An Eco-Friendly Acid Leaching Strategy for Dealkalization of Red Mud by Controlling Phase Transformation

The alkaline components in red mud represent one of the crucial factors restricting its application, especially for the construction and building industry. The phase state of alkaline components has a significant influence on the dealkalization of red mud. In this work, an environmentally friendly acid leaching strategy is proposed by controlling the phase transformation of red mud during active roasting pretreatment. With a moderate roasting temperature, the alkaline component is prevented from converting into insoluble phases. After acid leaching with a low concentration of 0.1 M, a high dealkalization rate of 92.8% is obtained. Besides, the leachate is neutral (pH = 7) and the valuable metals in red mud are well preserved, manifesting a high selectivity and efficiency of diluted acid leaching. The calcination experiment further confirms the practicability of the strategy in the construction field, where the cementitious minerals can be formed in large quantities. Compared with the traditional acid leaching routes, the diluted acid leaching strategy in this work is acid saving with low valuable element consumption. Meanwhile, the secondary pollution issue can be alleviated. Hence, the findings in this work provide a feasible approach for the separation and recovery of alkali and resource utilization of red mud.

Influence of the initial structural-phase state on inelastic and plastic strains behavior in coarse-grained samples of the Ti49.3Ni50.7 (at.%) alloy

The paper presents the experimental results of studies of the temperature dependence of inelastic and plastic strains during torsion of coarse-grained samples of the Ti49.3Ni50.7 (at.%) alloy. Investigations of the deformation behavior of the test alloy samples in the martensitic, two-phase and high-temperature states have been carried out. It is shown that the value of the summary inelastic strain reaches a maximum value of ∼ 18% under deformation of the samples in the martensitic and two-phase state, as well as in the temperature range of pre-transition phenomena.

Structure of tantalum coatings on NiTi substrate deposited by magnetron sputtering

The paper provides the results of studies of the structural-phase state of tantalum coatings prepared by magnetron deposition. The coatings were deposited on substrates made of titanium nickelide with a shape memory. The NiTi temperature during coating deposition did not exceed 100 °C. The structural-phase state of Ta was determined by X-ray diffraction at different stages of coating formation. It has been shown that at the initial stage of deposition, two-phase coatings (α- and β-Ta) are formed. The synthesis of the coating from Ta leads to the growth of interplanar distance of the B2 austenite phase in the crystallographic direction (100). The growth of interplanar spacing is caused by formation of microstresses during interaction with incident tantalum ions. The lattice parameters of the B19 ‘phase, responsible for appearance of the shape memory effect, do not change during deposition of the tantalum coating.

Manipulation of Time- and Frequency-Domain Dynamics by Magnon-Magnon Coupling in Synthetic Antiferromagnets

Magnons (the quanta of spin waves) could be used to encode information in beyond Moore computing applications. In this study, the magnon coupling between acoustic mode and optic mode in synthetic antiferromagnets (SAFs) is investigated by micromagnetic simulations. For a symmetrical SAF system, the time-evolution magnetizations of the two ferromagnetic layers oscillate in-phase at the acoustic mode and out-of-phase at the optic mode, showing an obvious crossing point in their antiferromagnetic resonance spectra. However, the symmetry breaking in an asymmetrical SAF system by the thickness difference, can induce an anti-crossing gap between the two frequency branches of resonance modes and thereby a strong magnon-magnon coupling appears between the resonance modes. The magnon coupling induced a hybridized resonance mode and its phase difference varies with the coupling strength. The maximum coupling occurs at the bias magnetic field at which the two ferromagnetic layers oscillate with a 90° phase difference. Besides, we show how the resonance modes in SAFs change from the in-phase state to the out-of-phase state by slightly tuning the magnon-magnon coupling strength. Our work provides a clear physical picture for the understanding of magnon-magnon coupling in a SAF system and may provide an opportunity to handle the magnon interaction in synthetic antiferromagnetic spintronics.

Influence of the Structural-Phase State of a Copper Substrate upon Modification with Titanium Ions on the Thermal Cyclic Resistance of a Coating Based on Zr-Y-O

The results of investigation of the surface of a copper substrate modified with titanium ions are presented. The phase composition, the structure, and the morphology of the surface of the copper alloy modified by titanium ions have been investigated by X-ray, SEM, and TEM. It has been established that there are the intermetallic phases of the Cu-Ti equilibrium diagram in the surface layer during the treatment of copper by the titanium ions. A multilevel micro- and nanoporous structure is formed in the modified layer. It has been established that the structure-phase state and morphology of the surface layers of copper directly effects on the thermocycler resistance and adhesion of the Zr-Y-O coating. The thermocyclic resistance of the Zr-Y-O coating increases by an order of magnitude, the adhesion to the substrate is 2 times if the substrate surface is treated with titanium ions for 6 min.

Structure of Alloys for (Sm,Zr)(Co,Cu,Fe)z Permanent Magnets: III. Matrix and Phases of the High-Coercivity State

Observations of the surface domain structure (Kerr-effect), optical metallography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM-SE), and electron microprobe analysis (EPMA-SEM), measurements of major and minor magnetic hysteretic loops were used to study pseudo-single-crystal samples of (Sm,Zr)(Co,Cu,Fe)z alloys subjected to heat treatments to the high-coercivity state, which are used in fabricating sintered permanent magnets. Correlations between the chemical composition, hysteretic properties, structural components, domain structure, and phase state were determined for the concentration ranges that ensure wide variations of 4f-/4d-/3d-element ratio in the studied samples. The phase state formed by collinear and coherent phase components determines the high coercive force and ultimate magnetic hysteresis loops of the pseudo-single crystals. It was found that the 1:5 phase with the hexagonal structure (P6/mmm) is the matrix of the alloys for (Sm,Zr)(Co,Cu,Fe)z permanent magnets; the matrix undergoes phase transformations in the course of all heat treatments for the high-coercivity state. The heterogeneity observed with optical magnifications, namely, the observation of main structural components A and B, is due to the alternation, within the common matrix, of regions with modulated quasi-spherical precipitates and regions with hexagonal bipyramids (cellular phase) although, traditionally, many investigators consider the cellular phase as the matrix. It is shown that the relationship of volume fractions of structural components A and B that account for more than 0.9 volume fraction of the total, which is due to the integral chemical composition of the alloys, determines the main hysteretic performances of the samples. The Zr-rich phases, such as 5:19, 2:7, and 6:23, and a structural component with the variable stoichiometry (Sm(Co,Cu,Fe)3.5–5) that is almost free of Zr and contains up to 33 at% Cu, were found only within structural component A in quantities sufficient for EPMA analysis.