigation on the Long Term Properties of various commodity thermoplastic / organomontmorillonite nanocomposites

Dr. Chow Wen Shyang Prof. Zainal Arifin Mohd Ishak

RM 19,110.20

4. Development of nanocrystallite CaTiO3 via high intensity grinding using value added local raw materials (CaO from limestone and TiO2 from illmenite)

Mr. Samayamutthirian Palaniandy Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khairun Azizi Mohd Azizli Dr. Hashim Hussin Dr. Syed Fuad Saiyid Hashim

RM 14,896.00

5. Development of Zn-MnO2 Battery Using Chitosan-ZnCl2 Gel Polymer Electrolytes

Dr. Ahmad Azmin Mohamad Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azizan Aziz

RM 17,654.00

6. Designing high water resistance wood plastic composite from steam-exploded fibre and high density polyethylene

Dr. Razaina Mat Taib Prof. Zainal Arifin Mohd Ishak Prof. Rozman Hj. Din

RM 17,542.00

7. Study of the clinker characteristics and grindability during cement production.

Dr. Syed Fuad Saiyid Hashim Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khairun Azizi Mohd Azizli Dr. Hashim Hussin Mr. Samayamutthirian Palaniandy

RM 17,880.00

8. Study on Production and optimization of rubber foam from natural rubber

Dr. Zulkifli Mohamad Ariff RM 16,842.00

Sidang Pengarang Enjinier menjemputsemua staf, pelajar-pelajar dan graduan PPKBSM memberi sumbangan rencana dan pandanganmereka kepada:

Sidang Pengarang Enjinier,Pusat Pengajian Kejuruteraan Bahan danSumber Mineral,Kampus Kejuruteraan,Universiti Sains Malaysia,14300 Nibong Tebal.

The Enjinier Editorial Board invites allstaff, students and graduates of theSchool of Materials and MineralResources Engineering to contribute arti-cles and views to: (Articles must be notmore than 3 A4 pages font 12 single spacing)

Enjinier Editorial Board,School of Materials and MineralResources Engineering, EngineeringCampus, Universiti Sains Malaysia,

1. Ceramic Foam Sandwich for Lightweight Building

Materials(Won Silver Awards at

ITEX 2005)

Team MembersProf. Dr. Hj. Zainal Arifin AhmadDr. Hazizan Md. AkilMohd Al Amin Muhamad Nor

Shahrul Ami Zainal Abidin

Traditional ceramic materials suffer fromproblem such as low in stiffness to weightratio, heavier than other materials (typi-cally polymers), which is undesirable formodern engineering application. To min-imise this problem, making ceramic intoporous body (ceramic foam) may help toincrease the stiffness to weight ratio andhence, become more competitive to othermaterials such as polymeric and metallicfoams. To further enhance the stiffness,the ceramic foam structure can be engi-neered to obtain greater stiffness withoutsignificant increase in weight, such asadopting the sandwich structures configu-ration. As a result of these combinations,the overall bending stiffness increase con-siderably without increasing the weight ofthe total structure. Besides of high stiff-ness-to-weight ratio, sandwich structuresalso provide other additional advantages;good thermal/acoustic insulation, energyabsorption and buoyancy. Sandwichstructures are frequently used where highstrength and stiffness coupled with lowweight are of importance typically in vari-ous industries such as transportation,aerospace, aircrafts, automobiles, railway,construction and marine.

On the other hand the project is alsoexpected to benefit the constructionindustries as well as the country in gener-al through many ways such as follows:1. Utilizing cheap raw materials which areabundantly available locally i.e. clay andother minerals 2. Lighter than existingconstruction materials (e.g. clayand sand bricks)3. High resistance to heat ascompared to polymeric foam-core sandwich structure4. Easy to install in the form ofready-made panel5. Cheaper to produce ascompared to other foam-coresandwich systems

PUISI

Aduh Mawi.... Aduh Perdana Menteri

Siapakah Mawi, Siapakah Perdana MenteriDua nama yang ternama,

dalam dunia berbeza

Jika di tanya si anak kecilSiapakah Perdana Menteri kita?Jawapannya entah, tak tahu,

mengangkat bahuWalaupun di depan mata,

di dada akhbar, di mana-mana

Sebaliknya berlaku pada Mawi Mendengar sahaja muziknya, anak kecil terus ikut berlaguMelihat sahaja gambarnya,

akan terjerit namanyaYang pasti melariskan… kain Mawi,

tudung Mawi, biskut Mawi, rambut Mawi

Jayanya Mawi, 3 bulan bergelar jutawanGenerasi muda menjadi sawan,

sekeluarga tidak keruanJayanya Perdana Menteri

kurang sambutanSiapa peduli dia bukan kawan atau taulan

Pandai-pandailah mentadbir kerajaan

Hakikatnya Mawi hanyalah penyanyiBerbakat semulajadi mencari rezekiTetapi kenapa Mawi menjadi idola

generasi muda?Asas pengetahuan dan kebijaksanaan

diabaikan

Kejayaan Perdana Menteri harus direnung

Menerajui Negara, penentu masa depan kita

Seharusnya dijadikan idola generasi mudapelapis Negara

Sayangnya kita terlekaAsyik terbuai dek nyanyian merdu Mawi

Aduh Saleha.. aduh bangsaku.. sedarlah…

-Dr. Zed Zed-

NEW PRODUCTS FROM SMMRE

2. SUPER-K CCTO(Won Silver Awards at

ITEX 2005)

Team members:Dr. Sabar Derita Hutagalung, Prof. Zainal Arifin Ahmad, Dr. Mohd. Fadzil Ain,Khatijah Aisha Yaacob, Julie Juliewatty Mohamed

Super-K CCTO is the newestelectroceramic material with unusualdielectric properties ever found. CCTOmeans a ceramic compound,CaCu3Ti4O12 and Super-K was namedafter its shows a colossal dielectricconstant with relative permittivity or -value up to 12,000 (-value of dry air is 1and glass ~ 5). This permittivity value ismuch higher if compared to the conven-tional electroceramic materials such asBaTiO) ~ 1,000, TiO2 ~ 100, SiO2 ~ 40and remains relatively stable over a widerange temperature of 100 to 600 K(-173 to 327 oC).

High-K materials are useful forcapacitor (component which can storeenergy) and memory device (DRAM). Thehigher -value, the more charge/energycan store, and we can make the smallerelectronic devices by using Super-KCCTO. In microwave applications, Super-K CCTO is very promising as a dielectricresonator to produce a smaller size ofoscillator system for low microwavefrequency ranges.

3. DEVELOPMENT OF LEADFREE SOLDER PASTE FOR

ELECTRONICAPPLICATIONS

(Won Silver Awards atITEX 2005)

Team members:Ahmad Badri Ismail,Assoc. Prof. Dr Luay Bakir HussainRamani MayappanMohd Helmi Khir

Lead and lead compounds have beencited by the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) as one of the top 17chemicals posing the greatest threat tohuman life and the environment. In orderto produce an acceptable quality andshape of lead free solder ball materials,gas atomization was used. The mostcommon of the solder alloys proposed forLead free solders are ternarycombinations of tin, with other elements. Electronic packages must be able tosurvive the temperatures during reflowassembly processing (soldering).Candidate materials in lead free soldermaterial development are ternarycombination of tin, bismuth, zinc, indium,silver, and copper.

The main processes are:- Mixing lead free solder (LFS) materialsthat can be operate at low temperatures.- Gas Atomization of LFS powder/ ball.- Mixing LFS powders with selected flux to

improves wettability atlow temperature.- Characteristics &Properties of product.- Application to electron-ic boards.Advantages of Lead freesolder that producedcan operate at low

temperature 65 - 85 oCnearly round powdershape, controlled size;have good wettabilitywith selected flux. Thereis no waste and out sizepowder as well as thepowder can be recycled.The ease of application

normally can beachieved by the use ofautomated syringedispenser system whichis widely used inelectronic industry.