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SrTiO3 and Bi/SrTiO3 were synthesized, and their activities for photocatalytic NO removal with the help of visible light were investigated. The Bi/SrTiO3 shows much higher removal efficiency than that of SrTiO3. For the purpose of manifesting the mechanism of photocatalysis of Bi/SrTiO3, the phase, microstructure, optical, photophysical and photochemical properties of SrTiO3 and Bi/SrTiO3 were investigated. The XRD, TEM and EDS results show that Bi semimetal was deposited on SrTiO3 surface and the deposited Bi nanoparticles have no influence on the phase and microstructure. The DRS and emission show that the deposited Bi nanoparticles lead to the harvest of visible light and remarkable reduction of electron-hole pairs’ recombination. The higher photocurrent density of Bi/SrTiO3 suggests that the formation of Bi/SrTiO3 hetero-interface can efficiently enhance the separation rate of electron-hole pairs. These characteristics lead to the higher photocatalytic activity of Bi/SrTiO3. In the photocatalytic removal of NO, • OH and • O 2 − active species oxidize NO to nitrate ions through different ways.

We synthesized BaAl12O19:Eu2+ phosphors by the molten salt flux method at the relatively low temperature. The phase and luminescent properties of the synthesized phosphors were investigated. To investigate the influence of synthesis temperature on the phase formation of phosphors, different synthesis temperatures were carried out in the work. With the increasing synthesis temperature, the phase of product transfers from BaAl2O4 to BaAl12O19. And the emission band shifts to shorter wavelength due to the phase transition with the increasing synthesis temperature. The reason of blue shift is revealed by the analysis of crystal field splitting. The synthesized BaAl12O19:Eu2+ phosphors also show high color purity and excellently thermal stability.

A comprehensive study of Fe alloying influence on as-cast titanium alloys, including microstructure, mechanical properties, bio-corrosion behavior and in-vitro cell response have been carried out to evaluate the biological application potential of Ti-Fe binary alloys. The results indicate that grain sizes of as-cast Ti-Fe alloys are remarkably refined with Fe addition and the mechanical strength is increased tremendously. For instance, Ti-2Fe alloy presents excellent mechanical properties by elevating the tensile strength to 566 MPa, or 1.5 times over pure Ti, while maintaining a relative high plasticity. All Ti-Fe alloys carried in this study show a higher corrosion resistance in Hank's solution than pure Ti due to the grain refine enhancement and higher oxide film growth kinetics. Ti-2Fe alloy presents the best corrosion resistance among them and higher Fe content could bring more Fe2O3 to the oxidation films that decrease the corrosion resistance accordingly. All Ti-Fe alloys are holding a similar osteoblast cell viability and response to pure Ti which ensure their biocompatibility. The combination of mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and in-vitro response of Ti-2Fe promised its application as dental implants in a near future.

Diffusion behavior in the HCP Mg–Al–Sn ternary alloys was experimentally investigated at 673 K and 723 K by analyzing solid-state diffusion couples. From the composition profiles analytically represented by error function expansion, the inter- and impurity diffusion coefficients were extracted by the Whittle-Green and generalized Hall methods respectively, which enable to establish the diffusion properties of the HCP Mg–Al–Sn alloys. The present results, together with the binary diffusion data of Mg–Al and Mg–Sn binaries, reveal that the average value of the main interdiffusion coefficient ~DMgSnSn over the investigated compositions is 1.39 times larger than ~DMgAlAl at 673 K and 1.36 times at 723 K, respectively, implying Sn diffuses comparably faster than Al in the HCP Mg–Al–Sn alloys. The main interdiffusion coefficients ~DMgAlAl and ​~DMgSnSn and the impurity diffusion coefficient D*Sn(Mg-Al) increases with increasing the content of diffusing element, either Al or Sn, however, D*Al(Mg-Sn) increases first and then decreases as the Sn composition increases. The cross interdiffusion coefficients are scattering, their composition dependences are not very conclusive, however, a trend that ~DMgAlSn and ~DMgSnA become negligibly small or even negative was evidenced as the content of Al or Sn approaches 0., The authors would like to acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51571113), Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Inorganic Function Composites, and Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institution (PAPD).

First principle study with density functional theory was carried out to investigate the adsorption behavior of nitrogen oxide (NO and NO2) on pristine and B atom embedded γ-graphyne including the adsorption energy, electron transfer, adsorption distance, magnetic moment, band structure, density of states and optical properties. The results indicate that C atom of sp2 hybridization (compared to sp hybridization) is easier to be substituted by B atom with endothermic process. B atom embedded γ-graphyne have notably stronger chemical interactions with NO and NO2 compared to pristine γ-graphyne with larger adsorption energy and greater changes of molecule orbitals. The calculations of optical properties reveal that B atom embedded γ-graphyne has more obvious changes of dielectric function after adsorbed NO or NO2 near 1.5 eV compared to pristine γ-graphyne illustrating that B-graphyne has the prospect to detect nitrogen oxide using not only electrochemical method but also optical method.

We performed the adsorption of NO2 on transition metal (TM) doped InN monolayer by using density functional theory (DFT). Firstly, adsorption of four kinds of TM atom (Pd, Pt, Ag, Au) on pristine InN monolayer was explored including four different adsorption sites (TIn, TN, BIn-N and H). Then, for NO2 adsorption, by calculating adsorption energy, adsorption distance, charge transfer, magnetic moment and density of states, the chemical interactions between NO2 and TM doped InN monolayer (TM-InN) were discussed. We have gotten the following results: (1) Pd, Pt, Ag, Au atoms are all likely to be adsorbed on TN site with exothermal process; (2) Pt and Au gain electrons while Pd and Ag lost electrons and Ag and Au can introduce magnetic moment to InN monolayer; (3) NO2 can be chemi-adsorbed on TM atom modified InN monolayer due to the considerable adsorption energy and charge transfer; (4) NO2 molecule orbitals experience significant changes after adsorption. This study can provide prospects and possible application value for TM-InN to be a potential material to adsorb and detect NO2.

Titanium alloys have been widely used for AM (additive manufacturing) to manufacture complex parts duo to its excellent comprehensive properties. As one of the most important additive manufacturing methods, laser melting deposition (LMD) have been extensively used during the last few years. However, coarse columnar grains (CG) cannot be ignored generated in the LMD which will reduce the end-use performance of the alloy. In order to refine the microstructure, a well-designed THP is adopted. The powders with six kinds hydrogen content are used in a single-track experiment, and the optimum process parameters are obtained through deposit height, width, penetration depth as well as defects. Multi-layer deposition is used to analyze the evolution of the microstructure after forming. The results manifest that there is a number of acicular α′/α after solid solution treatment. With the increase of hydrogen concentration, the size of coarse CG gets smaller and finally turns to equiaxed grains at the bottom and middle area when hydrogen content is 1.0 wt%. Besides, the phase transformation point of deposition sample declines with the increase of hydrogen content and tends to be stable 900 °C when hydrogen content beyond 0.65 wt%.

The stability and mechanical properties of β-Ti0.5X0.5 alloys have been systematically investigated by means of first-principles calculations based on density functional theory. The present work has demonstrated that the considered Ti0.5X0.5 alloys are stabilized as β phase and that the formation energy decreases with respect to the introduced transition metal elements X. The results show that the mechanical parameters, including the Young's modulus E, shear modulus G and bulk modulus B, increase with the increase of valence electron concentration of X in the same period. The Poisson's ratio ν and B/G ratio indicate that β-Ti0.5X0.5 alloys are essentially ductile materials. According to the stretching model, the tensile strength of the Ti0.5X0.5 alloys significantly increases simultaneously. An analysis of the charge density and electron localization function (ELF) shows that the observed enhancement in tensile strength is mainly derived from the improvement in bond strength between Ti and X induced by the different valence electron concentrations. The present research may provide beneficial guidance for improving the strength-toughness compatibility of Ti-based alloys.

Titanium alloys manufactured via additive manufacturing are suffering from coarse columnar grains due to the insufficient spontaneous nucleation rate during solidification. In this study, a newly designed Ti–2Fe-0.1B alloy with higher nucleating agent were introduced and manufactured by laser melting deposition method. The manufactured part is presenting a fully equiaxed grain morphology with 779 MPa on ultimate tensile strength. In order to reveal the mechanism of equiaxed grain formation and its influence on mechanical properties, a comprehensive study of microstructure evolution was carried out on Ti–2Fe-0.1B alloy manufactured via casting, forging and laser melting deposition. The results indicate that cooling speed are playing an important role on TiB morphology and Ti–2Fe-0.1B grain size simultaneously. The TiB formed from fast cooling speed are presenting a 3D quasi-network structure and improves the ultimate tensile strength of laser melting deposited part by 1.7 and 1.5 times when compared with casting and forging parts correspondingly. The study reveals that B addition is a sufficient method to control equiaxed grain formation in additive manufacturing of Ti–Fe alloy and promotes B addition as grain morphology controlling method in other additive manufactured titanium alloys in future.

The molar enthalpies of mixing were measured for binary systems of choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (glycerol, ethylene glycol and malonic acid) with water at 298.15 K and 308.15 K, an ...

Herein, enhanced exfoliation and large-scale delamination of two-dimensional (2D) Ti3C2Tx MXene using etchant of HCl + LiF, instead of HF, in which both etching and intercalation were achieved in exfoliation process, were thoroughly investigated with the focus on the effects of two critical factors, reaction temperature and washing solution. Increasing etching temperature promotes the exfoliation process, i.e., the transformation from Ti3AlC2 to multilayer Ti3C2Tx MXene, whereas simultaneously results in an aggravated surface oxidation of MXene layers formed after the extraction of Al. As a result, delamination ratio increases firstly and then decreases, and the samples etched at 35 °C show the highest delamination ratio. Compared with the distilled water, washing the exfoliation products using ethanol significantly improves the delamination ratio of Ti3C2Tx MXene by co-intercalation of larger alcohol molecule and more impurity ions and a large scale delamination of Ti3C2Tx MXene with a delamination ratio as high as 29.2% was obtained by simple sonication for 1 h, without additional intercalation step required, after washing using ethanol. The possible exfoliation reactions by HCl + LiF solution were proposed. Using the as-fabricated stable suspensions of delaminated Ti3C2Tx flakes, flexible, free-standing Ti3C2Tx papers with tailored thickness, hydrophilic surface and excellent conductivity, typically 2 × 105 S/m at 5 μm in thickness, were prepared. As anode for lithium ion batteries, the delaminated Ti3C2Tx MXene obtained reversible capacities of 226.3 mAh g−1, 137.9 mAh g−1,102.0 mAh g−1 and 47.9 mAh g−1 respectively at the current density of 100, 300, 1000 and 3000 mA g−1, which are superior to those of the Ti3C2 MXene prepared by conventional HF process.

Proline synthesis plays an important role in the metabolic reprogramming that contributes to tumor progression. However, the mechanisms regulating expression of proline synthetic genes in neuroblastoma (NB) remain elusive. Herein, through integrative screening of a public dataset and amino acid profiling analysis, myeloid zinc finger 1 (MZF1) and MZF1 antisense RNA 1 (MZF1‐AS1) are identified as transcriptional regulators of proline synthesis and NB progression. Mechanistically, transcription factor MZF1 promotes the expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase 18 family member A1 and pyrroline‐5‐carboxylate reductase 1, while proline facilitates the aggressiveness of NB cells. In addition, MZF1‐AS1 binds poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) to facilitate its interaction with E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1), resulting in transactivation of E2F1 and upregulation of MZF1 and other oncogenic genes associated with tumor progression. Administration of a small peptide blocking MZF1‐AS1‐PARP1 interaction or lentivirus‐mediated short hairpin RNA targeting MZF1‐AS1 suppresses the proline synthesis, tumorigenesis, and aggressiveness of NB cells. In clinical NB cases, high expression of MZF1‐AS1, PARP1, E2F1, or MZF1 is associated with poor survival of patients. These results indicate that therapeutic targeting of MZF1‐AS1/PARP1/E2F1 axis inhibits proline synthesis and NB progression.

Aiming at the slow convergence of the activation function of Sigmoid, Tanh, ReLu and Softplus as the model and the non-convergence caused by gradient dispersion, this paper proposes an algorithm to improve the activation function of convolutional neural network. Using R-SReLU as the activation function of the neural network, the convergence speed of various excitation functions to the network and the accuracy of image recognition are analyzed. The experimental data shows that the improved activation function R-SReLU not only has a fast convergence speed, but also has a small error rate, and can improve the accuracy of classification more effectively. The maximum recognition accuracy reaches 88.03%.

In order to discern the effect of rare earth element Er addition on grain refinement of the most widely used titanium alloy Ti6Al4V, new erbium modified Ti6Al4V alloys with compositions of Ti6Al4V-xEr (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 wt %) were developed and investigated for their microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties in comparison with their unmodified baseline alloy. Microstructural examinations revealed that, by adding Er, (1) the microstructure primarily retained a two-phase structure consisting of &alpha, and &beta, (2) remarkable grain refining occurred, and (3) some Er2O3 and Al2Er disperses were formed largely around the &beta, phase and near the grain boundaries. Mechanical property measurements evidenced an overall enhancement under tension and hardness tests. An increase in both strength and plasticity with increasing Er content was obtained but followed by a drop, while a gradual monotonous improvement in hardness was achieved. The Ti6Al4V-0.2Er alloy exhibits optimal mechanical properties.

The isothermal hot compression behavior of new Ti&ndash, Fe&ndash, B (named as TF400) alloy was investigated in the temperature range of 750&ndash, 950 &deg, C and strain rate range from 0.01 to 10 s&minus, 1 with the maximum height reduction of 60% by using a Gleeble 3800 thermal simulator. By considering the effect of strain via variable material parameters, a modified constitutive model was proposed to accurately predict the flow stress. The predicted results demonstrate that the flow stress decreases with the increase of temperature while it increases as the strain rate increases, in good agreement with the present experimental results. A mechanistic understanding of plastic deformation behavior in the TF400 alloys was developed by inspecting the microstructural characteristics prior to and after deformations. Dynamic recrystallization and dynamic transformation were found to be the dominant restoration mechanism during the hot deformation process.

Winning the battle against pollution and strengthening ecological protection in all respects are vital for promoting green development and building a moderately prosperous ecological civilization in China. Using the entropy weight method, this paper establishes and evaluates a comprehensive industrial pollution index that contains and synthesizes six major industrial pollutants (wastewater, COD, waste gas, SO2, NOx, and solid waste) in the 2006–2015 period. Subsequently, this paper studies the spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of industrial pollution via the Moran index and spatial econometric analysis. The empirical results indicate that (1) the temporal evolution of the industrial pollution index is characterized by an overall trend of first decreasing and then increasing. (2) The industrial pollution index of each county has certain geographical disparities and significant spatially polarized characteristics in 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015. (3) The Moran test shows that there is a relatively significant spatial autocorrelation of the industrial pollution index among counties and that the geographical distribution of the industrial pollution index tends to show clustering. (4) Spatial regression models that incorporate spatial factors better explain the influencing factors of industrial pollution. The economic development level, technological progress, and industrialization are negatively correlated with industrial pollution, while population density and industrial production capacity are positively correlated. (5) Consequently, as relevant policy recommendations, this paper proposes that environmental cooperation linkage mechanisms, environmental protection credit systems, and green technology innovation systems should be established in different geographical locations to achieve the goals of green county construction and sustainable development.

Ti and Ti alloys are used in several areas thanks to their good mechanical properties, however, the large affinity of hydrogen during industrial application would limit their service life. This study serves as a comprehensive investigation of the embrittlement effects induced by additional hydrogen in detail by means of first-principles calculations with the Pseudopotential Plane-wave method within the framework of the Rice-Wang thermodynamic model. The existence of the twin boundary markedly influences segregation energy, the activation barriers for diffusion between sites, and intergranular embrittlement. We demonstrate that segregation energy and the barriers in the region near the boundary are consistently lower than in bulk, indicating that the sites located at the boundary are more attractive to hydrogen than bulk. Further, the intergranular strength of a Ti grain boundary is reduced with hydrogen segregation. An analysis in terms of the relaxed atomic and electronic structures and bonding characters shows that the weakening effect of hydrogen is due to the breaking of the interfacial Ti-Ti bonds, which significantly decrease twin boundary adhesion and its resistance to cracking.

The molar enthalpies of mixing for binary systems of choline chloride (chcl)/urea deep eutectic solvents (mole ratios of 1:1.5, 1:2, and 1:2.5) with water were measured at 308.15 and 318.15 K under atmospheric pressure with an isothermal calorimeter. The binary mixture of (chcl/urea (1:2.5) + water) showed endothermic behavior over the entire range of compositions, while the binary mixtures of (chcl/urea (1:1.5) + water) and (chcl/urea (1:2) + water) showed endothermic behavior first and then was changed to be exothermic with increasing content of deep eutectic solvents. The Redlich–Kister (RK) equation and the nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL) model were used to fit experimental molar enthalpies of mixing. The NRTL model with the fitted parameters was further used to predict the vapor pressure for the three systems and was compared with the experimental data from literature. For the binary mixtures of (chcl/urea (1:2) + water), the predicted vapor pressure agreed well with the experimental data only when the t...

We have performed a systematic density functional study of surface energy of MoS2 films as a function of thickness from one to twelve layers with the consideration of van der Waals (vdW) interactions using the vdW-DF and DFT-D2 methods. Both vdW schemes show that the surface energy will increase with the increase of the number of atomic layers and converge to a constant value at about six layers. Based on the calculated surface energies, we further analyze the surface contact angle of water droplets on the MoS2 film surface using Young's equation as a function of thickness in comparison with experiments, from which the water-MoS2 interfacial energy is derived to be independent of MoS2 thickness. Our calculations indicate that the vdW interactions between the MoS2 layers play an important role in determining surface energy, and results in the thickness dependence of the contact angle of water droplets on the MoS2 film surface. Our results explain well the recent wetting experiment [Nano Lett., 2014, 14(8), 4314], and will be useful for future studies of physical and chemical properties of ultrathin MoS2 films.

Using panel data from 2003 to 2016, this paper estimates the green development efficiency of 34 cities in Northeast China based on the SBM-DEA model and determines whether industrial agglomeration promotes or impedes green development efficiency. The results show the following: (1) The average green development efficiency of Northeast China exhibits a fluctuant upward trend in 2003–2016, and there are significant spatial differences. (2) During the revitalization period, industrial agglomeration hinders green development efficiency. A U-shaped relationship exists between industrial agglomeration and green development. (3) Economic development level and foreign direct investment are positively related to green development efficiency, while industrial structure, energy consumption structure and environmental regulation are negatively related. Economic development level has the greatest positive influence and environmental regulation the strongest negative influence on green development. Several corresponding policy implications are proposed for promoting green development and revitalization.

Sm3+, Tb3+ and Sm3+/Tb3+ doped Ba3MgSi2O8 phosphors were prepared by molten salts synthesis technique using NaCl/KCl mixture as the flux. The phase and optical characteristics of the prepared phosphors were researched. The XRD results revealed that the prepared phosphors have the pure Ba3MgSi2O8 phase. For Sm3+ or Tb3+ singly doped Ba3MgSi2O8 phosphors, they show characteristic emission bands of Sm3+ (exciting at 405 nm) or Tb3+ (exciting at 233 nm) ions. Exciting at 233 nm, Sm3+/Tb3+ codoped Ba3MgSi2O8 phosphors show emission band corresponding to Sm3+ and Tb3+ ions. Tb3+ → Sm3+ energy transfers occur in Sm3+/Tb3+ codoped Ba3MgSi2O8 phosphors, which leads to the tunable luminescence of them. The CIE coordinates change from (0.431, 0.515) for Ba3MgSi2O8:0.12 Tb3+/0.01Sm3+ to (0.555, 0.425) for Ba3MgSi2O8:0.12 Tb3+/0.05Sm3+. The color of light changes from green-yellow for Ba3MgSi2O8:0.12 Tb3+/0.01Sm3+ to red-yellow for Ba3MgSi2O8:0.12 Tb3+/0.05Sm3+.

This work presents a comprehensive study on the microstructure evolution and mechanical property under different heat treatment procedures of a new near β type titanium Ti-5321(Ti-5Al-3Mo-3V-2Cr-2Zr-1Nb-1Fe). Two solution temperatures(830°C and 900°C) and a group of aging temperatures(300-650°C) were carried out to investigate the influence of heat treatment on this new alloy. The strengthening mechanism of Ti-5321 after solution and aging treatment was discussed by analyzing the microstructure and its mechanical properties. The best ultimate tensile strength can be achieved to 1564 MPa with 5% on elongation when solution treated at 830°C and aging at 450°C for this new alloy. The lamellar and globular α grains can be found in all 830°C solution treated specimens which contribute to a better ductility. Ultra-fine α phase can be found in all low aging temperature treated specimens but will coarsen significantly when raising the aging temperature and thus increase the tensile strength and lower the ductility. All these results can provide a comprehensive guidance on heat treatment for this new near β type titanium in the future.

Microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of low cost Ti-2Fe-0.1B alloy under different heat treatment were studied. Results indicated that two kinds of equiaxed microstructures with different characteristics were obtained in conventional and double annealing, and typical lamellar microstructure was obtained in β annealing. Tensile test results shown that as-received rolled alloy possess highest strength and plasticity simultaneously due to fine and entangled microstructure. Uniform equiaxed dimples were observed in microstructure, which revealed ductile fracture morphology. Key words: titanium alloy; microstructure; heat treatment; mechanical properties

Greenhouse effect has become one of the most rigorous topics of environmental protection. The emission of one of the most typical greenhouse gas SF6 should be controlled and the waste gas treatment of SF6 has become a major topic to reduce the greenhouse effect. Two-dimensional porous materials have been widely used in gas adsorption and separation which may be useful for adsorbing waste SF6 gas. In this study, we report a promising adsorbent, transition metal dimer decorated C2N monolayer, for SF6 treatment by theoretical evaluation. The adsorption of SF6 molecule over the C2N surface are explored including the adsorption energy, electron transfer, magnetic moment and the electronic properties. Also, the decomposition process of SF6 molecule over the TM2-C2N monolayer is also considered. The results show that the SF6 can only be physical adsorption over the pristine C2N monolayer and experiences obvious decomposition over the Co2–C2N and Ni2–C2N monolayer. The adsorption with molecule decomposition can also significantly change the electronic properties of TM2-C2N. The low energy barrier of decomposition process over the TM2-C2N ensures good performance of adsorbent for SF6 in practical applications. This study provides theoretical foundation for TM2 dimer C2N monolayer as a promising adsorbent, scavenger and even catalytic material for degradation of greenhouse gas SF6 and waste gas treatment.

The interdiffusion behavior of BCC alloys of Ti-Sn binary and Ti-Al-Sn ternary was investigated at 1473 K (1200 °C) by the diffusion-couple technique. The extracted interdiffusion coefficients of Ti-Sn binary was found to gradually increase with increasing the Sn content, whereas those of Ti-Al-Sn ternary, either main or cross, greatly enhance as the content of diffusing species increases. By a way of comparison, Sn diffusion in Ti-Al-Sn ternary was discerned to occur by the vacancy mechanism., This work was supported by the Natural Science Funds of China [Grant No. 51571113], International S&T Cooperation Program of China (2015DFA51430) and the Joint Project of Industry-University-Research of Jiangsu Province [Grant No: BY2016005]. QW would like to acknowledge the support by the International S&T Cooperation Program of China (2015DFA51430) and the SICAM Scholarship by Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials.

Diffusion behavior in BCC Ti-Al-Nb ternary alloys was investigated at 1473 K by the experimental solid-state diffusion couple technique. The extraction of inter- and impurity diffusion coefficients, by the Whittle-Green and generalized Hall methods respectively, enables the diffusion properties of BCC Ti-Al-Nb alloys to be constructed at the Ti-rich corner. The determined diffusion data, together with those from the literature, have been thoroughly evaluated and then assessed to develop the atomic mobility for the BCC Ti-Al-Nb ternary alloys. The validated mobility parameters have been applied to predict a full diffusion picture of the Ti-Al-Nb BCC alloys and interesting interdiffusion behavior of the diffusion experiments., This work was supported by the Natural Science Funds of China [Grant No. 51571113], and the Joint Project of Industry-University-Research of Jiangsu Province [Grant No: BY2016005]. Yuanyu Gu would like to thank the support from the Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Inorganic Function Composites, Nanjing Tech University.

Interdiffusion in the BCC phase of the Ti-Mn binary and Ti-Al-Mn ternary systems was investigated between 1273 and 1473 K by applying the diffusion-couple technique. The local chemical compositions within the interdiffusion zone of the diffusion couples were acquired by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). The raw composition profiles were then analytically represented by the error function expansion, which allow the ternary inter- and impurity diffusivities to be appropriately extracted by the Whittle–Green and generalized Hall methods, respectively. It was demonstrated that, all four diffusion coefficients D~kij (i, j = Al, Mn), both main and cross ones, increase with increasing the composition of diffusing specie at 1473 K, whereas at 1273 K D~TiMnMn and D~TiMnAl are enhanced by the addition of diffusing specie Mn but D~TiAlAl and D~TiAlMn are in weak dependence with the Al content. A complete comparison among seven Ti-Al-X (Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Cr, V and Mo) ternary systems reveals that the order of the average main interdiffusion coefficients D~TiXX¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ (X = Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, Cr, V and Mo) exhibits DNi > DCo > DFe > DMn > DCr > DV > DMo., This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51571113) and Joint Project of Industry-University-Research of Jiangsu Province (Grant No: BY2016005-02). YG would like to thank the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11647162) and Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institution (PAPD). GX wishes to gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51701094) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20171014).

We introduced a strategic "Kinetic Diffusion Multiple" (KDM) that undergoes interdiffusion annealing followed by realistic thermal treatment. The blended spectra of phases and microstructures subjected to treatment in deeply grooved composition gradients enables the microstructure and micromechanical properties of structural materials to be surveyed by high-spatially resolved micro-analysis along the composition arrays. The KDM was demonstrated as a robust high-throughput methodology that enables rapid screening of the composition-microstructure-micromechanical/properties relationships for different metallic materials. It has also proven great success at elucidating the lasting effects of alloying elements and diffusion flux on microstructure, micromechanical properties, phase transformation, and their interrelationships as a whole., This work was supported by the Natural Science Funds of China [Grant No. 51571113], International S&T cooperation Program of China (2015DFA51430) and the Joint Project of Industry-University-Research of Jiangsu Province [Grant No: BY2016005]. CW, NL and JW are grateful to the China Scholarship Council (grant number: 201406290011; 201506020081; 201506890002) for financial support. Yi Chen would like to thank the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20160291) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51601077) for the financial support. The

Short fibers have been widely used to prepare the fiber reinforced asphalt concrete (FRAC). However, internal interactions between fiber and other phases of asphalt concrete are unclear although experimental methods have been used to design the FRAC successfully. In this paper, numerical method was used to investigate the reinforced mechanism of FRAC from microperspective. 2D micromechanical model of FRAC was established based on Monte Carlo theory. Effects of fiber length and content on stress state of asphalt mortar, effective modulus, and viscoelastic deformation of asphalt concrete were investigated. Indirect tensile stiffness modulus (ITSM) test and uniaxial creep test were carried out to verify the numerical results. Results show that maximum stress of asphalt mortar is lower compared to the control concrete when the fiber length is longer than 12 mm. Fiber reduces the stress level of asphalt mortar significantly. Fiber length has no significant influence on the effective modulus of asphalt concrete. Fiber length and content both have notable impacts on the viscoelastic performance of FRAC. Fiber length should be given more attention in the future design of FRAC except the content.

Understanding the mechanism of protein adsorption and designing materials with high sensitivity, high specificity and fast response are critical to develop the next-generation biosensing and diagnostic platforms. Mesoporous materials with high surface area, tunable pores, and good thermal/hydrostatic stabilities are promising candidates in this field. Because of the excellent biocompatibility, titanium dioxide has received an increasing interest in the past decade for biomedical applications. In this work, we synthesized mesoporous titanium dioxide with controlled pore sizes (7.2-28.0 nm) and explored their application for bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and nitrogen adsorption/desorption experiments were performed to characterize the mesoporous TiO2 samples before and after BSA adsorption. Isothermal microcalorimetry was applied to measure both the adsorption heat and conformation rearrangement heat of BSA in those mesopores. We also carried out thermogravimetry measurements to qualitatively estimate the concentration of hydroxyl groups, which plays an important role in stabilizing BSA in-pore adsorption. The adsorption stability was also examined by leaching experiments. The results showed that TiO2 mesopores can host BSA adsorption when their diameters are larger than the hydrodynamic size of BSA (∼9.5 nm). In larger mesopores studied, two BSA molecules were adsorbed in the same pores. In contrast to the general understanding that large mesopores demonstrate poor stabilities for protein adsorptions, the synthesized mesoporous TiO2 samples demonstrated good leaching stabilities for BSA adsorption. This is probably due to the combination of the mesoporous confinement and the in-pore hydroxyl groups.

Using first-principles density functional theory (DFT) hybrid functional calculations, we demonstrate the formation of a quantum spin Hall (QSH) state on a Ge(111) surface. We show that a 1/3 monolayer (ML) Cl-covered Ge(111) surface offers an ideal template for metal, such as Bi, deposition into a stable hexagonal overlayer 2D lattice, which we refer to as Bi@Cl-Ge(111). The band structure and band topology of Bi@Cl-Ge(111) are analyzed with respect to the effect of spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The Bi@Cl-Ge(111) exhibits a QSH state with a band gap of 0.54 eV. In contrast, the Au@Cl-Ge(111) is found to be a trivial semiconducting surface. The Ge(111) substrate acts as an orbital filter to critically select the orbital composition around the Fermi level. Our findings offer another possible system for experimental exploration of the growth of 2D topological materials on conventional semiconductor substrates, where the 2D overlayer is atomically bonded to, but electronically decoupled from, the underlying substrate, exhibiting an isolated topological quantum state inside the substrate band gap.