Title

Associate Professor
Chair, Graduate Admissions Committee

Education

Ph.D. Solid State Physics - Eötvös Loránd University, 1978
M.S. Physics - Eötvös Loránd University, 1974

Previous Experience

Dr. Takacs was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics at Clark University (Worcester, MA), where he studied magnetic materials and high-temperature superconductors. He was a post-doc at Northeastern University (Boston, MA) earlier where he used Mössbauer spectroscopy to investigate magnetic compounds at cryogenic temperatures.

Professional Interests

Novel materials are essential to virtually all aspects of technological development. The drive to make stronger, lighter, and more durable materials with favorable combination of physical properties often leads to the preparation of metastable materials, such as nanocomposites and amorphous alloys.

Our research interest is the application of high-energy ball milling, also called mechanical alloying or mechanochemical synthesis. Ball milling is capable of producing nanocrystalline materials, amorphous alloys, and metastable crystalline alloys. It is also a potential tool in green chemistry, as it can cause chemical reactions without solvents or high temperature. Our group conducts research in two directions: (i) We try to understand the mechanism of mechanical alloying, taking into account elementary processes on several time and length scales, from the macroscopic motion of the milling balls to the mechanical and chemical processes between grains on the micro- and nanometer scales. Theoretical considerations are combined with model preparations. Our objective is to develop a comprehensive model that will help process control and scale up. (ii) We also prepare and test potentially useful materials, such as nanocrystalline metals, energetic materials, magnetic nanocomposites, and novel coatings. The primary methods of characterization are X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, differential thermal analysis, and magnetic hysteresis measurement.

We are also interested in the history of mechanochemistry, particularly around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when it became a separate branch of chemistry. Our sources include historical papers and original documents. We also reconstruct classical experiments.

Selected Publications

“Compressive properties of Cu with Different Grain Sizes: Sub-Micron to Nanometer Realm,” A. S. Khan, B. Farrokh, L. Takacs, J. Mater. Sci. 43 (9) (2008) 3305.

“The Mechanochemical Reduction of AgCl with Metals, Revisiting an Experiment of Michael Faraday,“ L. Takacs, J. Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry 90 (2007) 81.

"Coating Metals by Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment,” Á. Révész, L. Takacs, J. Alloys and Compounds 441 (2007) 111.

“Ball Milling-Induced Reduction of MoS2 with Al,” L. Takacs, P. Baláž, A. R. Torosyan, J. Mater. Sci. 41 (2006) 7033.

“M. Carey Lea, the Father of Mechanochemistry,” L. Takacs, Bull. Hist. Chem. 28 (2003) 26.

“Self-Sustaining Reactions Induced by Ball Milling,” L. Takacs, Prog. Mater. Sci. 47 (2002) 355.

"Mechanochemical Transformations in the Zn-Magnetite System," L. Takacs, R. C. Reno, M. Pardavi-Horvath, Hyperfine Interactions 112 (1998) 247.

"Gradual and Combustive Mechanochemical Reactions in the Sn-Zn-S System," L. Takacs, M.A. Susol, J. Sol. State Chem.  121 (1996) 394.

"Iron-Alumina Nanocomposites Prepared by Ball Milling," M. Pardavi-Horvath, L. Takacs, IEEE Trans. Magn. 28 (1992) 3186.