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Home-Academics-Programs-Physics-Said Bakkar, PhD

Dr. Said Bakkar's research in physics focused on measurement of the magnetic material properties, design and synthesize new magnetic materials called Heusler compounds for spintronic applications. His interest in design materials attracted him to complete his education in the materials science and engineering at University of North Texas (UNT). He received his PhD degree at UNT in 2021 in investigation of porous ceramic structure by freeze-casting. 

He joined University of Dallas as a postdoctoral teaching fellow at physics department to work with Dr. Flanagan, Dr. Moldenhauer, Dr. Steinmiller, and collaborate with Cerium lab on a silicon nitride seal for thermal barrier coating in gas turbines for extended engine life that funded by the Air Force. This project started in 2020 when Cerium Labs was reporting the results of its STTR “Phase I” funding. Cerium lab group with the chief scientist Prof. Tim Hossain explored a patented silicon nitride seal which can protect the TBC, allowing increased engine performance and decreased maintenance and replacement costs. Dr. Bakkar started as a postdoctoral and the main researcher at UD in Phase II with this group with the authority for using this patent to continue pursuing this technique on larger and more realistic TBC samples. His research focuses on sealed the topcoat of the TBCs to prevent the CMAS attack at high temperature by depositing a sacrificial layer of Si3N4 using chemical vapor deposition CVD technique. Currently, he works on the CMAS attack test and characterizes the TBCs samples before and after CMAS test using SEM at UD, XRD, and TEM at Cerium lab.

Education
Ph.D. In Materials Science and Engineering, The University of North Texas Denton  
M.S. In Physics, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
M.S.  In Physics, Al al-Bayt University, Jordan
B.S. In Physics, Yarmouk University, Jordan  

Professional Experience: Postdoctoral Fellow, UD Irving, 2021-2022 Areas of Expertise: Materials Science, Thermal Barrier coatings, High impact resistance materials, and Solid state physics

Recent Courses
General Physics I
General Physics II and Lab
Physics and Technology Lab
Materials Science and Lab
Optics
Fluid Mechanics

Research Interest

My interest always lies in designing and characterizing materials in physics and materials science and engineering fields. In the beginning, I focused on the measurement of the magnetic material properties, design, and synthesis of new magnetic materials called Heusler compounds for spintronics applications. My love of research and improving my characterization skills in materials guided me to investigate the porous ceramic structure by freeze-casting technique during my PhD journey.  The design and fabrication of porous ceramic materials with anisotropic properties has, in recent years, gained popularity due to their potential application in various areas that include medical, energy, defense, space, and aerospace. Freeze-casting is an effective, low-cost, and safe method as a wet shaping technique to create these structures. He worked to design metal matrix composites MMCs by creating highly aligned porous ceramic structures using magnetic field-assisted freeze-casting and infiltrate the porous ceramic preform with molten metal. This research was supported by the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and he succeeded in designing lightweight and high impact resistance materials by designing Al/Al2O3 MMCs. As a part of his research at UNT he designed a model to mitigate the Ca-Mg-Al-Si oxides (CMAS) attack on thermal barrier coatings (TBC) which is used in the blades of Jet engines and gas turbine engines using modification the surface of the topcoat of TBC using laser treatment. Recently, I with my group at UD collaborated with Cerium lab on two projects. (I) a silicon nitride seal for thermal barrier coating in gas turbines for extended engine life funded by Air Force. (II) . Silicon Nitride Protective Coatings for Accident Tolerant Fuels, ATF) funded by DOE. The project goal was to protect the oxidation of the surface of the Zircaloy cladding and prevent the formation of hydrogen gas with hot steam. I have practiced my favorite job throughout the year and a half I spent at UD, which is teaching and doing research at the same time. Interacting with students in classrooms and labs always gives me the energy and motivation to learn and teach.

  1. Bakkar, Said, Elora Zucha, Joseph Beam, Will H. Flanagan, Satish Dixit, and Tim Z. Hossain. "A new approach to protect and extend longevity of the thermal barrier coating by an impermeable layer of silicon nitride." Journal of the American Ceramic Society 106, no. 10 (2023): 6221-6229.
  2. Bakkar, S, Thapliyal, S., Ku, N., Berman, D., Aouadi, S. M., Brennan, R. E., Young, M. L., “Controlling Anisotropy of Porous B4C Structures Through Magnetic Field-Assisted Freeze-Casting.” Ceramics International (2021)
  3. Bakkar, Said, Michael Wall, Nicholas Ku, Diana Berman, Samir M. Aouadi, Raymond E. Brennan, and Marcus L. Young “Al/Al2O3 Metal Matrix Composites Produced Using Magnetic Field-Assisted Freeze Casting of Porous Ceramic Structures.” Journal of Materials Research (accepted March 2021)
  4. Bakkar, Said, Jihyung Lee, Nicholas Ku, Diana Berman, Samir M. Aouadi, Raymond E. Brennan, and Marcus L. Young. "Design of porous aluminum oxide ceramics using magnetic field-assisted freeze-casting." Journal of Materials Research 35 (21), 2859-2869. (2020)
  5. Bakkar, S., M. V. Pantawane, J. J. Gu, A. Ghoshal, M. Walock, M. Murugan, M. L. Young, N. Dahotre, D. Berman, and S. M. Aouadi. "Laser surface modification of porous yttria stabilized zirconia against CMAS degradation." Ceramics International 46, no. 5 (2020): 6038-6045
  6. Aryal, Anil, Said Bakkar, Hassana Samassekou, Sudip Pandey, Igor Dubenko, Shane Stadler, Naushad Ali, and Dipanjan Mazumdar. "Mn2FeSi: An antiferromagnetic inverse-Heusler alloy." Journal of Alloys and Compounds 823 (2020): 153770
  7. Blackert, E., S. Bakkar, S. Briseño-Murguia, M. Kramer, J. Barclay, M. Carl, J. Smith, M. L. Young, and S. M. Aouadi. "Textured TNZT surfaces via hydrothermal treatments for bone implant applications." Thin Solid Films 667 (2018): 64-68
  8. El-Hilo, M. M., A. L. Al-Momnee, and S. A. Bakkar. "Minor hysteresis loop phenomena in particulate recording media." Journal of applied physics 91, no. 10 (2002): 8742-8744

  • 2022 48th International Conference on Metallurgical Coating & Thin Films (ICMCTF), San Diego, CA, USA, May 22-27, 2022. “A New Approach to Protect Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) Using Air Plasma Spray (APS)/High Velocity Oxygen Fuel (HVOF) Coating of Si3N4”
  • 2021 Materials Science & Technology (MS&T21), technical meeting and exhibition, Columbus, Ohio, USA, October 17-20, 2021. “Protection of Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) Surface from CMAS Attack by Sacrificial Layer of Si3N4” 
  • 2021 47th International Conference on Metallurgical Coating & Thin Films (ICMCTF), San Diego, CA, USA Virtual Conference, April 26 – 30, 2021. “Laser Processing of Freeze Casted Yttria Stabilized Zirconia / Gadolinia Thermal Barrier Coatings to Mitigate CMAS Attack”
  • 2021 Federation of North Texas Area Universities (TAMUC, TWU, UNT) Graduate Students Virtual Research Symposium, Denton, Texas, USA, April 9th, 2021. “Using magnetic field-assisted freeze-casting to design Al2O3/Al metal matrix composite.” 
  • 2020 Materials Science and Technology (MS&T) technical meeting and exhibition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, November 4-8, 2020. “Processing and Characterization of Al /Al2O3 Ceramic Matrix Composites Produced Using Magnetic Field-Assisted Freeze Casting of Porous Ceramic Structures”
  • 2020 Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), 3rd North Texas STLE Student Section Poster Symposium, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA, February 18th, 2020. “Laser Surface Modification of Porous Yttria Stabilized Zirconia Against CMAS Degradation”
  • 2019 Materials Science and Technology (MS&T) technical meeting and exhibition, Portland, Oregon, USA, Sep 29- Oct 3, 2019 “Surface Modification of Yttria Stabilized Zirconia Thermal Barrier Coatings Produced by Freeze Casting” (Oral)
  • 2018 International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films, San Diego, CA Apr. 23 - 27, 2018. “Highly porous scaffolds on TNZT alloys for bone implant applications.” (Oral)
  • 2018 AVS chapter at Fort Worth, TX, “Optimizing the Growth of WS2 with Laser Annealing.”
  • 2017 APS March Meeting, New Orleans, LO: “Structural and magnetic properties of inverse Heusler compounds Mn2CoZ (Z=Ga,Ge,Sb)” (Poster)
  • 2016 Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (CURCA), SIUC: High Resolution of X-Ray Investigation of New Heusler Compounds: April 5th, 2016

  • A principal investigator (PI) for the Fuel Rod project with collaborating with CeriumLab , Austin TX on the fund of $30,000 at UD irving
  • Awarded $16,746.03 from the Donald A. Cowan Physics Fund for research mentoring summer 2022 at UD.
  • Outstanding Graduate Student at materials Science and Engineering department at University of North Texas 2020/2021 
  • Reviewer at Journal of Materials Research (JMR).
  • The figure of my paper (Al/Al2O3 Metal Matrix Composites Produced Using Magnetic Field-Assisted Freeze Casting of Porous Ceramic Structures) has been selected for the cover of Journal of Materials Research (JMR) Volume 36, issue 10. 2021
  • 2nd place winner of Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) north Texas 3rd annual student paper symposium competition, Denton, TX, USA, 2020
  • Army Research Laboratory (ARL) award (No. W911NF-19-2-001) as a research assistant 2019-2021
  • Robert J Hardin Presidential Scholarship 2019/2020 UNT, Denton

 

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