Fe and Cu dual-doped Ni3S4 nanoarray with less low-valence Ni species for boosting water oxidation reaction

Transition metal materials with high efficiency and durable electrocatalytic water splitting activity have aroused widespread concern among scientists. In this work, two cation co-doped Ni3S4 nanoarrays grown on Ni foam...

Synergistically Enhanced Iron and Zinc Bimetallic Sites as an Advanced ORR Electrocatalyst for Flow Liquid Rechargeable Zn-air Batteries

N-coordinated transition-metal materials are promising electrocatalysts for various sustainable and efficient electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices. Here we reported a simple synthetic route of simultaneously crafting Fe and Zn...

REMINDER: CrystEngComm - Invitation to submit an article Enhancement of the Microwave Absorption Properties by Adjusting the Sintering Conditions and Canbon Shell Thickness of Ni@C Submicrospheres

The combination of traditional magnetic metal materials and dielectric carbon materials to improve microwave absorption properties has aroused great interest. In this article, the Ni@C submicrospheres have been successfully synthesized...

Lattice Distortion of Crystalline-amorphous nickel molybdenum sulfide nanosheets for high-efficiency overall water splitting: lone pair electrons’ libraries and in-suit surface reconstitution

Lattice distortion is an important way to improve the electrocatalytic performance and stability of two-dimensional transition metal materials (2d-TMSs). Herein, a lattice distortion nickel-molybdenum sulfide electrocatalyst on foam nickel (NiMoS4-12/NF)...

Research progress on the biological modifications of implant materials in 3D printed intervertebral fusion cages

Anterior spine decompression and reconstruction with bone grafts and fusion is a routine spinal surgery. The intervertebral fusion cage can maintain intervertebral height and provide a bone graft window. Titanium fusion cages are the most widely used metal material in spinal clinical applications. However, there is a certain incidence of complications in clinical follow-ups, such as pseudoarticulation formation and implant displacement due to nonfusion of bone grafts in the cage. With the deepening research on metal materials, the properties of these materials have been developed from being biologically inert to having biological activity and biological functionalization, promoting adhesion, cell differentiation, and bone fusion. In addition, 3D printing, thin-film, active biological material, and 4D bioprinting technology are also being used in the biofunctionalization and intelligent advanced manufacturing processes of implant devices in the spine. This review focuses on the biofunctionalization of implant materials in 3D printed intervertebral fusion cages. The surface modifications of implant materials in metal endoscopy, material biocompatibility, and bioactive functionalizationare summarized. Furthermore, the prospects and challenges of the biofunctionalization of implant materials in spinal surgery are discussed.

Compressive mechanical behavior and model of composite elastic-porous metal materials

This work presents the experimental characterization and theoretical modeling of composite elastic-porous metal materials (C-EPMM). C-EPMM is a novel porous metallic damping material made of wire mesh and wire helix. A series of quasi-static compressive experiments were carried out to investigate the stiffness and energy absorption ability of the C-EPMM with different mass ratios. The experimental results show that the mass ratios can significantly affect the stiffness and loss factor of C-EPMM. To efficiently predict the nonlinear mechanical properties of the C-EPMM a theoretical model of C-EPMM was proposed for the first time, the model was based on the manufacturing process. A comparison between the predicted data and the experimental data was conducted. The results show that the theoretical model can accurately predict the mechanical performance of C-EPMM. The conclusions derived from this work can provide a new method for adjusting the mechanical performance of EPMM in applications.

An Investigation of the Mechanism on Interfacial Charge Transformation of the TiB2/Cu Composites Studied by the First Principles

The charge communications have been widely existed in the metal materials when they are under the processing, the modeling and the failing. We studied the interfacial charge transformation of the TiB2/Cu composites via the first principles method. The layer thickness was predicted by the interfacial charge communications performed on the regions of the TiB2/Cu interfaces. The layer thickness of the Ti-terminated (TT)TiB2/Cu were predicted longer than those of the B-terminated(BT) TiB2/Cu and contrasting with their average vales as 0.75 (nm) and 0.65 (nm), respectively. The Mulliken population was applied to investigate the bond length, bond population and charge transformation of the six TiB2/Cu models. The Ti-Cu bond was only detected in TT-HCP interfaces among the all TT-TiB2/Cu models, which was further confirmed that the metallic bond of the Ti-Cu with the bond length and population as 2.5 Å and 0.22, respectively. Nevertheless, the B-Cu bond were detected in all BT-TiB2/Cu models, and the bond length and population higher than those of B-Cu bond in chemical complexes. The 5 atomic layers were involved in quantitative analyses of the interfacial charge transformation. The results indicate that the charges lost by interfacial Ti atom were inequivalent obtained by Cu and B atoms which nearby the interfacial Ti atoms of the TT-TiB2/Cu. Comparing with the BT-TiB2/Cu models, the charges acquired by the interfacial B atom were most from the Ti and less from the Cu atoms surrounded the interfacial B atoms.

Notes on the Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ) Machining

The aim of the research was to investigate changes of abrasive grains on metals observing the kerf walls produced by the Abrasive Water Jet (AWJ). The microscopy observations of the sidewalls of kerfs cut by the AWJ in several metal materials with an identical thickness of 10 mm are presented. The observed sizes of abrasive grains were compared with the results of research aimed at the disintegration of the abrasive grains during the mixing process in the cutting head during the injection AWJ creation. Some correlations were discovered and verified. The kerf walls observations show the size of material disintegration caused by the individual abrasive grains and also indicate the size of these grains. One part of this short communication is devoted to a critical look at some of the conclusions of the older published studies, namely regarding the correlation of the number of interacting particles with the acoustic emissions measured on cut materials. The discussion is aimed at the abrasive grain size after the mixing process and changes of this size in the interaction with the target material.