Strocera's product lines come out of the materials laboratory at Sabancı University whose principal investigator, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Gülgün, is Strocera's Chief Scientific Officer. This note lists a selection of the published work behind them: peer-reviewed papers on how alpha alumina densifies and how its grain boundaries behave during sintering, a paper and a US patent on a chemical route to mixed oxide powders, and current work on matching lunar regolith simulants to Apollo and Chang'e reference samples.
Each entry links to its DOI or official record, so it can be checked at the source.
Alpha alumina: densification and grain boundaries
These studies examine high-purity alpha alumina doped with yttrium: how a cation that collects at the grain boundaries changes densification, grain growth and the formation of second phases during sintering. It is the background to formulating an alumina powder to a customer's firing route.
- Voytovych, R., MacLaren, I., Gülgün, M. A., Cannon, R. M. and Rühle, M. (2002). The effect of yttrium on densification and grain growth in α-alumina. Acta Materialia 50(13), 3453-3463. doi:10.1016/S1359-6454(02)00159-3
- Gülgün, M. A., Voytovych, R., MacLaren, I., Rühle, M. and Cannon, R. M. (2002). Cation segregation in an oxide ceramic with low solubility: yttrium doped α-alumina. Interface Science 10(1), 99-110. doi:10.1023/A:1015268232315
- Gülgün, M. A., Šturm, S., Cannon, R. M. and Rühle, M. (2008). Transient dopant segregation and precipitation in yttrium-doped alumina. International Journal of Materials Research 99(12), 1324-1329. doi:10.3139/146.101767
Powder synthesis
A chemical route in which a non-chelating polymer, such as polyvinyl alcohol, carries the metal cations in solution and yields single-phase mixed oxide powders at relatively low temperatures.
- Gülgün, M. A., Nguyen, M. H. and Kriven, W. M. (1999). Polymerized organic-inorganic synthesis of mixed oxides. Journal of the American Ceramic Society 82(3), 556-560. doi:10.1111/j.1151-2916.1999.tb01800.x
- Gülgün, M. A., Kriven, W. M. and Nguyen, M. H. Processes for preparing mixed metal oxide powders. US Patent 6,482,387 B1, granted 19 November 2002. Google Patents
Lunar regolith simulants
Current work at Sabancı University extends simulant matching beyond bulk chemistry: crystal phases and their amounts, and the amorphous content, are compared against XRD and XRF data from Apollo and Chang'e samples.
- Sabancı University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (summer term 2024-2025). A comprehensive algorithm for simulating lunar regolith: integrating chemical, crystalline, and amorphous properties. Research project, supervisors M. N. Önder and M. A. Gülgün. Project listing, PURE 2024-2025 Summer
Profile and full publication list
- Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Gülgün, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabancı University. Faculty profile
- Publication list
Strocera formulates alpha alumina powder, adaptive glass-ceramic and the Regolithia lunar regolith simulants to customer specification. Specifications are on the Alpha Alumina Powder and Lunar Regolith Simulant pages.
