Hematite crystal growth in high-temperature lead-free multicomponent alkali borosilicate glass frit for red overglaze enamels

To elucidate the crystal growth process of hematite in high-temperature lead-free multicomponent alkali borosilicate glass, which is essentially important to control the color of red overglaze enamels, frit and hematite mixture is heat-treated and subjected to microscopic observations. Hematite particles slightly grew due to sintering at low temperature. Once the glass matrix formed near the softening point of frit, hematite dissolved into glass fluid. Hematite crystal growth concomitantly ensued with decrease in the number of hematite particles via Ostwald ripening as the temperature increased. The grown particles exhibited an anisotropic morphology with straight outlines reflecting crystal planes, the morphology of which is completely different from those grown by sintering and particles prior to heating. These results suggest that comprehensive understanding of frit and hematite from the perspectives of glass science and chemistry as well as powder technology are important to truly control the color of red overglaze enamels.     

Fabrication of dense Al2O3-FeAl composites by using solid-state sintering

Highly densified alumina-iron aluminide (Al₂O₃-FeAl) composites consisting of ubiquitous elements were fabricated by using pulse current sintering technique under a certain uni-axial pressure. The solid-state sintering without melting FeAl was the highlight in this study. The mechanical properties of the Al₂O₃-FeAl composites were much greater than previously reported ones fabricated by reaction sintering technique. The poor wettability of FeAl against Al₂O₃ strongly influenced the mechanical properties and made it difficult to be highly densified Al₂O₃-FeAl composites by liquid phase sintering especially when volume fraction of FeAl to Al₂O₃-FeAl was high (>30.5 vol%). However, highly densified Al₂O₃-FeAl composites were obtained by solid-state sintering with control of Al₂O₃ grain size and sintering temperatures. It was concluded that highly controlled powder metallurgy made it possible to fabricate dense ceramic-metal (intermetallic) composites from the combination of materials having poor wettability.     

Pressure-less joining of alumina ceramics by the reaction-bonded aluminum oxide (RBAO) method

The present work demonstrates a pressure-less and reliable joining technique for alumina ceramics through a reaction-bonded aluminum oxide (RBAO) method. Effective joining relies on the RBAO mechanism, in which Al particles are converted to alumina through oxidation and bond with alumina particles from the parts to be joined upon sintering. Alumina ceramics in a green state were successfully joined with the use of an Al/Al₂O₃ powder mixture as an interlayer. The oxidation behavior of the Al particles was confirmed by thermogravimetry and X-ray diffraction analyses. Joining was performed in ambient air at 1650 °C for 2 h without applying any external pressure. Microstructural observations at the joining interfaces indicated a compact joining. The joining strengths were assessed by determining the biaxial strengths at room temperature, and the joined samples exhibited no fractures at the joining interfaces. Moreover, the joints had a strength of almost 100 % when compared with those of the parent alumina ceramics.     

Decomposition process of bastnaesite concentrate in NaOH-CaO-H_2O system

A novel process of calcification-leaching for bastnaesite concentrate(REFCO_3) was proposed. The prior calcification was carried out in the system of NaOH-CaO-H_2O and the lgC-pH pattern for Ce-F-Ca-C-H_2O system was drawn. The thermodynamics result indicates that decomposition for bastnaesite requires certain alkaline condition, but excessive alkalinity also causes decomposition of CaF_2. XRD and SEM-EDS analyses on the calcification-leaching process reveal that bastnaesite first decomposes into RE(OH)_3 and CaF_2. Then, by HCl leaching rare earths were extracted,while CaF_2 was left in the leaching residue. In addition, effects of temperature, time, NaOH and CaO on the calcification were investigated. The results show that the leaching rate of rare earths(REs)reaches 72.5 wt%, at the same time 99.2 wt% of F is left in leaching residue with 20 wt% NaOH and 38 wt% CaO at 493 K for 180 min.     

Giant photoresponsivity of transfer free grown fluorographene – MoS2 heterostructured ultra-stable transistors

Development of metal dichalcogenides based air and water stable opto-electronic devices is a bottleneck in their commercial implementation. Here we address this issue by the direct catalyst-free deposition of fluorographene (FG) protective layer over monolayer MoS₂ (MS), where such an atomic interface is found to be providing enormous photoresponse and chemical stability to the device. Electric field modulated (ionic liquid (IL) electrolyte based top-gated) photodetectors are developed with MS only and FG-MS heterostructure, where the MS photodetector has the responsivity of ~1.3 A/W (with V_GS = 0 V while unstable with IL gating) while that of FG-MS is ~2000 A/W (with V_GS = 0 V and ~8000 A/W with V_GS = 1.5 V, and the detectivity ~10¹³). This giant photoresponse of the FG-MS is validated with the help of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy assisted charge carrier dynamics studies at different temperatures. The broad optical response (350–850 nm) of the FG-MS is found to be intact not only in IL based gating but also after exposing in water for a month or heat treated in air at 200 °C. Interfacing and capping with FG, developed via the direct growth method, are found to be ideal for realizing high shelf-life and good responsivity photodetectors and solar cells of several other monolayer TMDs too, while available for wafer-scale manufacture.     

Faraday isolator based on a TSAG single crystal with compensation of thermally induced depolarization inside magnetic field

A Faraday isolator based on a terbium scandium aluminum garnet (TSAG) single crystal with compensation of thermally induced depolarization inside magnetic field was demonstrated. An isolation ratio of 32 dB at 350 W cw laser radiation power was achieved. Thermally induced depolarization and thermal lens were studied and compared with similar thermal effects arising in the widely used terbium gallium garnet crystal (TGG) for the first time.     

Highly conductive multilayer-graphene paper as a flexible lightweight electromagnetic shield

A graphene-based porous paper made of multilayer graphene (MLG) microsheets is developed for application as a flexible electrically conducting shielding material at radio frequency. The production process is based on the thermal expansion of a graphite intercalated compound, the successive liquid-phase exfoliation of the resulting expanded graphite in a proper solvent, and finally the vacuum filtration of the MLG-suspension using a nanoporous alumina membrane. Enhancement of the electrical conductivity and electromagnetic shielding properties of the MLG paper is achieved by gentle annealing at 250 °C overnight, and by mechanical compression at 5 MPa. The obtained results show that the developed MLG papers are characterized by an electrical conductivity up to 1443.2 S/cm, porosity around 43%, high flexibility, shielding effectiveness up to 55 dB at 18 GHz with a thickness of 18 μm. Numerical simulations are performed in order to understand the main factors contributing to the shielding performance of the new material.     

Experimental study to assess the effect of carbon nanotube addition on the through-thickness electrical conductivity of CFRP laminates for aircraft applications

The present paper tests experimentally the through-thickness electrical conductivity of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites laminates for aircraft applications. Two types of samples were prepared: Type A samples with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and Type B samples without CNTs. During the electrical experiments, electrical currents of several mA were injected through the specimens. Electrical resistance was monitored simultaneously in order to deduce the changes in the through-the-thickness electrical conductivity caused by the addition of CNTs. Improvement of electrical conduction by two orders of magnitude was achieved through the addition of 1 wt% carbon nanotubes as compared to classic CFRP without CNTs. For moisture saturated samples, the influence of moisture absorption on such measures was found to be negligible.     

Effect of Eu3+-doping on morphology and fluorescent properties of neodymium vanadate nanorod-arrays

Tetragonal structural (t-NdVO₄) nanorod-arrays were fabricated by simple one-pot hydrothermal method. The phase, morphology and microstructure of NdVO₄ were characterized by X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) techniques. t-NdVO₄ nanorods are single-crystalline with a length of 100 nm and a diameter of 25 nm, which grow orientally along the direction of (112) crystalline plane and self-assemble to form nanorod-arrays. The results show that Eu³⁺-doping interrupts the formation of NdVO₄ nanorod-arrays, and then leads to the red-shift of the strongest luminescence emission of Nd³⁺ transition from ⁴D_3/2 state to ⁴I_11/2 and decreases its intensity of the fluorescence emission at 400 nm sharply. The research results have some reference values to optimize the photoluminescence performance of rare earth vanadates.