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Nickel ferrite owns a lot of advantages as electrode materials for supercapacitor, such as high energy density and excellent theoretical capacity. Whereas, the electrochemical performances of NiFe 2 O 4 in terms of rate performance and cycle stability are not satisfactory due to the low conductivity. While carbon fiber is a kind of material with high conductivity. Hence, NiFe 2 O 4 @ slit modified hollow carbon fiber is obtained through the coaxial electrospinning method. The slits on hollow carbon fibers are beneficial to the contact of inner NiFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles with electrolyte. Results of electrochemical tests show that at a current density of 1 A/g, the specific capacitance of NiFe 2 O 4 @ slit modified hollow carbon fiber is calculated to be 225.4 F/g, higher than that of NiFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles of 134.8 F/g. Moreover, a better cycle and rate performances (100 % vs 80 %; 71.9 % vs 47.5 %) are achieved. This work displays that slit modified hollow carbon fiber can improve the electrochemical performance of NiFe 2 O 4 efficiently. [Display omitted] • Carbon fibers are introduced to enhance the rate and cycle performances of NiFe 2 O 4. • Slits are obtained utilizing Al 2 O 3 sacrificial hard templates. • Slits are beneficial to the contact of NiFe 2 O 4 and electrolyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Graphene oxide (GO) is one of the most important ceramic-toughening candidates due to its outstanding physical and chemical properties. In this paper, nacre-like alumina ceramics reinforced with GO have been prepared by freeze casting followed by hot pressing. The experimental results showed that a laminated structure with homogeneous distribution of GO was obtained in the composites. Microstructural analysis, relative densities, flexural strength and fracture toughness of the samples were investigated to reveal the effect of GO. Higher flexural strength and fracture toughness (~380 MPa and ~7.5 MPa m1/2, respectively) were achieved and the multiple length-scale toughening mechanisms of composites contributed to the improved mechanical properties. The results show that it is a promising method to enhance the mechanical properties of nacre-like alumina by the addition of GO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BNNSs were prepared efficiently by magnesium borate nitridation. BNNSs/eutectic-composition Al 2 O 3 /YAG/YSZ ceramics were prepared by hot pressing sintering. The addition of BNNSs did not change the phase composition of BNNSs/eutectic-composition Al 2 O 3 /YAG/YSZ ceramics. The bending strength and fracture toughness of 1.5wt%BNNSs/ eutectic-composition Al 2 O 3 /YAG/YSZ ceramic were increased by 19.0% and 18.9% respectively. Doped BNNSs exist at the grain boundary between two or more different grains. The toughening mechanism of BNNSs contains mainly crack deflection, BNNSs pullout and BNNSs bridging. • BNNSs/eutectic-composition Al 2 O 3 /YAG/YSZ ceramics were originally prepared with excellent mechanical properties. • The toughening mechanism of BNNSs was discussed. • The effects of temperature and BNNSs doping amount on the mechanical properties of ceramics were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, BNNSs/Al 2 O 3 composite powder was prepared by in-situ reaction using borate nitridation method and BNNSs/Al 2 O 3 composite ceramics were prepared by hot-pressing sintering. This method achieves uniform mixing of BNNSs and Al 2 O 3 ceramic matrix and reduces the introduction of impurities in the processing process. The BNNSs/Al 2 O 3 composite ceramics have excellent bending strength (549.4 MPa), fracture toughness (5.18 MPa m1/2) and hardness (21.3 GPa). The high hardness of composite ceramics is attributed to high grain boundary strength and density. The reinforcing mechanisms of ceramics include BNNSs pull-out, BNNSs bridging, crack deflection as well as the transgranular fracture and intergranular fracture of Al 2 O 3 matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alumina is one of the most commonly used and researched structural ceramic because of its excellent properties. However, its intrinsic brittleness is the fatal drawback, which hinders it from wider applications. How to improve its fracture toughness as well as the bending strength is always challenging for material researchers. In this paper, alumina matrix composites were fabricated by hot-pressing, in which some additives, including zirconia, alumina platelets, and MXene, were incorporated. The influence of the introduced additives on their microstructure and mechanical properties was investigated. Compare with the monolithic alumina, both bending strength and fracture toughness of all samples were improved greatly. Incorporation of zirconia was beneficial to the mechanical properties due to the phase-transformation strengthening and toughening mechanism. While alumina platelets resulted in high fracture toughness because of the self-toughening of elongated grains. The synergistic effect of alumina platelets and MXene enormously improved the fracture toughness from 2.9 ± 0.3 MPa·m1/2 for monolithic alumina to 7.5 ± 0.4 MPa·m1/2 for the composite, which was increased by 159%. This work will provide useful references for the fabrication of high-strength and high-toughness alumina ceramics by introducing additives properly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synergic effect of graphene oxide (GO) and silicon nitride whisker (Si 3 N 4 w) on the mechanical properties of nacre-like alumina was investigated in this study. A comprehensive analysis on the composites, including microstructure, relative densities, flexural strength and fracture toughness, was carried out. The experimental results showed that, GO promoted the fracture toughness of the composites, but reduced the flexural strength slightly; while adding a certain amount of Si 3 N 4 w improved both flexural strength and fracture toughness. With the incorporation of GO and Si 3 N 4 w, the highest flexural strength reached 520 MPa and the fracture toughness reached 9.59 MPa m1/2. Microstructure observation revealed that the enhanced mechanical properties were ascribed to the synergistic toughening mechanisms induced by the nacre-like structure of alumina, GO pull-out, Si 3 N 4 w pinning and pull-out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) have attracted increasing attention in the field of two-dimensional materials. In the paper, the BNNSs/alumina composites were fabricated by a flocculation method and hot pressing. It is found that the BNNSs were dispersed uniformly in the alumina matrix by the flocculation technique via pH adjustment. The experimental results showed that with the increasing BNNSs content, the density of the composites decreased. Compared with the monolithic alumina, bending strength of the composite with 1.0 wt% BNNSs was increased by 58.6%; while the fracture toughness was increased slightly. The addition of BNNSs changed the fracture pattern, refined the grains of composites and inhibited abnormal grain growth, which contributed to the improvement of mechanical properties of the composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]