Vast improvements have been made to the capabilities of advanced manufacturing (AM), yet there are still limitations on which materials can effectively be used in the technology. To this end, parts created using AM would benefit from the ability to be developed from feedstock materials incorporating additional functionality. A common three-dimensional (3D) printing polymer, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, was combined with bismuth and polyvinylidene fluoride via a solvent treatment to fabricate multifunctional composite materials for AM. Composites of varying weight percent loadings were extruded into filaments, which were subsequently 3D printed into blocks via fused filament fabrication. Investigating the material properties demonstrated that in addition to the printed blocks successfully performing as radiation shields, the chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties are suitable for AM. Thus, this work demonstrates that it is possible to enhance AM components with augmented capabilities while not significantly altering the material properties which make AM possible.

Membranes with special wettability have attracted increasing interest for oil/water separation. Herein, the cellulose-based nanofibrous membrane was fabricated in an aqueous system by an electrospinning technique. The membrane was then modified successively through coating polydopamine and polyethyleneimine on the surface, which endowed the membrane with superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic character. The composition and morphology of the resultant membrane were characterized by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and field-emission scanning electron microscope, respectively. Surfactant-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions were used to evaluate the separation performance of the membrane at different pH values. It was found that the membrane displayed the excellent antifouling property and separation performance for all different emulsions, with separation efficiency above 99.1% due to the development of a hydration layer underwater on the membrane surface. The reusability study indicated that the modification coating was stable enough to effectively separate emulsions after recycling at least 20 times. The developed nanofibrous membrane, as well as the corresponding modification strategy, enriched the application of membranes with special wettability in the field of oil spills and oily wastewater treatments.

Polysaccharide-based nanoparticles such as pectin had always been of greatest interest because of its excellent solubility and mucoadhesive nature and are highly suitable for oral drug delivery for drug administration. In this study, we used commercially available pectin samples based on their degree of esterification, and nanoparticles were fabricated by the ionotropic gelation method using magnesium (Mg2+) as the divalent cross-linker. We conducted a comparative analysis on the three pectin NPs—high methoxylated pectin (HMP), low methoxylated pectin (LMP), and amidated LMP (AMP)—to examine the difference in characteristics such as shape, size, and biocompatibility. HMP and AMP were found to be similar in size (~850 nm), whereas LMP was found to be of ~700 nm. The three NPs were also tested for their biocompatibility toward THP-1 cells. All three NPs were found to have the potential as a nanocarrier of therapeutic and preventive drugs, especially through oral routes.

The addition amount and dispersion of inorganic particles into poly(lactic acid) (PLA) still remain a great difficulty, and in the present study, epoxidized soybean oil was used to improve the compatibility between hydroxyapatite (HA) and PLA via the melt blending method. Scanning electron microscopy shows that HA particles can be well dispersed in the PLA matrix when the addition amount is less than 20% in mass, whereas the agglomeration of HA particles and a discrete phase of PLA could be observed when the amount increases to 30%. Therefore, the maximum amount of HA particles can be achieved for the composite with 20% HA which can be also maintaining the bending strength of 71.6 MPa. The osteoblast cells were used to characterize the biocompatibility of the HA/PLA composite, and the results indicate that the number of cells in per unit volume cultured on the HA/PLA composite is 10% higher than that of the PLA. Based on the improved cell biocompatibility and mechanical strength compared to PLA, the composite of HA/PLA prepared in the present study can be served as a potential candidate for the bone fracture repair.

Elevated temperature co-sputtering of immiscible elements results in a variety of self-organized morphologies due to phase separation. Cu–Ta is used as a model system to understand the evolution of phase-separated microstructural morphologies by co-sputtering thin films with nominal 50–50 at.% composition at four temperatures: 25, 400, 600, and 800 °C. Scanning/transmission electron microscopy of the film cross sections showed the microstructure morphology varied from nanocrystalline Cu–Ta at 25 °C to a wavy ribbon-like structure at 400 °C, to Cu-rich agglomerates surrounded by Ta-rich veins at 600 and 800 °C. In the agglomerate-vein morphology, microstructural features were present on two length scales, from a few nanometers to a few tens of nanometers, thus making the structures hierarchical. On the nanoscale, the Cu-rich agglomerates contained Ta precipitates, whereas the Ta-rich veins had embedded Cu nanocrystals. The various microstructures can be attributed to the highly disparate constituent element interdiffusion at the deposition temperatures with the Cu having orders of magnitude higher mobility than Ta at the deposition temperatures. This study of processing–microstructure relationship will be useful in guiding the design of hierarchical multiphase microstructures in binary or multicomponent thin films with tailored mechanical properties.

The role of negative substrate bias voltage in influencing the microstructural evolution, along with the mechanical and scratch behavior of magnetron sputtered Ni–Zr alloyed thin films, has been investigated. The films have been deposited on a Si(100) substrate by direct current (DC) magnetron co-sputtering of high-purity elemental Ni and Zr targets, using an optimized target power in an argon atmosphere at room temperature by altering the negative substrate bias voltage (0 to −80 V). The increase in negative substrate bias voltages leads to an increase in Zr content of the investigated films. The characterization techniques such as grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies confirm that an increase in the negative substrate bias voltage leads to an increase in the volume fractions of amorphous phase and Ni3Zr, but a decrease in the deposition rate, surface roughness, and average grain sizes. Hardness and Young's modulus obtained by nanoindentation, along with the coefficient of friction obtained from nano-scratch experiments, appear to be related to the relative volume fractions of both nanocrystalline and the amorphous phase. Furthermore, increase in Ni3Zr volume fraction with decrease in grain size within the crystalline part of the film, with increase in substrate bias used during deposition may have contributed to both increase in both hardness and scratch resistance.

Two different processing routes of mechanical alloying followed by the spark plasma sintering (powder metallurgy) and vacuum arc melting (casting route) were employed to understand the role of processing routes on the phase and microstructural evolution in an equiatomic CrMoNbTiW refractory high-entropy alloy. Besides a major BCC solid solution, a small fraction of carbide, σ phase, nitride, and oxide phases were observed in the alloys prepared by the powder metallurgy route in contrast to a single-phase BCC solid solution in the casting route. The milling atmosphere (dry milling in air and Ar) has significantly influenced the phase and microstructural evolution, illustrating the substantial role of contaminants. Good thermal stability of microstructure at high homologous temperatures was shown based on the long-term heat treatment at 1300 °C for 240 h. The phase evolution predictions via Calphad studies were found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental observations, albeit with some limitations.

In this study, the effect of the cooling rate on the thermal and thermomechanical behavior of NiTiHf high-temperature shape memory alloy was studied by differential scanning calorimetry and via running isobaric thermal cycling experiments. The cooling rates were set to 5, 10, and 15 °C/min for each cycle in both experiments, while the heating rate was kept as 10 °C/min. It was found that the transformation temperatures and thermal hysteresis values do not depend on the change in the cooling rate. On the other hand, the austenite to martensite transformation enthalpy as measured from DSC analyses increases with the increase in the cooling rate due to the higher measurement sensitivity at higher scanning rates. Recoverable strain values which were determined from isobaric thermal cycling experiments do not differ since the transforming volume does not change with the change of the cooling rate. All these findings are explained based on the fundamental thermodynamical approach.

The present article reports on a comprehensive atomic-scale investigation on S-series precipitates in 2024 aluminum alloy. Cs-corrected high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy is applied to reveal the fine atomic-scale structure of precipitates at early ageing state. Geometrics phase analysis is used for elucidating the induced strain field from precipitates. The precipitate sequence of S-series precipitates in 2024 Al alloy is identified as follows: super saturated solid solutions (s.s.s.s.) → clusters (GPB zone) → S′ phase → S phase. The interfaces between precipitates acting as precursor of S′ phase are well characterized. One typical characteristic of S-series phase precipitates is the coexistence of clusters and subsequent metastable phases. Transformation of metastable phases is characterized. Corresponding hardness structure relationship is revealed, and S′ phase is considered as the key strengthening structure in S-series precipitates in 2024 Al alloys.

In this study, the glass forming ability, thermal stability, and room-temperature mechanical behavior of a high Zr-containing Zr71Cu11Ni10.5Al7Ti0.5 bulk glassy alloy were investigated. The glassy alloy exhibits a high glass-forming ability with a critical casting diameter of 5 mm using copper mold injection casting, and its critical cooling rate is estimated to be smaller than 40 K/s. A small kinetic fragility index m of 32 indicates its good thermodynamic stability and glass-forming ability. Compressive tests indicate that the glassy alloy displays a significant average plastic strain of 12.3%, a high fracture strength of 1592 MPa, and Young's modulus of 74.5 GPa. The good ductility is attributed to the introduction of more free volume and local compositional inhomogeneity with increasing Zr addition. This finding may provide useful guidelines for the development of novel high Zr-containing glassy alloys.

In the present study, the effect of Al addition on microstructure evolution, mechanical properties, and wear performances of a newly developed Ni–Si-containing complex brass was studied. The results showed that with increasing Al content from 0 to 3 wt%, the corresponding strengthening phase evolves from δ-Ni2Si to [Ni(Al)]2Si phases. Simultaneously, it is of great interest that the increasing Al addition also brings about a remarkable change in morphology of the secondary strengthening phase from dendrite and thin rod to regular block. Additionally, the hardness, yield strength and tensile strength of complex brass effectively increase with increasing Al content, and the fracture mechanism transforms from cleavage failure and microvoids accumulation fracture to cleavage failure. It was also found that the brass with adding 3 wt% Al exhibits the solidification microstructure with the uniform distribution of the block-shaped strengthening phase and has the best wear resistance. This present study provides a potential strategy for further improving the comprehensive performance of existing complex brass.

Tempering cooling rate plays a significant role in the impact toughness of 2CrMoV weld metal. Three different tempering cooling rate experiments were carried out; it is found that the impact toughness of weld metal improved from 44.61 to 117.49 J as the cooling rate increased from 5 to 40 °C/h. Microstructure characterization revealed that the large blocky M–A constituents and cluster precipitation were considered to act as stress concentration sources and cleavage fracture initiators at a cooling rate of 5 °C/h. Under the cooling rate of 20 °C/h, the decrease of blocky M–A constituents as well as homogeneous distribution of precipitation induced the transition from cleavage to interfacial decohesion. The chance of crack propagation in intragranular ferrite matrix was increased, which needed to absorb more energy and improve impact toughness. When the tempering cooling rate reached at 40 °C/h, the cracks mainly propagated in the ferrite matrix; meanwhile, fine and homogeneous distribution of precipitation greatly inhibited crack propagation and led to higher impact toughness.