To investigate the microwave (MW) processing of Fe3O4, for which occurrence of decrystallization has been reported, the micro/nanostructures of MW-heated Fe3O4 powder were observed in this study. The specimens were irradiated by 2.45 GHz MW at the position of magnetic (H)-field maximum in a TE10 single mode applicator. The specimen was heated well above the Curie temperature in H-field. The heated specimen above 1000 °C revealed the glass-like surface with the diminished x-ray diffraction (XRD) peak intensities. They resemble the reported features of decrystallization in an earlier work performed at Penn State University. According to the XRD profiles of the MW-heated specimens, formation of FeO and shift of Fe3O4 peaks to the lower angle with the broadened width were observed. To account for the findings, a model is presented that phase separation occurred into FeO and Fe3O4 resulting in an increased lattice parameter due to the increased oxygen content. This activity is caused by local transport of oxygen in nanoscale. Considering the shape of the main XRD Fe3O4 peak with a shoulder and the existence of halo in nanobeam diffraction (NBD), amorphous phase areas exist. As a result of transmission electron microscopy observation, it was shown that they were in nanoscaled localized regions, and it was not confirmed that the glass-like morphologies (or decrystallized morphologies) are totally amorphous. The observed micro/nanostructures and mechanism of the amorphous phase formation were discussed considering the Fe-O phase diagram.

The microstructure, lattice parameters, electrical conductivity, thermal expansion, and mechanical properties of (La0.8Ca0.2)(Cr0.9–xCo0.1Nix)O3–δ (x = 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12) were systematically investigated in this work. Nickel doping of (La0.8Ca0.2)(Cr0.9Co0.1)O3–δ is an effective way of increasing the thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) and stabilizing the high-temperature phase transformation from rhombohedral to tetragonal. As the nickel-doped content increases, the TEC increases parabolically by TEC (x) (ppm/°C) = 10.575 + 63.3x−240x2 (x = 0.03−0.12). The electrical conductivity of (La0.8Ca0.2)(Cr0.9–xCo0.1Nix)O3–δ specimens increases systematically with increasing nickel substitution in the range of 0.03 ≤ x ≤ 0.09 and reaches a maximum for the composition of (La0.8Ca0.2)(Cr0.81Co0.1Ni0.09)O3–δ (σ850 °C ∼60.36 S/cm). There is a slight increase in the fracture toughness with increasing nickel doping content, and the fracture toughness is strongly affected by the grain size. It seems that there is an increase in the fracture toughness with decreasing grain size. However, the microhardness does not significantly depend on the grain size in this study. The (La0.8Ca0.2)(Cr0.81Co0.1Ni0.09)O3–δ specimen shows high electrical conductivity, a moderate thermal expansion coefficient, and nearly linear thermal expansion behavior from room temperature to 800 °C. It will be suitable for interconnect materials for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs).

Monodisperse spherical Y2O2S:Yb,Ho nanocrystals with particle size about 50 nm were prepared by a modified homogeneous precipitation method combined with low-temperature sulfurization process. The Y2O2S:Yb,Ho nanocrystals exhibit an intense green emission assigned to the Ho3+ ions 5F4, 5S2 → 4I15/2 transition under 980 nm infrared pump. The upconversion luminescence brightness of Y2O2S:Yb,Ho is 526 Cd/m2 under 4.63 W/cm2 pump density, indicating that the as-prepared Y2O2S:Yb,Ho nanocrystals can meet the requirement of in vivo imaging. The formation mechanism of monodisperse spherical oxysulfide nanoparticles is also discussed.

A comparison between results of a recently published quasi-exact solution of the temperature integral used for the Avrami model of isochronal phase transformations and an analytical phase-transformation model in relation to exact solutions from numerical integration has been performed. The results for the transformed fraction from the quasi-exact solution are more precise than the corresponding results of the analytical model, whereas the results for the transformation rate from both models are sufficiently precise for the nucleation mode of site saturation or continuous nucleation. It has been further shown that an analytical solution of the transformation rate cannot be obtained using a quasi-exact solution of the temperature integral in case of mixed nucleation, and that the results of the corresponding solution with the analytical model substantially alleviate the influence of the approximated temperature integral. By this method, an analytical approach of modeling, which can substantially alleviate the deviation (of model prediction) arising from approximations to the temperature integral, has been developed. The proposed approach has been successfully applied to experimental data of the crystallization of bulk amorphous Pd-Ni-P-Cu alloys.

High-quality SrAl12O19:Pr3+ nanodisks and nanoplates were fabricated via a new processing technique based on a modified polymer steric entrapment method. Serious agglomeration and large particle size distribution of final products, which usually occurred in the conventional method, were eliminated completely. The effects of new synthetic processes on the morphology, crystallization, and yield of products and the relevant mechanisms were discussed. As far as we know, SrAl12O19:Pr3+ nanodisks with mean diameter ∼60 nm and thickness between 5 and 10 nm were successfully synthesized for the first time by this low-cost technique. The new synthetic method may provide a general route to synthesize other refractory mixed-oxide nanocrystals. Photon cascade emission involving transitions 1S0–1I6 followed by 3P0–3H4 in SrAl12O19:1% Pr3+ nanodisks was investigated. Size-effect-induced blue shift of the 4f5d states of Pr3+ was observed in SrAl12O19:1% Pr3+ nanodisks, in which the quantum efficiency was preserved, as in the bulk counterparts.

Porous ZrO2:8 mol% Y2O3 sintered ceramics were prepared by adding graphite powder as pore former before sintering. The thermal elimination of graphite was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis. Impedance spectroscopy analysis was carried out in the 5 Hz to 13 MHz frequency range in specimens sintered with and without pore former. The deconvolution of the impedance diagrams, [Z″(ω) × Z′(ω)] and [Z″(ω) × log f], and the numerical residuals resulting from the subtraction of normalized impedance spectroscopy diagrams measured in specimens with and without pore formers were evaluated. A comparison of the impedance diagrams of samples sintered with and without pore former shows evidence of a modification of the electrical response caused by pores. The results show the unequivocal ability of the impedance spectroscopy technique to gauge microstructural modification caused by the presence of pores in ionic conducting solids.

We report the realization of the p-type conductivity and the enhancement of the photoluminescence (PL) intensity in undoped ZnO films treated with high-energy (1 MeV) electron-beam irradiation (HEEBI), suggesting that the HEEBI process is compatible with a low-temperature requirement for the fabrication of transparent thin film transistors with good efficiency on a plastic substrate. The p-type conductivity of the films was revealed by the Hall, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and PL measurements after being electron-irradiated in air at room temperature. The major acceptor-like defects were determined to be oxygen interstitial and zinc vacancy. A model was proposed in terms of O as well as Zn diffusion to explain the observed results. It was also observed that HEEBI treatment has little influence on the optical transmittance of ZnO films, whereas HEEBI treatment shifts the optical band gap toward the lower energy region from 3.29 to 3.28 eV.

The results of positron lifetime and Doppler broadening spectrum of defects in the hydrogen charged non-heat treatable 5xxx Al alloys are presented in this work. The yield stress of the sample was reduced for about 20 MPa after hydrogen was charged. A similar trend was observed in positron lifetime measurement, as the average lifetime τav descended remarkably to almost the level of Al matrix. The change in coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) spectroscopy was also significant, exhibited by the characteristic change in CDB radio curves of a sample before and after hydrogen was charged. After hydrogen charging, there is an obvious enhancement in the high momentum region compensating dehancement in the low momentum region. This indicates the existence of hydrogen filling effect. The vacancies around the Mg atoms should be preferential filling sites for hydrogen because Mg has a strong affinity for hydrogen. The formation of an Mg–H bond parallel to a grain boundary is an important factor in weakening the grain boundary cohesion.

A modified method for contact-induced adhesion on the elastic deformation contact between a rigid spherical indenter and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) specimen is proposed in the present study. Adhesion due to van der Waals interactions was found to be minimal during loading processes. During the unloading process, the experimental load-displacement data revealed two-stage phenomena. The successive advancing contacts between the specimen and the indenter were considered to induce interfacial adhesion and resulted in elastic tension outside the Hertzian contact radius. A real-coded genetic algorithm (RGA) was applied to evaluate how adhesion energy varied with penetration depth.

The effect of temperature on grinding-induced texture in tetragonal lead titanate (PT) has been investigated as a function of the magnitude of loading applied to the sample surface during grinding, using in situ x-ray diffraction (XRD) with an area detector. Compared to the ground PT under lower loading conditions (5 N), the ground PT under higher loading conditions (40 N) retains strong ferroelastic texture near the Curie temperature (TC) around 350 °C and undergoes smaller changes in lattice parameter or tetragonality versus temperature during in situ thermal cycling between room temperature and approximately 100 °C above the TC. Inhibited depoling of ground PT materials investigated by in situ texture measurements demonstrates the effects of residual stresses.

The effect of electropulsing treatment (EPT) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of aged Mg-9Al-1Zn alloy strip was studied. EPT was found to accelerate tremendously the β phase spheroidization in the aged Mg-9Al-1Zn alloy. This improved microstructure exhibits excellent mechanical properties, that is, increasing elongation to failure significantly without loss of tensile strength. The spheroidization of the β phase during EPT was attributed to the reduction of the nucleation thermodynamic barrier and enhancement of atomic diffusion.

An n-body Ni–Nb–Ta potential is constructed to conduct molecular dynamics simulations using 129 solid solution models with various compositions. Comparing the relative stability of solid solutions versus their disordered counterparts, simulations determine two critical solid-solubility lines, which define a region in the composition triangle. If an alloy is located inside the defined region, a disordered state is energetically favored; if it is located outside, a crystalline solid solution is preserved. The region is therefore named as the metallic glass-forming region.

An electrical technique was recently developed to measure the in situ contact area continuously during instrumented indentation by simultaneously monitoring electrical contact response between a conductive indenter tip and a conductive sample. This technique has the potential to overcome limitations of the Oliver-Pharr method caused by the lack of a direct contact area measurement. However, the electrical contact current-voltage (I-V) curves measured from the technique were nonlinear, posing a significant challenge to inferring accurate in situ contact areas. To overcome this challenge and extend the electrical technique to more applications, various I-V curve analysis methods were investigated for their abilities to infer in situ contact area and hardness. Annealed Cu was indented using both linear and exponential loading tests. When analyzing the resulting data, the feasibility of each method was evaluated and the optimal methods to calculate the in situ contact area and hardness were determined. It was found that a simple summation of the absolute values of area under I-V curves or the area under I-V curves at positive voltages yielded the most robust area measure, whereas error in the inferred contact area was systematic and primarily from velocity dependence of the I-V response.

We demonstrate here in situ synthesis of bulk yield W18O49@carbon coaxial nanocables based on an easily controlled chemical vapor deposition process at relatively low temperature (760 °C) using metallic tungsten powder and ethylene (C2H4) as the raw materials. Transmission electron microscope (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses indicate that the resultant nanostructures are composed of single-crystalline W18O49 nanowires, coaxially covered with amorphous carbon walls. A vapor–solid (VS) mechanism is proposed to interpret the formation of the nanocables. The effect of carbon sources on the nanocable growth was investigated. The results revealed that the introduction of carbon species not only causes the production of W18O49@C nanocable structures, but also obviously modulates growth behaviors and core/shell diameter ratio of the nanocables. The obtained nanocables may find great applications in catalyst systems and optical and electronic nanodevices because of their enhanced surface properties, as well as in high chemical stability.

The coherent fine lamellae consisting of the 2H-Mg and the 14H-type long period stacking ordered (LPSO) structure within α′-Mg matrix have been first observed in an as-cast Mg96.32Gd2.5Zn1Zr0.18 alloy. During subsequent solid solution heat treatment at 698–813 K, in addition to the lamellae within matrix, a novel lamellar X phase (Mg–8.37±1.0Zn–11.32±1.0Gd, at.%) with the 14H-type LPSO structure was transformed from the dendritical β phase, and a corresponding time–temperature–transformation (TTT) diagram was established. The 14H-type LPSO structure existing in Mg–Gd–Zn–Zr alloys derives from two variant means: the formation of LPSO structure within α′-Mg matrix and the transformation of the dendritical β phase to a lamellar X phase with the LPSO structure. The alloy solid solution treated at 773 K for 35 h exhibits higher tensile strength and better elongation than the nonheated alloy because of the lamellar X phase with the 14H-type LPSO structure and the 14H-type LPSO structure within matrix.

The oxidation resistances of ZrB2 containing SiC, TaB2, and TaSi2 additions of various concentrations were studied using isothermal thermogravimetry at 1200, 1400, and 1500 °C, and specimens were further characterized using x-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Increasing SiC concentration resulted in thinner glassy surface layers as well as thinner ZrO2-rich underlayers deficient in silica. This silica deficiency was argued to occur by a wicking process of interior-formed borosilicate liquid to the initially-formed borosilicate liquid at the surface. Small (3.32 mol%) concentrations of TaB2 additions were more effective at increasing oxidation resistance than equal additions of TaSi2. The benefit of these additives was related to the formation of a zirconium-tantalum boride solid solution during sintering, which during oxidation, fragmented into fine particles of ZrO2 and TaC. These particles resisted wicking of their liquid/glassy borosilicate encapsulation, which increased overall oxidation resistance. With increasing TaB2 or TaSi2 concentration, oxidation resistance degraded, most egregiously with TaB2 additions. In these cases, zirconia dendrites appeared to grow through the glassy layers, providing conduits for oxygen migration.

Erbium dihydride Er(H,D,T)2 is a fluorite structure rare-earth dihydride useful for the storage of hydrogen isotopes in the solid state. However, thermodynamic predictions indicate that erbium oxide formation will proceed readily during processing, which may detrimentally contaminate Er(H,D,T)2 films. In this work, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques including energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, energy-filtered TEM, selected area electron diffraction, and high-resolution TEM are used to examine the manifestation of oxygen contamination in ErD2 thin films. An oxide layer ∼30–130 nm thick was found on top of the underlying ErD2 film, and showed a cube-on-cube epitaxial orientation to the underlying ErD2. Electron diffraction confirmed the oxide layer to be Er2O3. While the majority of the film was observed to have the expected fluorite structure for ErD2, secondary diffraction spots suggested the possibility of either nanoscale oxide inclusions or hydrogen ordering. In situ heating experiments combined with electron diffraction ruled out the possibility of hydrogen ordering, so epitaxial oxide nanoinclusions within the ErD2 matrix are hypothesized. TEM techniques were applied to examine this oxide nanoinclusion hypothesis.

Reverse atom transfer radical polymerization of methacrylonitrile (MAN) initiated by azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) was approached for the first time in the absence of any ligand in four novel ionic liquids, 1-methylimidazolium acetate ([mim][AT]), 1-methylimidazolium butyrate ([mim][BT]), 1-methylimidazolium caproate ([mim][CT]), and 1-methylimidazolium heptylate ([mim][HT]). The polymerization in [mim][AT] not only showed the best control of molecular weight and its distribution but also provided a more rapid reaction rate with the ratio of [MAN]:[FeCl3]:[AIBN] at 300:2:1. The block copolymer PMAN-b-PSt was obtained via a conventional ATRP process in [mim][AT] by using the resulting PMAN as a macroinitiator. After simple purification, [mim][AT] and FeCl3 could be easily recycled and reused and had no effect on the living nature of reverse atom transfer radical polymerization of MAN.

The crystallization behavior of melt-spun ribbons and bulk samples of the Cu36Zr48Al8Ag8 glassy alloy on heating is presented here. The crystallization kinetics and structural changes in the Cu36Zr48Al8Ag8 glassy alloy were studied using x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, differential scanning, and isothermal calorimetry methods. A clear comparison is made of the differences in the crystallization kinetics of the melt-spun ribbons and the copper-mold-cast bulk rod samples. It was suggested that the kinetics of crystallization in the rod sample, at any given temperature, are somewhat different than in the ribbon samples, probably because of size and free volume effects. Differences in the crystallization behavior of this alloy with other Cu-Zr-Al-Ag alloys have also been discussed.