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Now showing 1 - 10 of 35
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    Studies on Stress Corrosion Cracking of Vit 105 Bulk Metallic Glass
    (Lausanne : Frontiers Media S.A., 2020) Gebert, A.; Geissler, D.; Pilz, S.; Uhlemann, M.; Davani, F.A.; Hilke, S.; Rösner, H.; Wilde, G.
    The project “Stress Corrosion Cracking of Zr-based Bulk Metallic Glasses” (SCC of Zr-BMGs) within PP1594 mainly dealt with mechanical–corrosive interactions and failure of this class of metastable materials. It focused on one of the most application-relevant zirconium (Zr)-BMG, Vit(reloy) 105, with composition Zr52.5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10Ti5 (at.%). Even though this BMG is known as an extraordinary glass former, the metallurgical processing is still a critical issue. In contrast to conventional processing, i.e., arc melting of master alloy ingots from single constituents, a different route using binary pre-alloys for the master alloys production was applied and led to superior mechanical properties upon mechanical testing under tensile and three-point-bending (3PB) conditions in air. As a reference and for a detailed understanding of failure, fracture, and cracking of Zr-based BMG in air, notched specimen 3PB experiments with in situ microscopic observation were done and the still controversial interpretation of the mechanical behavior of BMG in the framework of fracture mechanics was addressed. The specimen from the in situ 3PB tests served for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations on the structural nature of shear bands in BMG on the atomistic scale. Altogether, complete crack paths could be observed and analyzed, and based on this, details of the shear band-driven crack growth are described. While in first SCC studies using a newly developed setup full cross section (3PB) bars were investigated, in recent in situ experiments, notched specimens were tested in 0.01 M NaCl, yielding strong evidence for a catastrophic failure due to hydrogen embrittlement (HE). The known susceptibility to pitting corrosion in halide-containing environments is only the initial stage for failure under SCC conditions. Once pitting is initiated, the local electrode potential is severely reduced. Further, the hydrolysis reaction of oxidized Zr4+ to zirconyl ions ZrO2+ during local BMG dissolution produces H+ and, thus, a local acidic environment that enables proton reduction and hydrogen absorption in the stressed BMG region. The peculiar failure and fracture surface characteristics as well as the proven local reduction of the pH value in the vicinity of the notch during in situ experiments clearly account for the proposed HE-SCC failure mechanism.
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    High temperature behavior of rual thin films on piezoelectric CTGS and LGS substrates
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2020) Seifert, M.
    This paper reports on a significant further improvement of the high temperature stability of RuAl thin films (110 nm) on the piezoelectric Ca3TaGa3Si2O14 (CTGS) and La3Ga5SiO14 (LGS) substrates. RuAl thin films with AlN or SiO2 cover layers and barriers to the substrate (each 20 nm), as well as a combination of both were prepared on thermally oxidized Si substrates, which serve as a reference for fundamental studies, and the piezoelectric CTGS, as well as LGS substrates. In somefilms, additional Al layers were added. To study their high temperature stability, the samples were annealed in air and in high vacuum up to 900 °C, and subsequently their cross-sections, phase formation, film chemistry, and electrical resistivity were analyzed. It was shown that on thermally oxidized Si substrates, all films were stable after annealing in air up to 800 °C and in high vacuum up to 900 °C. The high temperature stability of RuAl thin films on CTGS substrates was improved up to 900 °C in high vacuum by the application of a combined AlN/SiO2 barrier layer and up to 800 °C in air using a SiO2 barrier. On LGS, the films were only stable up to 600 °C in air; however, a single SiO2 barrier layer was sufficient to prevent oxidation during annealing at 900 °C in high vacuum.
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    A Facile Chemical Method Enabling Uniform Zn Deposition for Improved Aqueous Zn-Ion Batteries
    (Basel : MDPI, 2021) Liu, Congcong; Lu, Qiongqiong; Omar, Ahmad; Mikhailova, Daria
    Rechargeable aqueous Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) have gained great attention due to their high safety and the natural abundance of Zn. Unfortunately, the Zn metal anode suffers from dendrite growth due to nonuniform deposition during the plating/stripping process, leading to a sudden failure of the batteries. Herein, Cu coated Zn (Cu–Zn) was prepared by a facile pretreatment method using CuSO4 aqueous solution. The Cu coating transformed into an alloy interfacial layer with a high affinity for Zn, which acted as a nucleation site to guide the uniform Zn nucleation and plating. As a result, Cu–Zn demonstrated a cycling life of up to 1600 h in the symmetric cells and endowed a stable cycling performance with a capacity of 207 mAh g−1 even after 1000 cycles in the full cells coupled with a V2O5-based cathode. This work provides a simple and effective strategy to enable uniform Zn deposition for improved ZIBs.
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    Fabrication of metastable crystalline nanocomposites by flash annealing of Cu47.5Zr47.5Al5 metallic glass using joule heating
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2020) Okulov, I.; Soldatov, I.; Kaban, I.; Sarac, B.; Spieckermann, F.; Eckert, J.
    Flash Joule-heating was applied to the Cu47.5Zr47.5Al5 metallic glass for designing fully crystalline metastable nanocomposites consisting of the metastable B2 CuZr and low-temperature equilibrium Cu10Zr7 phases. The onset of crystallization was in situ controlled by monitoring resistivity changes in the samples. The effect of heating rate and annealing time on the volume fraction of the crystalline phases and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites was studied in detail. Particularly, an increase of the heating rate and a decrease of the annealing time lead to a lower number of equilibrium Cu10Zr7 precipitates and an increase of tensile ductility. Tailoring of these non-equilibrium microstructures and mechanical properties may not be possible unless one starts with a fully glassy material that opens new perspectives for designing metastable nanomaterials with unique physical properties.
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    Effect of Build Orientation on the Microstructure, Mechanical and Corrosion Properties of a Biodegradable High Manganese Steel Processed by Laser Powder Bed Fusion
    (Basel : MDPI, 2021) Otto, M.; Pilz, S.; Gebert, A.; Kühn, U.; Hufenbach, J.
    In the last decade, additive manufacturing technologies like laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) have emerged strongly. However, the process characteristics involving layer-wise build-up of the part and the occurring high, directional thermal gradient result in significant changes of the microstructure and the related properties compared to traditionally fabricated materials. This study presents the influence of the build direction (BD) on the microstructure and resulting properties of a novel austenitic Fe-30Mn-1C-0.02S alloy processed via LPBF. The fabricated samples display a {011} texture in BD which was detected by electron backscatter diffraction. Furthermore, isolated binding defects could be observed between the layers. Quasi-static tensile and compression tests displayed that the yield, ultimate tensile as well as the compressive yield strength are significantly higher for samples which were built with their longitudinal axis perpendicular to BD compared to their parallel counterparts. This was predominantly ascribed to the less severe effects of the sharp-edged binding defects loaded perpendicular to BD. Additionally, a change of the Young’s modulus in dependence of BD could be demonstrated, which is explained by the respective texture. Potentiodynamic polarization tests conducted in a simulated body fluid revealed only slight differences of the corrosion properties in dependence of the build design.
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    Improved kinetic behaviour of Mg(NH2)2-2LiH doped with nanostructured K-modified-LixTiyOz for hydrogen storage
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Gizer, G.; Puszkiel, J.; Riglos, M.V.C.; Pistidda, C.; Ramallo-López, J.M.; Mizrahi, M.; Santoru, A.; Gemming, T.; Tseng, J.-C.; Klassen, T.; Dornheim, M.
    The system Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH is considered as an interesting solid-state hydrogen storage material owing to its low thermodynamic stability of ca. 40 kJ/mol H2 and high gravimetric hydrogen capacity of 5.6 wt.%. However, high kinetic barriers lead to slow absorption/desorption rates even at relatively high temperatures (>180 °C). In this work, we investigate the effects of the addition of K-modified LixTiyOz on the absorption/desorption behaviour of the Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH system. In comparison with the pristine Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH, the system containing a tiny amount of nanostructured K-modified LixTiyOz shows enhanced absorption/desorption behaviour. The doped material presents a sensibly reduced (∼30 °C) desorption onset temperature, notably shorter hydrogen absorption/desorption times and reversible hydrogen capacity of about 3 wt.% H2 upon cycling. Studies on the absorption/desorption processes and micro/nanostructural characterizations of the Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH + K-modified LixTiyOz system hint to the fact that the presence of in situ formed nanostructure K2TiO3 is the main responsible for the observed improved kinetic behaviour.
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    Slowness curve surface acoustic wave transducers for optimized acoustic streaming
    (Cambridge : Royal Society of Chemistry, 2020) O'Rorke, R.; Winkler, A.; Collins, D.; Ai, Y.
    Surface acoustic waves can induce force gradients on the length scales of micro- and nanoparticles, allowing precise manipulation for particle capture, alignment and sorting activities. These waves typically occupy a spatial region much larger than a single particle, resulting in batch manipulation. Circular arc transducers can focus a SAW into a narrow beam on the order of the particle diameter for highly localised, single-particle manipulation by exciting wavelets which propagate to a common focal point. The anisotropic nature of SAW substrates, however, elongates and shifts the focal region. Acousto-microfluidic applications are highly dependent on the morphology of the underlying substrate displacement and, thus, become dependent on the microchannel position relative to the circular arc transducer. This requires either direct measurement or computational modelling of the SAW displacement field. We show that the directly measured elongation and shift in the focal region are recapitulated by an analytical model of beam steering, derived from a simulated slowness curve for 128° Y-cut lithium niobate. We show how the negative effects of beam steering can be negated by adjusting the curvature of arced transducers according to the slowness curve of the substrate, for which we present a simple function for convenient implementation in computational design software. Slowness-curve adjusted transducers do not require direct measurement of the SAW displacement field for microchannel placement and can capture smaller particles within the streaming vortices than can circular arc IDTs.
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    Analysis of electronic properties frommagnetotransport measurements on Ba(Fe1-xNix)2As2 thin films
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2020) Shipulin, I.; Richter, S.; Thomas, A.A.; Nielsch, K.; Hühne, R.; Martovitsky, V.
    We performed a detailed structural, magnetotransport, and superconducting analysis of thin epitaxial Ba(Fe1-xNix)2As2 films with Ni doping of x = 0.05 and 0.08, as prepared by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction studies demonstrate the high crystalline perfection of the films, which have a similar quality to single crystals. Furthermore, magnetotransport measurements of the films were performed in magnetic fields up to 9 T. The results we used to estimate the density of electronic states at the Fermi level, the coefficient of electronic heat capacity, and other electronic parameters for this compound, in their dependence on the dopant concentration within the framework of the Ginzburg-Landau-Abrikosov-Gorkov theory. The comparison of the determined parameters with measurement data on comparable Ba(Fe1-xNix)2As2 single crystals shows good agreement, which confirms the high quality of the obtained films.
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    Visualization of localized perturbations on a (001) surface of the ferromagnetic semimetal EuB6
    (College Park, MD : American Physical Society, 2020) Rößler, S.; Jiao, L.; Seiro, S.; Rosa, P.F.S.; Fisk, Z.; Rößler, U.K.; Wirth, S.
    We performed scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy on a (001) surface of the ferromagnetic semimetal EuB6. Large-amplitude oscillations emanating from the elastic scattering of electrons by the surface impurities are observed in topography and in differential conductance maps. Fourier transform of the conductance maps embracing these regions indicate a holelike dispersion centered around the Γ point of the two-dimensional Brillouin zone. Using density functional theory slab calculations, we identify a spin-split surface state, which stems from the dangling pz orbitals of the apical boron atom. Hybridization with bulk electronic states leads to a resonance enhancement in certain regions around the Γ point, contributing to the remarkably strong real-space response around static point defects, which are observed in STM measurements.
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    Routes to control diffusive pathways and thermal expansion in Ti-alloys
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Bönisch, M.; Stoica, M.; Calin, M.
    β-stabilized Ti-alloys present several unexplored and intriguing surprises in relation to orthorhombic α″ phases. Among them are (i) the diffusion-controlled formation of transitional α″iso, α″lean and α″rich phases and ii) the highly anisotropic thermal expansion of martensitic α″. Using the prototypical Ti-Nb system, we demonstrate that the thermodynamic energy landscape reveals formation pathways for the diffusional forms of α″ and may lead to a stable β-phase miscibility gap. In this way, we derive temperature-composition criteria for the occurrence of α″iso and resolve reaction sequences during thermal cycling. Moreover, we show that the thermal expansion anisotropy of martensitic α″ gives rise to directions of zero thermal strain depending on Nb content. Utilizing this knowledge, we propose processing routes to achieve null linear expansion in α″ containing Ti-alloys. These concepts are expected to be transferable to other Ti-alloys and offer new avenues for their tailoring and technological exploitation.