Mechanical Spectroscopy of Annealing Effects in Electrodeposited Nickel/Ceramic Nanocomposites

The annealing behaviour of temperature-dependent mechanical spectra (vibrating-reed technique) was studied on electrodeposited ultrafine-grained nickel as well as on Ni nanocomposites with small (7 nm) SiO₂ or larger (25 nm) Al₂O₃ nanoparticles. From the response of the different phenomena involved – Young’s modulus, high-temperature damping background, dislocation-and hydrogen-induced low-temperature loss peaks, and magnetomechanical effects – information is obtained on processes such as recovery, grain growth, hydrogen trapping, and dislocation generation by thermal stresses, which are influenced by both kinds of nanoparticles in different ways.