Damage tolerance can be an elusive characteristic of structural materials requiring both high strength and ductility, properties that are often mutually exclusive. High-entropy alloys are of interest ...in this regard. Specifically, the single-phase CrMnFeCoNi alloy displays tensile strength levels of ∼ 1 GPa, excellent ductility (∼ 60-70%) and exceptional fracture toughness (KJIc>200 MPa√m). Here through the use of in situ straining in an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope, we report on the salient atomistic to micro-scale mechanisms underlying the origin of these properties. We identify a synergy of multiple deformation mechanisms, rarely achieved in metallic alloys, which generates high strength, work hardening and ductility, including the easy motion of Shockley partials, their interactions to form stacking-fault parallelepipeds, and arrest at planar slip bands of undissociated dislocations. We further show that crack propagation is impeded by twinned, nanoscale bridges that form between the near-tip crack faces and delay fracture by shielding the crack tip.
Lithiation of individual silicon nanoparticles was studied in real time with in situ transmission electron microscopy. A strong size dependence of fracture was discovered; that is, there exists a ...critical particle diameter of ∼150 nm, below which the particles neither cracked nor fractured upon first lithiation, and above which the particles initially formed surface cracks and then fractured due to lithiation-induced swelling. The unexpected surface cracking arose owing to the buildup of large tensile hoop stress, which reversed the initial compression, in the surface layer. The stress reversal was attributed to the unique mechanism of lithiation in crystalline Si, taking place by movement of a two-phase boundary between the inner core of pristine Si and the outer shell of amorphous Li–Si alloy. While the resulting hoop tension tended to initiate surface cracks, the small-sized nanoparticles nevertheless averted fracture. This is because the stored strain energy from electrochemical reactions was insufficient to drive crack propagation, as dictated by the interplay between the two length scales, that is, particle diameter and crack size, that control the fracture. These results are diametrically opposite to those obtained previously from single-phase modeling, which predicted only compressive hoop stress in the surface layer and thus crack initiation from the center in lithiated Si particles and wires. Our work provides direct evidence of the mechanical robustness of small Si nanoparticles for applications in lithium ion batteries.
It has long been conjectured that any metallic liquid can be vitrified into a glassy state provided that the cooling rate is sufficiently high. Experimentally, however, vitrification of ...single-element metallic liquids is notoriously difficult. True laboratory demonstration of the formation of monatomic metallic glass has been lacking. Here we report an experimental approach to the vitrification of monatomic metallic liquids by achieving an unprecedentedly high liquid-quenching rate of 10(14) K s(-1). Under such a high cooling rate, melts of pure refractory body-centred cubic (bcc) metals, such as liquid tantalum and vanadium, are successfully vitrified to form metallic glasses suitable for property interrogations. Combining in situ transmission electron microscopy observation and atoms-to-continuum modelling, we investigated the formation condition and thermal stability of the monatomic metallic glasses as obtained. The availability of monatomic metallic glasses, being the simplest glass formers, offers unique possibilities for studying the structure and property relationships of glasses. Our technique also shows great control over the reversible vitrification-crystallization processes, suggesting its potential in micro-electromechanical applications. The ultrahigh cooling rate, approaching the highest liquid-quenching rate attainable in the experiment, makes it possible to explore the fast kinetics and structural behaviour of supercooled metallic liquids within the nanosecond to picosecond regimes.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Design and processing of advanced lightweight structural alloys based on magnesium and titanium rely critically on a control over twinning that remains elusive to date and is dependent on an explicit ...understanding on the twinning nucleation mechanism in hexagonal close-packed (HCP) crystals. Here, by using in-situ high resolution transmission electron microscopy, we directly show a dual-step twinning nucleation mechanism in HCP rhenium nanocrystals. We find that nucleation of the predominant {1 0 -1 2} twinning is initiated by disconnections on the Prismatic│Basal interfaces which establish the lattice correspondence of the twin with a minor deviation from the ideal orientation. Subsequently, the minor deviation is corrected by the formation of coherent twin boundaries through rearrangement of the disconnections on the Prismatic│Basal interface; thereafter, the coherent twin boundaries propagate by twinning dislocations. The findings provide high-resolution direct evidence of the twinning nucleation mechanism in HCP crystals.
The microstructural changes and phase transformations of tin nanoparticles during electrochemical sodiation were studied with a nanosized sodium ion battery using in situ transmission electron ...microscopy. It was found that the first sodiation process occurred in two steps; that is, the crystalline Sn nanoparticles were initially sodiated via a two-phase mechanism with a migrating phase boundary to form a Na-poor, amorphous Na x Sn alloy (x ∼ 0.5), which was further sodiated to several Na-rich amorphous phases and finally to the crystallized Na15Sn4 (x = 3.75) via a single-phase mechanism. The volumetric expansion was about 60% in the first step and 420% after the second step. However, despite the huge expansion, cracking or fracture was not observed, which is attributed to the second step of the single-phase sodiation that accommodates large portion of the sodiation-induced stress over the entire particle. Excellent cyclability was also observed during the reversible sodiation/desodiation cycles, showing great potential of Sn nanoparticles as a robust electrode material for rechargeable batteries.
Amplifications of flow past a backward-facing step with respect to optimal inflow and initial perturbations are investigated at Reynolds number 500. Two mechanisms of receptivity to inflow noise are ...identified: the bubble-induced inflectional point instability and the misalignment effect downstream of the secondary bubble. Further development of the misalignment results in decay of perturbations from
$x=28$
onwards (the step is located at
$x=0$
), as has been observed in previous non-normality studies (Blackburn et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 603, 2008, pp. 271–304), and eventually limits the receptivity. The receptivity is found to be maximized at an inflow perturbation frequency of
${\it\omega}=0.50$
and a spanwise wavenumber of
${\it\beta}=0$
, where the inflow noise takes full advantage of both mechanisms and is amplified over two orders of magnitude in terms of the velocity magnitude. In direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the flow perturbed by optimal or random inflow noise, vortex shedding, flapping of bubbles, three-dimensionality and turbulence are observed in succession as the magnitude of the inflow noise increases. Similar features of linear and nonlinear receptivity are observed at higher Reynolds numbers. The Strouhal number of the bubble flapping is 0.08, at which the receptivity to inflow noise reaches a maximum. This Strouhal number is close to reported values extracted from DNS or large eddy simulations (LES) at larger Reynolds numbers (Le et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 330, 1997, pp. 349–374; Kaiktsis et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 321, 1996, pp. 157–187; Métais, New Trends in Turbulence, 2001, Springer; Wee et al., Phys. Fluids, vol. 16, 2004, pp. 3361–3373). Methods to further clarify the mechanisms of receptivity and to suppress the noise amplifications by modifying the base flow using a linearly optimal body force are proposed. It is observed that the mechanisms of optimal noise amplification are fully revealed by the distribution of the base flow modification, which weakens the bubble instabilities and misalignment effects and subsequently reduces the receptivity significantly. Comparing the base flow modifications with respect to amplifications of inflow and initial perturbations, it is found that the maximum receptivity to initial perturbations is highly correlated with the receptivity to inflow noise at the optimal frequency
${\it\omega}=0.50$
, and the correlation reduces as the inflow frequency deviates from this optimal value.
Shear-coupled grain boundary (GB) migration is of general significance in the deformation of nanocrystalline and polycrystalline materials, but comprehensive understanding of the migration mechanism ...at the atomic scale remains largely lacking. Here, we systematically investigate the atomistic migration of Σ11(113) coherent GBs in gold bicrystals using a state-of-art in situ shear testing technique combined with molecular dynamic simulations. We show that shear-coupled GB migration can be realised by the lateral motion of layer-by-layer nucleated GB disconnections, where both single-layer and double-layer disconnections have important contributions to the GB migration through their frequent composition and decomposition. We further demonstrate that the disconnection-mediated GB migration is fully reversible in shear loading cycles. Such disconnection-mediated GB migration should represent a general deformation phenomenon in GBs with different structures in polycrystalline and nanocrystalline materials, where the triple junctions can act as effective nucleation sites of GB disconnections.
Combinations of high strength and ductility are hard to attain in metals. Exceptions include materials exhibiting twinning-induced plasticity. To understand how the strength-ductility trade-off can ...be defeated, we apply in situ, and aberration-corrected scanning, transmission electron microscopy to examine deformation mechanisms in the medium-entropy alloy CrCoNi that exhibits one of the highest combinations of strength, ductility and toughness on record. Ab initio modelling suggests that it has negative stacking-fault energy at 0K and high propensity for twinning. With deformation we find that a three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical twin network forms from the activation of three twinning systems. This serves a dual function: conventional twin-boundary (TB) strengthening from blockage of dislocations impinging on TBs, coupled with the 3D twin network which offers pathways for dislocation glide along, and cross-slip between, intersecting TB-matrix interfaces. The stable twin architecture is not disrupted by interfacial dislocation glide, serving as a continuous source of strength, ductility and toughness.
The adjoint-based sensitivity analyses well explored in hydrodynamic stability studies are extended to calculate the sensitivity of forces acting on an aerofoil with respect to wall transpiration. ...The magnitude of the sensitivity quantifies the controllability of the force, and the distribution of the sensitivity represents a most effective control when the control magnitude is small enough. Since the sensitivity to streamwise control is one order smaller than that to the surface-normal one, the work is concentrated on the normal control. In direct numerical simulations of flow around a NACA0024 aerofoil, the unsteady controls are far less effective than the steady control owing to the lock-in effect. At a momentum coefficient of 0.0008 and a maximum control velocity of 3.6% of the free-stream velocity, the steady surface-normal control reduces drag by 20% or enhances lift by up to 140% at Re=1000. A suction around the low-pressure region on the upper surface upstream of the separation point is found to reduce drag and enhance lift. At higher Reynolds numbers, the uncontrolled flow becomes three dimensional and the sensitivity diverges owing to the chaotic dynamics of the flow. Then the mechanism identified at lower Reynolds numbers is exploited to obtain the control, which is localized and can be generated by a limited number of actuators. The control to reduce drag or enhance lift is found to suppress unsteadiness, e.g. vortex shedding and three-dimensional developments. For example, at Re=2000 and α=10°, the control with a momentum coefficient of 0.0001 reduces drag by 20%, enhances lift by up to 200% and leads to a steady controlled flow.
In this article, we report a study of the electrochemical performance and degradation mechanism of tin (Sn) nanoparticle anodes in potassium-ion batteries (KIBs). A high capacity of 197 mAh/g was ...found for the Sn nanoparticles in KIBs. In situ transmission electron microscopy characterization revealed a two-step potassiation mechanism: formation of a KSn phase after full potassiation and reversible nanopore formation during the cycling of Sn nanoparticles. However, significant capacity fading occurred after a few cycles, which was caused by the severe pulverization of the Sn nanoparticles. This work offers a fundamental understanding of the reaction and degradation mechanisms of alloying-type anodes for KIBs, shedding light on the development of high-performance KIBs.
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