Revealing the relationships between alloy structure,composition and plastic deformation in a ternary alloy system by a combinatorial approach

A high-throughput approach based on magnetron co-sputtering of alloy libraries is employed to inves-tigate mechanical properties of crystalline and amorphous alloys in a ternary palladium(Pd)-tungsten(W)-silicon(Si)system with the aim to reveal the difference in plastic deformation response and extract the relevant structure-property relationships of the alloys in the system.It was found that in contrast to crystalline alloys,the amorphous ones,i.e.,metallic glasses,exhibited a much smaller fluctuation range in the plasticity parameters(Er2/H and Wp/Wt),indicating a significant difference in the plastic deformation mechanism controlling the mechanical properties for the respective alloys.We propose that the inho-mogeneous deformation of amorphous alloys localized in thin shear bands is responsible for the weaker compositional dependence of both plasticity parameters,while dislocation gliding in crystalline materials is significantly more dependent on the exact structure,thus resulting in a larger scattering range.Based on the representative efficient cluster packing model,a set of composition-dependent atomic structural models is proposed to figure out the structure-property relationships of amorphous alloys in Pd-W-Si alloy system.     

The kinetics of copper corrosion in nitric acid

The strategy for the permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste in Canada involves sealing it in a copper-coated steel container and burying it in a deep geologic repository. During the early emplacement period, the container could be exposed to warm humid air, which could result in the condensation of nitric acid, produced by the radiolysis of the humid air, on the copper surface. Previous studies have suggested that both nitrate and oxygen reduction will drive copper corrosion, with the nitrate reduction kinetics being dependent on the concentration of soluble copper(I) produced by the anodic dissolution of copper in the reaction with oxygen. This study focused on determining the kinetics of nitrate and oxygen reduction and elucidating the synergistic relationship between the two processes. This was investigated using corrosion potential and polarization measurements in conjunction with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Oxygen reduction was shown to be the dominant cathodic reaction with the oxidation of copper(I) to copper(II) by nitrate, promoting the catalytic cycle involving the reaction of copper(II) with copper to reproduce copper(I).     

The Celerity High-level API: C++20 for Accelerator Clusters

International Journal of Parallel Programming - Providing convenient APIs and notations for data parallelism which remain accessible for programmers while still providing good performance has been...     

A penalized batch-Bayesian approach to informative path planning for decentralized swarm robotic search

Autonomous Robots - Swarm-robotic approaches to search and target localization, where target sources emit a spatially varying signal, promise unparalleled time efficiency and robustness. With most...     

Addressing amorphization and transgranular fracture of B4C through Si doping and TiB2 microparticle reinforcing

Over the last two decades, many studies have contributed to improving our understanding of the brittle failure mechanisms of boron carbide and provided a road map for inhibiting the underlying mechanisms and improving the mechanical response of boron carbide. This paper provides a review of the design and processing approaches utilized to address the amorphization and transgranular fracture of boron carbide, which are mainly based on what we have found through 9 years of work in the field of boron carbides as armor ceramics.     

Hydrogels containing silver nanoparticles for burn wounds show antimicrobial activity without cytotoxicity

This research introduces a novel dressing for burn wounds, containing silver nanoparticles in hydrogels for infected burn care. The 2‐acrylamido‐2‐methylpropane sulfonic acid sodium salt hydrogels containing silver nanoparticles have been prepared via ultraviolet radiation. The formation of silver nanoparticles was monitored by surface plasmon bands and transmission electron microscopy. The concentration of silver nitrate loaded in the solutions slightly affected the physical properties and mechanical properties of the neat hydrogel. An indirect cytotoxicity study found that none of the hydrogels were toxic to tested cell lines. The measurement of cumulative release of silver indicated that 70%–82% of silver was released within 72 hr. The antibacterial activities of the hydrogels against common burn pathogens were studied and the results showed that 5 mM silver hydrogel had the greatest inhibitory activity. The results support its use as a potential burn wound dressing. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40215.     

Raft crystals of poly(isoprene)-block-poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) and their surface wetting behavior during melting as observed by AFM and NanoTA

We report on the morphology evolution during heating and melting of lamellar poly(isoprene)-block-poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) (PI₇₆-b-PFDMS₇₆) raft crystals deposited at the native oxide surface of silicon (SiO₂) or at a highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface, studied by in situ temperature controlled atomic force microscopy. Crystals deposited on hydrophilic SiO₂ surfaces revealed an irreversible decrease in length at temperatures of up to tens of degrees above their expected melting temperature, while maintaining their platelet-like structure. Crystals deposited on hydrophobic HOPG surfaces initially decreased in length below their expected melting temperature, while at 120 °C and above a typical molten morphology was observed. In addition, the irreversible formation of a PI₇₆-b-PFDMS₇₆ wetting layer around the crystals was observed upon increasing the temperature. These observations in the morphological behavior upon heating emphasize the role of interfacial energy between a surface deposited block copolymer based macromolecular nanostructure and its supporting substrate.     

Automated self seeding of batch crystallizations via plug flow seed generation

In this study, seed slurry from a single addition anti-solvent plug flow crystallization of benzoic acid was used to seed the equivalent batch cooling crystallization. The experimental conditions were carried out to simulate automated self-seeding. This involves withdrawal of solution from a batch crystallizer, which is then mixed with anti-solvent within a plug flow crystallizer, in order to generate a seed slurry which is fed directly back to the batch crystallizer. This seeding strategy allowed the final CSD of the batch crystallization to be controlled by variation of the crystal size from the plug flow seeding device at a constant seed loading. The ability to use unequal feed/anti-solvent inlet flowrates (in the Roughton vortex mixer) proved effective in controlling the batch CSD at 2% seed loading and constant feed composition.     

Continuous flow characterization of solid biomass in a reciprocating/rotating scraper tube: An experimental study

The performance of reciprocating/rotating scrapers has been assessed in a visualization study of the continuous flow hydrodynamics of air‐fluidized solid biomass under varying conditions of air flow rate and scraping velocities. A combination of low air flow rates and high scraping velocities results in more uniform flow of both types of biomass investigated. Power consumed by the reciprocating action of the scrapers increases with the scraping velocity but typically represents no more than 20% of the overall power consumption at the highest air flow rate applied. We also demonstrate that rotation of the scrapers superimposed on their reciprocating action gives higher flow rate of biomass and better mixing within the bulk solid compared to reciprocating action alone. The application of the reciprocating/rotating scraper technology described in this study represents a viable step forward in developing a continuous, large‐scale process for the microwave‐assisted decomposition of solid biomass to produce bio‐oils. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 3732–3738, 2014