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In this study, magnesium oxysulfate cement (MOS) was used as a binder for curing loess. The changes in bulk density, porosity, mineral structure and microstructure of the consolidated loess were systematically studied and verified. The porosity decreased from 40.97 % in pure loess to 28.75 % in 13 % MOS solidified sample. Scanning electron microscopy, energy spectrum analysis and thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the addition of MOS binder resulted in the formation of hydrated products, including Mg(OH) 2 , MgO·mSiO 2 ·nH 2 O (M-S-H), and 3Mg(OH) 2 ·MgSO 4 ·8H 2 O (3·1·8 phase), which effectively filled the voids between the grains and facilitated strong bonding among them. After a curing period of 28 days, the compressive strength of loess stabilized with 13 % MOS exhibited an increase to 7.9 MPa. Moreover, following immersion in water for 24 h, the softening coefficient K remained at 0.66. Furthermore, after undergoing five cycles of freeze-thaw cycling, the rate of change in compressive strength R P was only 6.3 %. All the results indicate that MOS exhibits promising potential as a binder for soil stabilization applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, high-temperature solid-phase techniques have been used to produce both natural and nano ZrO 2 -modified Li-rich manganese-based cathodic materials. Several characterizations were carried out to evaluate the morphology, structure, electrical state, and elemental content of unmodified as well as nano-modified Li 1.2 Ni 0.13 Co 0.13 Mn 0.54 O 2 . The results of electrochemical tests showed that cathodic materials modified with 0.02 mol nano ZrO 2 performed extremely well electrochemically, with initial discharge capacity and coulombic efficiency at 0.1 C reaching up to 308.5 mAh g -1 and 95.38%, respectively. After 170 cycles at 0.2 C, a magnitude of 200.2 mAh g -1 for the final discharge capacity was attained, which translates to a capacity retention of 68.68%. Calculations using density functional theory (DFT) show that adding nanoscale ZrO 2 speeds up Li-ion diffusion and increases conductivity by lowering the barrier energy for the migration of Li ions. The structural layout of Li-rich manganese-based cathodic materials may therefore be clarified by the proposed modification technique for nano ZrO 2 .