Progress in Materials Science最新文献

The demand for thermal management in electronic packaging (EP) and its allied industries, especially in high-power electronics, has grown in the last three decades due to the continuous miniaturization of electronic components. The thermal management of EP warrants metal/alloys/composite with uniquely low thermal expansion and high thermal conductivity. Controlled expansion (CE) materials play a significant role and impart tunable thermal properties. The first and second generations of CE alloys, like Invar, Kovar, and Elinvar, are unsuitable to provide high thermal conductivity for heat sinking along with low density, which are essential for EP materials. The third-generation hypereutectic Al-Si alloys overcome these limitations. The capability to tune the CTE values of the Al-Si CE alloys combined with their lower densities and high thermal conductivities has made them a preferred choice for electronic applications, such as carriers and heat sinks. However, poor machinability and the inability to prepare geometrically complex Al-Si CE alloy with conventional manufacturing processes pose challenges. A paradigm shift is taking place in fabricating components through additive manufacturing and friction stir processing, assisting in mitigating machining and shape complexity. The present work attempts to provide comprehensive details on the properties, microstructures, and processing techniques of hypereutectic Al-Si CE alloys and recent advancements.

Synthetic fertilizers have supported the global world agriculture and food systems since 20th century, they have contributed significantly to increase soil productivity so as to achieve higher yields and ensure the world food security. However, excessive, and inappropriate use of mineral fertilizers combined with their fast dissolution nature, have shown major issues related to the environment and low nutrients use efficiency. Accordingly, it has become crucial to adopt modern technologies in order to manage nutrients supply for an optimum and effective use by the plants, while protecting the ecosystem from negative impacts. Polymer coating technology for fertilizers has shown the potential to better provide nutrients in a slow/ controlled rate for optimal crop nutrition with minimal environmental issues. In this review, we tried to establish a fundamental understanding of why and how polymer coated fertilizers (PCFs) are developed from the past to the recent trends. Telling the story of designing PCFs, we tried also to shed light on their function mechanisms as affected by many factors, their effects on the soil components, on the crops' response as well as on the environment and economic return. We aimed also in this review to deeply understand the interactions between the physicochemical properties of the polymeric coating, the fertilizer granules, the soil environment, and the crops through multidisciplinary investigation from polymer science, soil science and agronomy perspectives.

Further considerations on the challenges and perspectives for future development of fertilizers with high nutrients use efficiency were discussed in this review.

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIPs) have garnered significant scientific interest due to their magnetic properties and unique features, including low toxicity, colloidal stability, and surface engineering capability. Recent advances in nanoparticle synthesis have enabled the development of MIPs with precise control over their physicochemical properties, making them suitable for medical applications. Anisotropic MIPs have demonstrated shape-dependent performance in various bio-applications, leading to increased research moving from traditional zero-dimensional (0D) morphology towards one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) topology. While these anisotropic materials offer enhanced properties for specific applications, a critical and systematic comparison of their anisotropy effects is lacking in the literature. This review seeks to fill this current gap in the literature and provides a comprehensive summary of the last two decades of research on magnetic iron oxide materials with different shapes in biomedical applications. The paper will discuss the theoretical mechanisms of shape-dependent effects, primary synthetic approaches of 0D, 1D, and 2D MIP materials, biomedical applications, and biological behaviors. In addition, the review identifies critical challenges and open questions that need to be addressed. The proposed research directions outlined in this review have the potential to revitalize the use of “old” MIPs towards future physicochemical and biomedical applications.

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIPs), anisotropic, shape-dependent, zero-dimensional (0D), one-dimensional (1D), and two-dimensional (2D), MRI, hyperthermia, bioapplication.

Ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have attracted significant research attention owing to their utility in the thermally insulating alloy components of gas turbines and aircraft engines that operate at high temperatures. Most TBCs comprise yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ); however, YSZ no longer meets the demands of modern TBC applications due to its low working temperature and high thermal conductivity. It is therefore imperative to develop a ferroelastic ceramic to replace YSZ in TBC applications. Ferroelastic rare-earth tantalates (RETaO₄) possess many desirable properties, such as ferroelastic toughening, low thermal conductivity, high thermal expansion coefficients, and excellent comprehensive mechanical properties, and thus, they are promising next-generation TBCs, which are expected to operate at ultra-high temperatures (≥1600 °C). This review summarizes the thermophysical properties, CaO-MgO-AlO_1.5-SiO₂ (CMAS) corrosion resistance, coatings, and shortcomings of three types of tantalate ceramics (RETaO₄, RE₃TaO₇, and RETa₃O₉) and outlines the direction of future work in this field.

With the rapid development of wearable electronics, safety hazards and operational stability have drawn widespread attention in recent years. Biopolymers with low cost, eco‐friendly and biocompatibility are competitive candidates to replace traditional petroleum‐based materials in constructing gel polymer electrolytes. Biopolymer-based gel electrolytes (BGPEs) have exhibited broad application prospects through suitable structural designs and functionalization in flexible and smart electrochemical energy storage devices. This review summarized the recent advances of BGPEs with characteristic physicochemical properties and smart functionalities for application in electrochemical energy storage devices. The crosslinking methods and performance validation of BGPEs are also comprehensively reviewed and analyzed. Significantly, the functionalized BGPEs with self‐healing, stretchability, and thermotolerant abilities are emphasized. Finally, the remaining challenges and future directions of BGPEs for application in advanced electrochemical energy storage devices are outlined to provide guidance for their further development.

Simple shear presents a local material structure–property relationship and plays an important role in the development of material design, mechanical modeling, and manufacturing processes for sheet metals. Simple shear tests are extensively adopted to reveal the stress-state-dependent mechanisms of material microstructure evolution with their corresponding mechanical properties, to develop sophisticated constitutive models capturing complex mechanical behaviors, and to precisely characterize the failure limits for shear-dominated or large-strain deformation processes. Thus, the simple shear methodology including specimen geometry, fixing and loading device, data acquisition and the set of procedures for results analysis, has become a topic of growing interest because of its various distinctive capacities. Over the years, several simple shear analyses and test methods have been proposed without a unified understanding. Interpreting the experimental results can be confusing due to the complexity of finite deformation, variety of boundary conditions in practice, and complexity of the mechanical behavior of materials; however, neither a widely accepted protocol nor a systematic overview of this topic exists. To fill this gap, the present study attempts to provide a comprehensive review of the simple shear methodology for sheet metals, which will serve as a reference for summarizing substantial efforts to improve the understanding and gain valuable scientific insight, a guideline to discover local structure–property relationships of materials, and a solid step for shedding light on its standardization. In this paper, the motivation for the development of a simple shear methodology is first discussed, and the recent progress in experimental mechanics and experimental technologies is summarized. Its application in understanding the mechanical behaviors (hardening, yielding, and ductile fracture) is focused on, and the structure–property relationships revealed by simple shear are further highlighted. The challenges and prospects for future research are discussed. The principles, methodologies, and perspectives provided are highly relevant and are expected to benefit emerging areas such as heterostructured materials, micro/nanoscale mechanical testing, nonlocal plasticity, and additive manufacturing (AM).

Due to the shortage of lithium resources, current lithium-ion batteries are difficult to meet the growing demand for energy storage in the long run. Rechargeable aqueous aluminum ion (Al³⁺) electrochemistry has the advantages of abundant resources, high safety, environmental friendliness, and high energy/power density. It is, therefore an ideal choice for alternative energy storage devices. However, Al³⁺-based technology is still in the preliminary stage, and there are various challenges. In reality, its kinetics and reversibility have long been disturbed by the strong electrostatic field of Al³⁺ and the parasitic side reactions of aqueous electrolytes. This paper first summarizes the history of aqueous aluminum ion batteries/capacitors (AAIBs/AAICs) and analyzes the challenges faced by cathode, anode, and electrolyte. Then, the state-of-the-art research progress, design strategies, and limitations of the cathode, anode, electrolyte, and Al³⁺-based energy storage devices are comprehensively introduced, and their structure, performance, and reaction mechanisms are discussed. Finally, the future design of AAIBs/AAICs with long life, high reversibility, and high energy/power density has been prospected, and promising research directions are pointed out.

Irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking (IASCC) is a form of intergranular stress corrosion cracking that occurs in irradiated austenitic alloys. It requires an irradiated microstructure along with high temperature water and stress. The process is ubiquitous in that it occurs in a wide range of austenitic alloys and water chemistries, but only when the alloy is irradiated. Despite evidence of this degradation mode that dates back to the 1960s, the mechanism by which it occurs has remained elusive. Here, using high resolution electron backscattering detection to analyze local stress-strain states, high resolution transmission electron microscopy to identify grain boundary phases at crack tips, and decoupling the roles of stress and grain boundary oxidation, we are able to unfold the complexities of the phenomenon to reveal the mechanism by which IASCC occurs. The significance of the findings impacts the mechanical integrity of core components of both current and advanced nuclear reactor designs worldwide.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has identified the reduction of H₂ production costs as a prominent objective. Therefore, any factor that influences the system's functionality and subsequently production cost is deemed significant. The stability of the cathode is a crucial factor in ensuring high operational reliability; however, its treatment in the existing literature remains inadequate. This review aims to identify the key challenges associated with the stability of HER electrodes and provides a comprehensive understanding of various cathodic degradation mechanisms. In the present investigation, genuine circumstances encountered by cathodes in the industrial sector are considered. Special attention is devoted to Fe-based materials, which are deemed favorable and economical options, whereas the deterioration mechanism of Ni-based counterparts, such as cutting-edge materials, is scrutinized. Furthermore, the limitations of using the E-pH diagram, which is a commonly employed tool for predicting stable phases under specific conditions, are discussed. In addition, the cost implications of developing alkaline water electrolyzer (AWEL) stacks are considered. Finally, a comprehensive discussion is presented on the durability of cathode plates, including an analysis of the factors that impact their predicted lifetime and protocols that facilitate the acquisition of more realistic stability results.

Metallurgists have long been accustomed to a trade-off between yield strength and tensile ductility. Extending previously known strain-hardening mechanisms, the emerging multi-principal-element alloys (MPEAs) offer additional help in promoting the strength-ductility synergy, towards gigapascal yield strength simultaneously with pure-metal-like tensile ductility. The highly concentrated chemical make-up in these “high-entropy” alloys (HEAs) adds, at ultrafine spatial scale from sub-nanometer to tens of nanometers, inherent chemical inhomogeneities in local composition and local chemical order (LCO). These institute a “nano-cocktail” environment that exerts extra dragging forces, rendering a much wavier motion of dislocation lines (in stick–slip mode) different from dilute solutions. The variable fault energy landscape also makes the dislocation movement sluggish, increasing their chances to hit one another and react to increase entanglement. The accumulation of dislocations (plus faults) dynamically stores obstacles against ensuing dislocation motion to sustain an adequate strain-hardening rate at high flow stresses, delaying plastic instability to enable large (uniform) elongation. The successes summarized advocate MPEAs as an effective recipe towards ultrahigh strength at little expense of tensile ductility. The insight gained also answers the question as to what new mechanical behavior the HEAs have to offer, beyond what has been well documented for traditional metals and solid solutions.