Manual hydraulic press 15ton

Pulsed current processing (PCP) for both m-80Al20W and n-80Al20W were conducted on Dr. Sinter 2050 (Sumitomo Coal Mining Co., Ltd., Japan). The samples were sintered in vacuum by following the same PCP thermal program: the powder was filled into 12 mm graphite die and heated to 550 °C with a heating rate of 100 °C/min, and held for 2 minutes. The pressure employed during sintering was 20 MPa.
The m-80Al20W powder mixture were consolidated into green compacts by a laboratory hydraulic press (Manual Hydraulic Press – 15Ton, Specac, England) at a pressure of 5 Ton before performing thermal analysis in Differential Scanning Calorimeter (STA 449 C Jupiter®, NETZSCH, Germany). The effect of different heating rates was done by performing the thermal program from 30 °C to 1000 °C with different heating rates (0.5, 1, 5, 10 and 20 °C/min, respectively). In order to study the effect of prolonged holding time, the m-80Al20W compacts were heated from 30 °C to 1000 °C with a heating rate of 20 °C/min, but with different holding temperature stages (550 °C, 600 °C, and 650 °C) for 1 hour during the process.

Coleorhiza samples were collected by sterile Fisher brand razor blades. To remove any residual moisture, coleorhizae were lyophilized overnight in the freeze dryer prior to samples preparation for FTIR spectroscopy. Dried samples were then grinded by mortar and pestle to provide a homogeneous mixture. To prepare a potassium bromide (KBr) pellet or disk, each sample was added to a concentration rate of 1.3%, grinded with a mortar and pestle to a fine powder. The fine powder of sample/KBr mixture was transferred on the dye set and made into a pellet in triplicate under 7 psi (pound-force per square inch) for 2 minutes, using a hydraulic press (Manual hydraulic press 15 Ton, Specac, Orpington, UK). Pellets (12 mm) were transferred on clean sample dishes for FTIR measurement^{22 (link)}.
FTIR spectra were collected using the Bruker IFS 66 V/S spectrometer with a KBr beam splitter at the mid infrared beamline using globar (silicon carbide) as the infrared source. Each IR spectrum was measured and recorded at resolution of 2 cm⁻¹ and at sample scan time of 64 in the range of 4000–600 cm^{−1 22 (link)}. The same sample was repeatedly scanned three times for spectral data collection.