I am applying for a materials engineering position within the company I currently work at. I do not have a degree, but I do come with 15+ years expirence in the field. Are there any book recommendations that could help me further my knowledge? Or anything that could help out. Thanks!

I'm trying to make a high entropy oxide containing lithium and sodium along with three other constituent elements. I do a co-precipitation and then calcine at 1000 °C, 6 hours. However, when i do the ICP-MS after calcination, the amount of Li is 1.7 ppb and Na is 5.8 ppb. Other elements have the amount in the range of 500-550 ppb.

I've tried using various wet chemical methods like sol gel, pechini etc, but every time I calcine, the amount of lithium and sodium reduces. I've also tried ball milling, but the calcination step reduces the amount of Li, Na. I'm using a zirconia crucible and covering it with a lid. Ive also tried putting excess Li, Na in the precursor but still it doesn't work.

Is there any method for my calcination or something else i can do to ensure my lithium and sodium don't disappear.

My favourite image I generated during my PhD… a backscatter SEM image of steel powder spatter from the laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing/3D printing process… which looks like a little spooky pig!