Microstructure and electric properties of Pr-doped Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 ceramics

Improving the piezoelectric activity of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics is of great importance for practical applications. In this study, the influence of Pr³⁺ doping on the ferroelectric phase composition, microstructure, and electric properties on the A-site of (Pb_1-1.5xPr_x)(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ is extensively investigated. A dense and fine microstructural sample is obtained with the introduction of Pr³⁺. The results show that the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) moves to the rhombohedral phase region. The rhombohedral and tetragonal phases exhibit an ideal coexistence in the 4 mol.% Pr³⁺ doped (PPZT4) samples. Lead vacancy and the reduction of the potential energy barrier are considered to be the key mechanisms for donor doping, which is upheld by the Pr³⁺ doping. Combining the I-E hysteresis loops with the P-E hysteresis loops, it becomes apparent that both contribution maximums of the domain switching and residual polarisation are in PPZT4. Moreover, the thermal aging resistance of PZT is improved by doping, and the temperature stability is optimised from 83% in PZT to 96% in PPZT4. Hence, an appropriate amount of Pr³⁺ doping can effectively improve the piezoelectric activity of PZT ceramics in the MPB area and optimise the performance stability of the material under application temperatures.     

Methods and mechanisms for uniformly refining deformed mixed and coarse grains inside a solution-treated Ni-based superalloy by two-stage heat treatment

The uniform refinement mechanisms and methods of deformed mixed and coarse grains inside a solution-treatment Ni-based superalloy during two-stage annealing treatment have been investigated.The two-stage heat treatment experiments include an aging annealing treatment(AT)and a subsequent recrystallization annealing treatment(RT).The object of AT is to precipitate some δ phases and consume part of storage energy to inhibit the grain growth during RT,while the RT is to refine mixed and coarse grains by recrystallization.It can be found that the recrystallization grains will quickly grow up to a large size when the AT time is too low or the RT temperature is too high,while the deformed coarse grains cannot be eliminated when the AT time is too long or the RT temperature is too low.In addition,the mixed microstructure composed of some abnormal coarse recrystallization grains(ACRGs)and a large number of fine grains can be observed in the annealed specimen when the AT time is 3 h and RT tem-perature is 980℃.The phenomenon attributes to the uneven distribution of δ phase resulted from the heterogeneous deformation energy when the AT time is too short.In the regions with a large number of δ phases,the recrystallization nucleation rate is promoted and the growth of grains is limited,which results in fine grains.However,in the regions with few δ phases,the recrystallization grains around grain boundaries can easily grow up,and the new recrystallization nucleus is difficult to form inside grain,which leads to ACRGs.Thus,in order to obtain uniform and fine annealed microstructure,it is a prereq-uisite to precipitate even-distributed δ phase by choosing a suitable AT time,such as 12 h.Moreover,a relative high RT temperature is also needed to promote the recrystallization nucleation around δ phase.The optimal annealing parameters range for uniformly refining mixed crystal can be summarized as:900℃×12 h+990℃×(40-60 min)and 900℃×12 h+1000℃×(10-15 min).     

Understanding grain refining and anti Si-poisoning effect in Al-10Si/Al-5Nb-B system

Grain refinement is critical for fabricating high-quality Al-Si casting components in the application of automobile and aerospace industries,while the well-known Si-poisoning effect makes it difficult.Nbbased refiners offer an effective method to refine Al-Si casting alloys,but their anti Si-poisoning capability is far from being understood.In this work,the grain refining mechanism and the anti Si-poisoning effect in the Al-10 Si/Al-5 Nb-B system were systematically investigated by combining transmission electron microscope,first-principles calculations,and thermodynamic calculations.It is revealed that NbB₂provides the main nucleation site in the Al-10 Si ingot inoculated by 0.1 wt.%Nb Al-5 Nb-B refiner.The exposed Nb atoms on the(0001)NbB₂and(1-100)NbB₂surface can be substituted by Al to form(Al,Nb)B₂intermedia layers.In addition,a layer of NbAl₃-like compound(NbAl₃')can cover the surface of NbB₂with the orientation relation of(1-100)[11-20]NbB_2//(110)[110]NbAl₃'.Both of the(Al,Nb)B₂and NbAl₃'intermedia layers contribute to enhancing the nucleation potency of NbB₂particles.These discoveries provide fundamental insight to the grain refining mechanism of the Nb-B based refiners for Al-Si casting alloys and are expected to guide the future development of stronger refiners for Al-Si casting alloys.     

Robust optical flow estimation via edge preserving filtering

It is known that optical flow estimation techniques suffer from the issues of ill-defined edges and boundaries of the moving objects. Traditional variational methods for optical flow estimation are not robust to handle these issues since the local filters in these methods do not hold the robustness near the edges. In this paper, we propose a non-local total variation NLTV-$L^1$ optical flow estimation method based on robust weighted guided filtering. Specifically, first, the robust weighted guided filtering objective function is proposed to preserve motion edges. The proposed objective function is based on the linear model which is computationally efficient and edge-preserving in complex natural scenarios. Second, the proposed weighted guided filtering objective function is incorporated into the non-local total variation NLTV-$L^1$ energy function. Finally, the novel NLTV-$L^1$ optical flow method is performed using the coarse-to-fine process. Additionally, we modify some state-of-the-art variational optical flow estimation methods by the robust weighted guided filtering objective function to verify the performance on Middlebury, MPI-Sintel, and Foggy Zurich sequences. Experimental results show that the proposed method can preserve edges and improve the accuracy of optical flow estimation compared with several state-of-the-art methods.     

Isostructural phase transition (IPT) in CaMoO4 with Scheelite structure

The ceramic compound CaMoO₄ is synthesized via a solid-state reaction technique. Rietveld refinement studies were done on the powder X-ray diffraction data of CaMoO₄ and revealed that the compound is crystallized in the tetragonal Scheelite structure with I4₁/a space group. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies on CaMoO₄ divulged an anomaly around 440 °C. This anomaly is further probed using the temperature-dependent Raman and dielectric spectroscopic measurements and are corroborating with the results obtained from DSC. A detailed investigation on the temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopic data revealed that the A_1g mode of CaMoO₄ showed a soft phonon behavior up to the phase transition temperature. It is observed that the A_1g mode displayed phonon hardening behavior with further increasing the temperature. The anomaly is attributed to an isostructural phase transition (IPT), a rarely observed phenomenon in the compounds with Scheelite structure. The IPT in CaMoO₄ is elucidated with a phonon softening mechanism.     

Introduction to crystallographic refinement of macromolecular atomic models

Refinement of atomic models is a necessary step in solving the macromolecular structure by X-ray diffraction methods. Nowadays, high automation and well-developed interfaces give a possibility to use the most popular refinement programs as black boxes. Nevertheless, working with complex objects requires an understanding of the internal structure and principles of operation of these programs and critical assessment of the results of refinement. In this review, we discuss the basic principles of the organization of refinement programs and the history of their improvement and development, as the studied objects became more and more complicated. The discussions are kept at the level of basic mathematic knowledge avoiding unnecessary formalism and too detailed expressions.     

Impact of Co doping on physical,structural, microstructural and magnetic features of MgZn nanoferrites for high frequency applications

Cobalt (Co) doped MgZn spinel nanoferrites with composition Mg_0.5Zn_0.5Co_x Fe_2-xO₄ at x = 0.0, 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, 0.50 were prepared using sol-gel auto ignition method. The characterizations techniques such as FESEM, FTIR, XRD and VSM were used to determine the morphology, force constants, phase, structure and magnetic features of the samples. Lattice parameters, FWHM, d-spacing, crystallite size, micro strains and volume were investigated using high score plus software. Materials analysis using diffraction (MAUD) software was also used to study the Rietveld refinement properties of the Co doped MgZn ferrites. Physical properties such as porosity, X-ray and bulk density were also determined. Force constants of their respective absorption bands were calculated from FTIR of the Co doped MgZn nanoferrites. Single phase structure with cubic phase were observed for MgZn and Co doped MgZn at x = 0.0 whereas second phase was observed at higher Co concentrations respectively. FESEM show regular shape of the particles at low Co concentrations whereas agglomerations were observed at higher Co concentrations respectively. The magnetic properties of the Co doped MgZn ferrites were also investigated from VSM study. Magnetic remanence, coercivity, initial permeability, saturation magnetization, Bohr magneton and anisotropy constant were determined from VSM analysis. The coercivity, saturation magnetization, remanence, anisotropy constant and initial permeability were enhanced with the doping of ‘Co’ in MgZn nanoferrites. Response of the Co doped MgZn nanoferrites at high frequency regime was also evaluated. It can be seen that the response from all the Co doped MgZn nanoferrites was 2.84 GHz–5.96 GHz respectively and suggested the use of these nanoferrites for the operation of nanodevices in the X-band high frequency regime.     

The effect of TiO2 nanotube morphological engineering and ZnS quantum dots on the water splitting reaction: A theoretical and experimental study

Ordered arrays of TiO₂ nanotubes with smooth and rippled morphologies were prepared by one-step titanium oxidation in NH₄F and ethylene glycol solution. The samples were then decorated with ZnS using a microwave-assisted solvothermal method. The experiments under constant or pulsed applied voltage resulted in smooth and rippled TiO₂material morphologies, respectively. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, incident photon-to-current efficiency, linear sweep voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were used to investigate the structure and morphology of the TiO₂ nanotubes, along with their photoelectrochemical activity in the water splitting reaction. An envelope function was proposed to correlate the anisotropic morphologies and broad distribution of mobility due to the random nature of charge carrier transport. The smooth and rippled morphologies were evaluated using the transmission line model. First-principles quantum mechanical calculations based on the density functional theory at the B3LYP level are conducted to obtain a better understanding of optical properties of TiO₂.