Journal of Materials Research

Li, Xun; Shi, Li

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01441-2pmid: N/A

Recent searches of high-lattice thermal conductivity (κl) materials have explored size-dependent non-diffusive phonon transport in low-dimensional systems and pursued compound crystals with light and heavy elements. As a paradigm shift from past high-κl criteria that emphasize simple crystals made of light elements, the latter has led to ultrahigh-κl semiconducting boron arsenide (BAs) where a large phonon gap in such compounds limits three-phonon scattering and makes four-phonon processes unusually important. Frequent four-phonon scattering and consequently convergent κl have also been calculated in graphene because of numerous low-frequency flexural phonons, raising a question whether high-order lattice anharmonicity is sufficient to prevent graphene and carbon nanotubes from breaking the κl records of diamond and graphite due to weakened phonon hydrodynamics. Open problems have also remained on four-phonon processes in BAs, electron–phonon coupling effects in semiconductors and semimetals including θ-tantalum nitride with predicted high κl\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\usepackage{amsmath}\usepackage{wasysym}\usepackage{amsfonts}\usepackage{amssymb}\usepackage{amsbsy}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{upgreek}\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\begin{document}$${\upkappa }_{l}$$\end{document}, and quantized lattice thermal conductance in nanowires and nanotubes.Graphical abstract[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Tang, Deqi; Meng, Tao; Xue, Zhaoteng; Mao, Dongsen

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01422-5pmid: N/A

Fe3O4@SiO2/4A magnetic nanocomposites (magnetic 4A zeolite) have been synthesized by hydrothermal method which endowed 4A zeolite with magnetic separation characteristics. XRD results showed that the magnetic 4A zeolite had the characteristic diffraction peaks of both 4A zeolite and Fe3O4. The SEM images displayed the combination of 4A zeolite and Fe3O4. N2 physical adsorption showed that magnetic 4A zeolite had a large specific surface area and can provide a large number of adsorption sites for ammonia nitrogen. The magnetic separation results showed that magnetic 4A zeolite exhibited fast response to external magnetic field, and the saturation strength measured by VSM was 5.85 emu g−1, indicating the superparamagnetic properties of magnetic 4A zeolite. The removal rate of ammonia nitrogen by FSA-M-1 sample reached to 43.18%. After 6 rounds of repeated adsorption experiments, each sample’s magnetic recovery rate was above 95%, and the removal rate of ammonia nitrogen was higher than 36%.Graphical abstract[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Padmanabhan, K. A.; Ghanashyam Krishna, M.

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01424-3pmid: N/A

Fractal (micro)-structures are observed in many thin films, bulk specimens and fractured samples. A phenomenon that leads to the formation of these structures in thin films is diffusion-limited aggregation. The assumption in diffusion-limited aggregation is that formation of such structures is independent of the source conditions and relies only on film-substrate interactions with requirement of single crystallinity in both cases. The possibilities of fractal structures occurring in amorphous or crystalline film-on-amorphous or crystalline substrate have received limited attention. However, results on sputter deposited transition metal nitride thin films show that these combinations can indeed lead to fractal structures such as dendrites and snowflakes. In this work we postulate that the formation of these microstructures is perhaps related and sensitive to the initial conditions provided for growth, which leads to a conclusion that perhaps chaos-related dynamics is at work. We believe that a new theoretical framework is required to explain these phenomena. An attempt to identify the knowns and the unknowns in this area is made using our results as well as some available in the literature.Graphical abstract[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Naseem, Asad; Haleem, Yasir A.; Irfan, Sheheera; Usman, Muhammad; Ahmad, Naseeb; Arshad, Muhammad; Irshad, Muhammad Imran; Saleem, Muhammad Farooq; Khan, Rashid

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01426-1pmid: N/A

In this work, the characteristics of MoS2 and its nanocomposite with SnO2 for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue have been investigated. The MoS2 and MoS2/SnO2 nanocomposites were synthesized by the hydrothermal method. SEM analysis shows the flower-like structure of MoS2 while MoS2/SnO2 nanocomposites shows grain-like structure. The EDX analysis of the MoS2 and MoS2/SnO2 nanocomposites confirm the samples were mainly composed of Mo, S, Sn, and O atoms and the XRD patterns confirm hexagonal and rhombohedral phases, respectively. The FTIR spectra indicate the presence of both hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups at the sample's surface. The UV–Visible spectroscopy findings witness both samples are being active in the visible range. Further, the band gap estimation through Tauc plot supports the assertion that these materials could be an efficient catalyst for photodegradation. Furthermore, the photodegradation of methylene blue (used as a dye) findings declare the maximum efficiency of 93% by using MoS2/SnO2 nanocomposite as a catalyst.Graphical Abstract[graphic not available: see fulltext]

van der Straten, O.; Wangoh, L. W.

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01427-0pmid: N/A

Cu reflow behavior was studied on various metal liners, including Co, Ru, Ta, Ti, and W. These investigations provide insight into the differences in surface diffusion characteristics of Cu along these metal liner interfaces, as revealed by structural characterization using various electron microscopy imaging techniques. In addition, the electrical properties of these metal liner/Cu stacks were investigated as a function of annealing time by evaluating changes in sheet resistance, to understand the extent to which Cu films remain continuous. Atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy observations provided insight into the dimensions of Cu islands formed during thermal annealing. On Ta and Ru liners, Cu surface diffusion was found to be most prominent. Compared to Ta and Ru, more Cu islands were formed per area for Co liner, exhibiting a reduced average Cu island size. Only minimal Cu island formation was observed for Ti and W liners.Graphical abstract[graphic not available: see fulltext]

He, Shuai; Li, Zhifeng; Zhang, Chi; Liu, Xin; Wang, Chaoyi; Wang, Junsheng

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01429-ypmid: N/A

The solidification behavior of Ni-based superalloy in the cooling rates range of 0.5–10 °C/s was investigated for simulation the casting process. Scheil model was used to calculate the solidification path of Ni-based superalloy. The results show that the precipitation sequence of solid phases from the liquid phase was as follows: Liquid (L) → L + γ → L + γ + MC → γ + MC + γ/γ′ eutectic. The precipitation temperature of γ/γ′ eutectic was increased with the increase of cooling rate. The solidification structures of Ni-based superalloy were found to be mainly dendritic, and the distance between dendrites decreased with the increase of cooling rate. The MC carbides enriched with C, Ti, Hf, Ta, and other elements presented rectangles, which contributed to refine the solidification structure as the heterogeneous nucleus. The nano-indentation was used to measure the γ + γ′ matrix and MC cabides, and the mechanism of cooling rate on the evolution of microstructure during the solidification was discussed.Graphical AbstractThe solidification structures of Ni-based superalloy.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Kotti, Akhila Priya; Mishra, Amaresh Chandra

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01431-4pmid: N/A

Magnetization reversal in thin cylindrical nanodisks with radius between 20 and 100 nm is investigated with particular emphasis to modulation of disk thickness. The nanodisk is kept 1 nm thin at the center, whereas it gradually thickens to 21 nm at the periphery. The thickness modulation stabilizes the vortex closure state as the ground state in nanodisk for radius as low as 20 nm. An onion state appears at remanence during in-plane magnetization reversal. Nudged elastic band method verifies that the vortex state is highly stable in all the nanodisks. In the nanodisk of 100 nm radius, the vortex state requires an energy of 2677 kT to transit into onion state where kT is thermal energy at room temperature. This stability however reduces with size of nanodisk and the smallest nanodisk of 20 nm radius has to surpass an energy barrier of 120 kT to topple over to onion state.Graphic abstract[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Banerjee, Dishary; Majumdar, Ujjayan; Bose, Susmita

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01434-1pmid: N/A

Plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite (HA)-coated titanium (Ti) implants have wide applications in orthopedic surgeries, effectively restoring load-bearing segmental bone defects. In this study, acemannan, an extract from aloe vera, is loaded on HA-coated Ti to evaluate its osteogenic and antibacterial properties. The biocompatibility of titanium (Ti) alloys is augmented with the osteoconductive properties of HA and osteoinductive properties of acemannan. Our results demonstrate that the release of acemannan enhances osteoblast viability and proliferation after 2 and 5 days of culture. Release of acemannan leads to ~ 60% new bone formation at early stages in vivo. In the presence of acemannan and chitosan, enhanced mineralization is observed as early as 5 weeks after implantation. The samples loaded with acemannan exhibit 99% antibacterial efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus. Our results illustrate that acemannan and chitosan-laden HA-coated Ti aids bone healing while promoting infection control.Graphical abstractThe combinatory efficacy of acemannan and chitosan on hydroxyapatite-coated titanium alloys for improved bone regeneration in load-bearing orthopedic applications.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Herbert, Erik G.; Zhang, Yubin; Yersak, Thomas A.

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01430-5pmid: N/A

In the controlled atmosphere of a dedicated glove box, nanoindentation performed with a diamond Berkovich indenter tip has been used to examine the mechanical behavior of three (oxy)sulfide solid-state electrolytes (SSEs), 70Li2S·(30−x)P2S5·xP2O5 (x = 0, 2, and 5). At a drive frequency of 120 Hz, the elastic modulus is found to be predominantly depth independent over the range of 100 nm to 1 μm and generally insensitive to the varying mol fraction of oxygen (0, 2, and 5%) as well as the imposed strain rates of 0.025, 0.05, and 0.1 1/s. All three SSEs exhibit significant room-temperature creep. Strain burst activity observed during loading (potentially representative of pore collapse or cracking) is attenuated with the addition of oxygen. The hardness is found to be insensitive to the imposed strain rates but varying with depth and oxygen content. The highest oxygen concentration yields the lowest hardness and strongest depth dependence.Graphical abstractNanoindentation of monolithic (oxy)sulfide glass solid-state electrolytes in an inert environment yields rate and depth dependent behavior.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

Naeem, Maha; Muhammad, Nawaz; Murtaza, G.; Raza, Hafiz Hamid; Ali, Hafiz Irfan

doi: 10.1557/s43578-024-01432-3pmid: N/A

Perovskite chalcogenides have been acknowledged as a potential candidate for solar cell applications. We have investigated new chalcogenide perovskite AInX3 (A = Sc, Y and X = S, Se) materials in the present study. The WIEN2k packages are used based on the framework of DFT. AInX3 (A = Sc, Y and X = S, Se) are crystallized in the orthorhombic phase. The band gap is calculated by TB-mBJ. All the studied compounds have indirect band gaps in the visible energy range. They show high carrier conductivity because of small effective masses. The optical parameters including the complex dielectric constant, refractive index, reflectivity, absorption coefficient, optical conductivity, energy loss function, and extinction coefficient are examined in detail. The thermoelectric properties are also investigated through the BoltzTraP code. Elastic properties suggest that all materials are ductile. The calculated characteristics indicate that these compounds have the potential to be used in photovoltaic devices.Graphical abstractUnit cell crystal structure of chalcogenide perovskite ABX3 (A = Sc, Y, B = In and X = S, Se) in an orthorhombic (GdFeO3-type) phase; wine-red: A = Sc/Y, purple: B = In; and yellow: X = S/Se. Electronic band lies in visible region for all the studied compounds.[graphic not available: see fulltext]