Current Opinion in Solid State & Materials Science最新文献

Cancer drug response is heavily influenced by the extracellular matrix (ECM) environment. Despite a clear appreciation that the ECM influences cancer drug response and progression, a unified view of how, where, and when environment-mediated drug resistance contributes to cancer progression has not coalesced. Here, we survey some specific ways in which the ECM contributes to cancer resistance with a focus on how materials development can coincide with systems biology approaches to better understand and perturb this contribution. We argue that part of the reason that environment-mediated resistance remains a perplexing problem is our lack of a wholistic view of the entire range of environments and their impacts on cell behavior. We cover a series of recent experimental and computational tools that will aid exploration of ECM reactions space, and how they might be synergistically integrated.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) and some complex alloys exhibit desirable properties and significant structural stability in harsh environments, including possible applications in advanced reactors. Energetic ion irradiation is often used as a surrogate for neutron irradiation; however, the impact of ion electronic energy deposition and dissipation is often neglected. Moreover, differences in recoil energy spectrum and density of cascade events on damage evolution must also be considered. In many chemically complex alloys, the mean free path of electrons is reduced significantly, thus their decreased thermal conductivity and slow dissipation of localized radiation energy can have noticeable effects on displacement cascade evolution that is greatly different from metals with high thermal conductivity. In this work, nanocrystalline HEAs of Ni₂₀Fe₂₀Co₂₀Cr₂₀Cu₂₀ and nonequiatomic (NiFeCoCr)₉₇Cu₃, both having much lower room-temperature thermal conductivity than pure Ni or Fe, are chosen as model HEAs to reveal the role that electronic energy loss during ion irradiation has in complex alloys. The response of nanocrystalline HEAs is investigated under irradiation at room temperature using MeV Ni and Au ions that have different ratios of electronic energy to damage energy, which is the energy dissipated in displacing atoms. Different from previously reported amorphization of nanocrystalline SiC, experimental results on these HEAs show that, similar to the process in nanocrystalline oxide materials, both inelastic thermal spikes via electron–phonon coupling and elastic thermal spikes via collisions among atomic nuclei contribute to the overall grain growth. The growth follows a power law dependence with the total deposited ion energy, and the derived value of the power-exponent suggests that the irradiation-induced instability at and near grain boundaries leads to local rapid atomic rearrangements and consequently grain growth. The high power-exponent value can be attributed to the sluggish diffusion and delayed defect evolution arising from the chemical complexity intrinsic to HEAs. This work calls attention to quantified fundamental understanding of radiation damage processes beyond that of simplified displacement events, especially in simulating neutron environments.

Solid-state Li-ion batteries employing a metallic lithium anode in conjunction with an inorganic solid electrolyte (ISE) are expected to offer superior energy density and cycle life. The realization of these metrics critically hinges on the simultaneous optimization of the ISE and the two electrode/electrolyte interfaces. In this Opinion article, we provide an overview of the materials and interfacial challenges that limit the performance of solid-state lithium metal batteries (SSLMBs). Owing to the importance of the Li/ISE interface, we dedicate a large section of this article to discuss the mechanistic aspects of lithium deposition at the Li/ISE interface. We further discuss a few recently proposed mechanisms that rationalize the growth of lithium through ISEs. We conclude our review with a brief discussion on the anode-free approach for fabricating SSLMBs where metallic lithium is generated in-situ from pre-lithiated cathodes.

The grand challenge of engineering a minimal artificial cell provides a controllable framework for studying the biochemical principles of life. Artificial cells contribute to an increased understanding of complex synthetic systems with life-like properties and provide opportunities to create autonomous cell-like materials. Recent efforts to develop life-like artificial cells by bottom-up approaches involve mimicking the behavior of lipid membranes to recapitulate fundamental cellular processes. This review describes the recent progress in engineering biomimetic artificial minimal cells and recently developed chemical strategies to drive de novo membrane formation from simple synthetic precursors. In the end, we briefly point out the challenges and possible future directions in the development of artificial cells.

All solid-state batteries are safe and potentially energy dense alternatives to conventional lithium ion batteries. However, current solid-state batteries are projected to costs well over $100/kWh. The high cost of solid-state batteries is attributed to both materials processing costs and low throughput manufacturing. Currently there are a range of solid electrolytes being examined and each material requires vastly different working environments and processing conditions. The processing environment (pressure and temperature) and cell operating conditions (pressure and temperature) influence costs. The need for high pressure during manufacturing and/or cell operation will ultimately increase plant footprint, costs, and machine operating times. Long term, for solid state batteries to become economical, conventional manufacturing approaches need to be adapted. In this perspective we discuss how material selection, processing approach, and system architecture will influence lithium-based solid state battery manufacturing.

Solid electrolytes are widely considered as the enabler of lithium metal anodes for safe, durable, and high energy density rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Despite the promise, failure mechanisms associated with solid-state batteries are not well-established, largely due to limited understanding of the chemomechanical factors governing them. We focus on the recent developments in understanding solid-state aspects including the effects of mechanical stresses, constitutive relations, fracture, and void formation, and outline the gaps in the literature. We also provide an overview of the manufacturing and processing of solid-state batteries in relation to chemomechanics. The gaps identified provide concrete directions towards the rational design and development of failure-resistant solid-state batteries.

Silicon carbide ceramics have many outstanding properties like high hardness, high thermal conductivity, high strength, low density, good electrical conductivity, good chemical resistance, and excellent wear resistance. Because of their valuable properties, SiC ceramics are helpful in various tribological applications. In this paper, the features and developments of tribology of SiC ceramics under lubrication are reviewed. The relevant strategies to enhance the tribological performance of SiC ceramics under lubrication, including microstructures, mechanical properties, surface characteristics, external factors, and secondary phases, are comprehensively discussed. The tribochemical reactions and Stribeck curves of SiC ceramics are also presented. Finally, future research directions of SiC ceramics in the field of tribology under lubrication are proposed. This paper aims to offer some theoretical basis for the design of low-friction and low-wear SiC ceramics under lubrication in the future and a better understanding of SiC ceramics used as various tribological components under lubrication.

Rapid industrial and urban development jointly with rising global population strongly affect the large-scale issues with drinking, groundwater, and surface water pollution. Concerns are not limited to environmental issues but also human health impact becoming serious global aspect. Organic pollution becomes a primarily serious hazard, therefore, the novel sophisticated approaches to treat them are thoroughly investigated. Among numerous materials, functionalized nanodiamonds are specific versatile nanocarbon material attracted ample attention thanks to their exceptional chemical, optical and electronic properties beneficial in the decomposition of harmful organic chemicals.

This work delivers a comprehensive review of progress and perspectives on the green-friendly nanodiamonds, which are suitable for the degradation of emerging organic pollutants using numerous approaches utilizing them as an electro-oxidation catalyst; photocatalyst; oxidation agent, or adsorbing surface. Novel modification strategies of nanodiamonds (i.e., persulfates, oxides, or metals) remarkably improve pollutant removal efficiency and facilitate charge transfer and surface regeneration. Furthermore, we evaluated also the influence of various factors like pH, natural organic matters, or radical scavengers on the removal efficiency combining them with nanodiamond properties. The identified missing research gaps and development perspectives of nanodiamond surfaces in water remediation relating to other nanocarbon and metal catalysts were also here described.

All-solid-state batteries are an exciting technology for increased safety and energy density compared to traditional lithium-ion cells. Recently, we developed a theory of mapping inner potentials and thermodynamic driving forces specific to the solid-state batteries, allowing prediction of the “intrinsic” interfacial lithium barriers. This potential mapping methodology, based purely on calculated bulk and surface properties, enables fast screening of a variety of advanced solid electrolyte materials as well as a selection of cutting-edge high-voltage cathode materials, predicting properties of 48 distinct battery configurations. A number of cathode/electrolyte pairs are identified which have low “intrinsic” barriers to both the charge and discharge process at all states of charge, suggesting that they will most benefit from engineering efforts to reduce extrinsic interfacial impedance. These predictions agree well with available experimental measurements, which form only a subset of the predicted interfaces. Thus, this interface potential model will accelerate the design process from emerging materials to all-solid-state battery devices.

Hot working, as an important group of post-processing routes for additive manufacturing technology (3D printing), is used to reduce the solidification/processing defects and anisotropy of properties, grain refinement, improvement of mechanical properties, processing of pre-formed parts, and increasing the applicability domain. Accordingly, the present state of the art of the elevated temperature deformation behavior and constitutive description of flow stress during thermomechanical processing of additively manufactured parts is summarized in this monograph. Besides the effects of temperature and strain rate (represented by the Zener-Hollomon parameter), the significance of initial phases and the type of additive manufacturing process on the hot deformed microstructure, restoration processes of dynamic recovery (DRV) and dynamic recrystallization (DRX), flow stress, workability, and hot deformation activation energy is critically discussed. In this regard, the α'-martensite in Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy produced by selective laser melting (SLM), the precipitates in aluminum alloys (such as 2219 Al alloy) produced by wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), and the Laves phase in Inconel 718 superalloy produced by laser metal deposition (LMD) are remarkable examples. The utilization of innovative methods with in situ hot working effects such as additive friction stir deposition (AFSD) is also enlightened. Regarding the constitutive equations for modeling and prediction of hot flow stress, the reports on the strain-compensated Arrhenius model, artificial neural network (ANN) approach, DRX/DRV kinetics models, Johnson-Cook equation, and Fields-Backofen formula are presented, and the potentials of the modified, simplified, and physically-based approaches are discussed. Finally, the future prospects in this research field such as the hybridization of additive manufacturing with hot forming processes, work-hardening analysis for obtaining the onset of DRX, unraveling the effects of as-built microstructure, developing processing maps, proposing some physical-based unified constitutive models, and investigation of novel and/or widely-used alloys such as austenitic stainless steels, high-entropy alloys, and aluminum alloys (e.g. AlSi10Mg alloy) are proposed.