This two-year award provides support for US-France cooperative research on the production and characterization of various types of polygrained quasicrystals, either as bulk pieces or as coatings. The collaboration involves the US and French research groups led by Alan I. Goldman at Iowa State University's Ames laboratory and Jean- Marie Dubois at the Ecole des Mines in Nancy, France. The investigators will synthesize a number of new icosahedral alloys and study their structural and surface properties. The US research group brings to this collaboration expertise on processing and characterization of quasicrystalline alloys and coatings, and surface chemistry. This is complemented by the French group's expertise in sample preparation and mechanical properties of quasicrystalline alloys. The project advances understanding of the potential of quasicrystals as a new class of tribolological and strength-enhancing materials.
