Abstract
Intermetallic compounds formed from non-precious transition metals are promising cost-effective and robust catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen production. However, the development of ...monolithic nanoporous intermetallics, with ample active sites and sufficient electrocatalytic activity, remains a challenge. Here we report the fabrication of nanoporous Co
7
Mo
6
and Fe
7
Mo
6
intermetallic compounds via liquid metal dealloying. Along with the development of three-dimensional bicontinuous open porosity, high-temperature dealloying overcomes the kinetic energy barrier, enabling the direct formation of chemically ordered intermetallic phases. Unprecedented small characteristic lengths are observed for the nanoporous intermetallic compounds, resulting from an intermetallic effect whereby the chemical ordering during nanopore formation lowers surface diffusivity and significantly suppresses the thermal coarsening of dealloyed nanostructure. The resulting ultrafine nanoporous Co
7
Mo
6
exhibits high catalytic activity and durability in electrochemical hydrogen evolution reactions. This study sheds light on the previously unexplored intermetallic effect in dealloying and facilitates the development of advanced intermetallic catalysts for energy applications.
Al alloy parts fabricated by powder bed fusion (PBF) have attracted much attention because of the degrees of freedom in both shapes and mechanical properties. We previously reported that the Si ...regions in Al-Si alloy that remain after the rapid remelting process in PBF act as intrinsic heterogeneous nucleation sites during the subsequent resolidification. This suggests that the Si particles are crucial for a novel grain refinement strategy. To provide guidelines for grain refinement, the effects of solidification, remelting, and resolidification conditions on microstructures were investigated by multiphase-field simulation. We revealed that the resolidification microstructure is determined by the size and number of Si regions in the initial solidification microstructures and by the threshold size for the nucleation site, depending on the remelting and resolidification conditions. Furthermore, the most refined microstructure with the average grain size of 4.8 µm is predicted to be formed under conditions with a large temperature gradient of Gsol = 106 K/m in the initial solidification, a high heating rate of HR = 105 K/s in the remelting process, and a fast solidification rate of Rresol = 10−1 m/s in the resolidification process. Each of these conditions is necessary to be considered to control the microstructures of Al-Si alloys fabricated via PBF.
We successfully developed a mechanical metamaterial that displays martensitic transformation for the first time. This metamaterial has a bistable structure capable of transitioning between two stable ...configurations through shear deformation. The outer shape of the unit cell of this structure is a parallelogram, with its upper and lower sides forming the bases of two solid triangles. The vertices from these triangles within the parallelogram are linked by short beams, while the remaining vertices are linked by long beams. The elastic energy of the essential model of the metamaterial was formulated analytically. The energy barrier between these two stable configurations consists of the elastic strain energy due to the tensile deformation of the short beams, the compressive deformation of the long beams, and the bending deformation of the connecting hinges. One example of a novel metamaterial was additively manufactured via the materials extrusion (MEX) process of thermoplastic polyurethane. The metamaterial exhibited deformation behaviors characteristic of martensitic transformations. This mechanical metamaterial has the potential to obtain properties caused by martensitic transformation in actual materials, such as the shape memory effect and superelasticity.
According to Hunt’s columnar-to-equiaxed transition (CET) criterion, which is generally accepted, a high-temperature gradient (G) in the solidification front is preferable to a low G for forming ...columnar grains. Here, we report the opposite tendency found in the solidification microstructure of stainless steels partially melted by scanning electron beam for powder bed fusion (PBF)-type additive manufacturing. Equiaxed grains were observed more frequently in the region of high G rather than in the region of low G, contrary to the trend of the CET criterion. Computational thermal-fluid dynamics (CtFD) simulation has revealed that the fluid velocity is significantly higher in the case of smaller melt regions. The G on the solidification front of a small melt pool tends to be high, but at the same, the temperature gradient along the melt pool surface also tends to be high. The high melt surface temperature gradient can enhance Marangoni flow, which can apparently reverse the trend of equiaxed grain formation.
Fe–Cr–Co alloys are becoming important as a half-hard magnet for their novel applications, including non-contact electromagnetic brakes, because of the controllability of its magnetic hardness ...depending on the modulated structure formed by spinodal decomposition. However, the experimental optimization of the complicated heat-treatment process to control the microstructure significantly increases the development cost, and microstructure prediction by computational simulation is desired. In this study, we first developed the method of phase-field simulation for spinodal decomposition in Fe–Cr–Co alloy during various heat treatments, including isothermal heat treatment, multistep continuous fast and slow cooling, which allows us to conduct a simulation of spinodal decomposition under conditions close to the condition of practical heat treatment. The simulation results revealed that the morphology of the modulated structure is predominantly determined by the cooling rate and does not change significantly during the subsequent isothermal annealing process, while the difference between the concentrations of the FeCo-rich magnetic phase and the Cr-rich non-magnetic phase increases. Continuous cooling at rates higher than 140 K/h demonstrates the maximum number densities of the ferromagnetic particles of α1-phase seemingly almost reaching saturation, which is expected to give rise to exhibiting the largest coercive force of the Fe–Cr–Co magnet. Moreover, this method can be extended to other materials for designing a modulated structure to show a desired property.
The limited wear resistance of commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti) hinders its use in abrasive and erosive environments, despite its good strength-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. This paper ...reports the first study proposing a novel method for wear-resistant TiNi coating through Ni plating and electron beam (EB) irradiation in an in situ synthetic approach. Single-track melting experiments were conducted using the EB to investigate the feasibility of forming a TiNi phase by fusing the Ni plate with the CP-Ti substrate. Varying beam powers were employed at a fixed scanning speed to determine the optimal conditions for TiNi phase formation. The concentration of the melt region was found to be approximate as estimated from the ratio of the Ni-plate thickness to the depth of the melt region, and the region with Ni-48.7 at.% Ti was successfully formed by EB irradiation. The study suggests that the mixing of Ti atoms and Ni atoms was facilitated by fluid flow induced by Marangoni and thermal convections. It is proposed that a more uniform TiNi layer can be achieved through multi-track melting under appropriate conditions. This research demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing EB additive manufacturing as a coating method and the potential for developing TiNi coatings with shape memory effects and pseudoelasticity.
Fe–Cr–Co alloys are becoming important as half-hard magnet which can be subjected to plastic deformation process for their novel applications including non-contact electromagnetic brake because of ...its large hysteresis loss. Its magnetic hardness depends on the modulated structure formed by spinodal decomposition. It is important to clarify the effect of plastic deformation on the spinodal decomposition for optimizing the heat treatment after plastic deformation process. In the present study, we examined the spinodal-decomposed structures in Fe–Cr–Co sheets cold-rolled to 25% reduction and that without rolling to clarify the influences of cold rolling. Also, spinodal decomposition under the presence of dislocation structure have been simulated by phase field method for the case with the presence of dislocation cell boundary with a high in-plane solute diffusivity at various migrating speed. It has been found that the spinodal decomposition is accelerated around dislocation owing to the elastic field and higher diffusivity, which results in inhomogeneous microstructure with various wave length of modulation. The existence of dislocation enhances the initiation of phase decomposition and the growth particles. The decomposed structure greatly depends on the in-plane solute diffusivity and migrating speed of the dislocation cell boundary.
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