Search

Insertion or deletion polymorphism (InDel) is one of the main genetic variations in plant genomes. However, there are few studies on InDels across the whole genome in Populus. In this study, we investigated genome-wide InDels in Populus deltoides and Populus simonii and InDel segregation in their F1 hybrid population with restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) data. A total of 119,066 InDels were identified in P. deltoides and P. simonii according to the reference genome of Populus trichocarpa, including 58,532 unique InDels in P. deltoides, 54,469 unique InDels in P. simonii, and 6,065 common InDels in both. Meanwhile, the distribution of these InDels was analyzed along chromosomes, indicating that the distribution patterns for both species were largely similar, but the average InDel density was slightly higher in P. deltoides than in P. simonii. GO annotation and enrichment analysis of those genes harboring InDels showed the same patterns between the two poplar species. It is interesting to find that the ratio (~ 46%) of the common InDels within genes to all common InDels was higher than that of the InDels within genes to all InDels in P. deltoides (~ 35%) or in P. simonii (~ 34%), possibly indicating that those InDels are more conservative between poplar species. Moreover, investigation of the InDel segregation patterns demonstrated that a large number of Mendelian InDels could be selected for genetic mapping in the F1 hybrid population. RAD-seq provides genome-wide insights into the InDel distributions in P. deltoides and P. simonii and the segregation patterns in their progeny, providing valuable genomic variation information for genetic and evolutionary studies in Populus.

Enhancing electron correlation in a weakly interacting topological system has great potential to promote correlated topological states of matter with extraordinary quantum properties. Here, the enhancement of electron correlation in a prototypical topological metal, namely iridium dioxide (IrO

The genetic linkage maps of the traditional F2 population in inbred lines were estimated from the frequency of recombination events in both parents, providing full genetic information for genetic and genomic studies. However, in outbred forest trees, it is almost impossible to generate the F2 population because of their high heterozygosity and long generation times. We proposed a novel strategy to construct an integrated genetic linkage map that contained both parental recombination information, with restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (RADSeq) data in an F1 hybrid population of Populus deltoides and Populus simonii. We selected a large number of specific RAD tags to construct the linkage map, each of which contained two SNPs, one heterozygous only in the female parent and the other heterozygous only in the male. Consequently, the integrated map contained a total of 1154 RAD tags and 19 linkage groups, with a total length of 5255.49 cM and an average genetic distance of 4.63 cM. Meanwhile, the two parent-specific linkage maps were also constructed with SNPs that were heterozygous in one parent and homozygous in the other. We found that the integrated linkage map was more consensus with the genomic sequences of P. simonii and P. deltoides. Additionally, the likelihood of the marker order in each linkage group of the integrated map was greater than that in both parental maps. The integrated linkage map was more accurate than the parent-specific linkage maps constructed in the same F1 hybrid population, providing a powerful genetic resource for identifying the quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with dominant effects, assembling genomic sequences, and performing comparative genomics in related Populus species. More importantly, this novel strategy can be used in other outbred species to build an integrated linkage map.

Fascinating phenomena can occur as charge and/or energy carriers are confined in one dimension1–4. One such example is the divergent thermal conductivity (κ) of one-dimensional lattices, even in the presence of anharmonic interatomic interactions—a direct consequence of the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam–Tsingou paradox proposed in 19555. This length dependence of κ, also known as superdiffusive phonon transport, presents a classical anomaly of continued interest6–9. So far the concept has remained purely theoretical, because isolated single atomic chains of sufficient length have been experimentally unattainable. Here we report on the observation of a length-dependent κ extending over 42.5 µm at room temperature for ultrathin van der Waals crystal NbSe3 nanowires. We found that κ follows a 1/3 power law with wire length, which provides experimental evidence pointing towards superdiffusive phonon transport. Contrary to the classical size effect due to phonon-boundary scattering, the observed κ shows a 25-fold enhancement as the characteristic size of the nanowires decreases from 26 to 6.8 nm while displaying a normal–superdiffusive transition. Our analysis indicates that these intriguing observations stem from the transport of one-dimensional phonons excited as a result of elastic stiffening with a fivefold enhancement of Young’s modulus. The persistent divergent trend of the observed thermal conductivity with sample length reveals a real possibility of creating novel van der Waals crystal-based thermal superconductors with κ values higher than those of any known materials. A 1/3 power law between thermal conductivity and length of a NbSe3 nanowire is observed, pointing towards a superdiffusive heat transport regime.

Populus deltoides has important ecological and economic values, widely used in poplar breeding programs due to its superior characteristics such as rapid growth and resistance to disease. Although the genome sequence of P. deltoides WV94 is available, the assembly is fragmented. Here, we reported an improved chromosome-level assembly of the P. deltoides cultivar I-69 by combining Nanopore sequencing and chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) technologies. The assembly was 429.3 Mb in size and contained 657 contigs with a contig N50 length of 2.62 Mb. Hi-C scaffolding of the contigs generated 19 chromosome-level sequences, which covered 97.4% (418 Mb) of the total assembly size. Moreover, repetitive sequences annotation showed that 39.28% of the P. deltoides genome was composed of interspersed elements, including retroelements (23.66%), DNA transposons (6.83%), and unclassified elements (8.79%). We also identified a total of 44 362 protein-coding genes in the current P. deltoides assembly. Compared with the previous genome assembly of P. deltoides WV94, the current assembly had some significantly improved qualities: the contig N50 increased 3.5-fold and the proportion of gaps decreased from 3.2% to 0.08%. This high-quality, well-annotated genome assembly provides a reliable genomic resource for identifying genome variants among individuals, mining candidate genes that control growth and wood quality traits, and facilitating further application of genomics-assisted breeding in populations related to P. deltoides.

Dynamic observation of cell and tissue responses to elevated pressure could help our understanding of important physiological and pathological processes related to pressure-induced injury. Here, we report on a microfluidic platform capable of maintaining a wide range of stable operating pressures (30 to 200 mmHg) while using a low flowrate (2-14 μL/h) to limit shear stress. This is achieved by forcing flow through a porous resistance matrix composed of agarose gel downstream of a microfluidic chamber. The flow characteristics were investigated and the permeabilities of the agarose with four different concentrations were extracted, agreeing well with results found in the literature. To demonstrate the capability of the device, we measured the change in intracellular Ca

Solute segregation to individual grain boundaries is used by design to produce strong and stable nanocrystalline metallic alloys. Grain-boundary segregation, however, is known to cause adverse embrittlement effects from a strain-localization failure mechanism that imposes significant material limitations for structural applications. Here, using atomistic simulations, it is discovered that heterogeneous Ni segregation in nanocrystalline Ni-mixed Ag alloys dramatically shuts down localized shear bands during plastic deformation, while simultaneously increasing the tensile strength. Nanocrystalline Cu-mixed Ag metals are predicted to exhibit standard homogeneous Cu segregation and a tensile strength that saturates above a solute concentration of 8 at.% due to glass-like shear localization induced by grain boundaries. By contrast, it is found that heterogeneous Ni segregation in nanocrystalline Ag-Ni alloys forms solute-rich clusters along interfaces leading to strain delocalization at high strain and continuous strengthening at high solute concentrations up to 15 at.%. This study reveals the importance of heterogeneous versus homogeneous segregation behaviors on strain localization and points to a fundamentally new strategy to design failure-resistant nanostructured materials through grain boundary segregation engineering.

Ti-23Nb-0.7Ta-2Zr-O gum metal (GM) is an attractive candidate material for applications that require superior mechanical properties. In our earlier investigation of the GM [ 1 ], geometrical softening and the generation of adiabatic shear bands (ASBs) were proposed as primary reasons for the documented anisotropic impact response. In the present study, electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis reveals two different deformed microstructures, i.e., deformed ultrafine grains (UFGs) and dynamically recrystallized UFGs, formed in the ASBs of GM samples processed by extrusion equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), respectively. Additional calculation of temperature rise during dynamic compression suggests that the above microstructure differences in the ASBs was originated from their different maximum ASB temperatures (608 K for extruded GM and 1159 K for ECAP-processed GM). Moreover, our calculation on the temperature at the onset of ASBs indicates that microstructural softening is the primary cause for the development of ASBs in both extruded GM (321 K) and ECAP-processed GM (331 K).

Based on molecular dynamics (MD), in this study, a model was established to simulate the initial coating morphology of silver paste by using a random algorithm, and the effects of different sizes of particles on sintering porosity were also analyzed. The MD result reveals that compared with the sintering process using large-scale silver particles, the sintering process using multi-scale silver particles would enhance the densification under the same sintering conditions, which authenticates the feasibility of adding small silver particles to large-scale silver particles in theory. In addition, to further verify the feasibility of the multi-scale sintering, a semi in-situ observation was prepared for a sintering experiment using micro-nano multi-scale silver paste. The feasibility of multi-scale silver sintering is proved by theoretical and experimental means, which can provide a meaningful reference for optimizing the sintering process and the preparation of silver paste for die-attach in powering electronics industry. In addition, it is hoped that better progress can be made on this basis in the future.

Starch/water soluble yellow mustard mucilage nanocapsules loaded with thymol and carvacrol (TC) were developed using electrospray atomization. Emulsions were electrosprayed, aiming to generate nanocapsules with a controlled release behavior of TC for antimicrobial packaging applications. To understand the effect of water soluble yellow mustard mucilage (WSM) on the nanocapsules, the emulsion viscosity, morphology, encapsulation efficiency, molecular interactions, and release kinetics were evaluated. Surface and internal morphological analysis revealed that nanocapsules were non-porous with minimal surface shrinkages and had inner multicore spheres within a solid wall layer. Encapsulation efficiency ranged from 61.17 to 84.10 %, increasing at higher TC contents. Fourier transform spectroscopy confirmed the molecular interaction between wall materials. The release kinetics of encapsulated TC (30 % w/w) followed a Fickian diffusion mechanism and a controlled release pattern up to 120 h. Results indicated that the addition of WSM can modulate the release kinetics of bioactives and achieve a controlled release pattern.

Understanding transport mechanisms of electrons and phonons, two major energy carriers in solids, are crucial for various engineering applications. It is widely believed that more free electrons in a material should correspond to a higher thermal conductivity; however, free electrons also scatter phonons to lower the lattice thermal conductivity. The net contribution of free electrons has been rarely studied because the effects of electron-phonon (e-ph) interactions on lattice thermal conductivity have not been well investigated. Here an experimental study of e-ph scattering in quasi-one-dimensional NbSe3 nanowires is reported, taking advantage of the spontaneous free carrier concentration change during charge density wave (CDW) phase transition. Contrary to the common wisdom that more free electrons would lead to a higher thermal conductivity, results show that during the depinning process of the condensed electrons, while the released electrons enhance the electronic thermal conductivity, the overall thermal conductivity decreases due to the escalated e-ph scattering. This study discloses how competing effects of free electrons result in unexpected trends and provides solid experimental data to dissect the contribution of e-ph scattering on lattice thermal conductivity. Lastly, an active thermal switch design is demonstrated based on tuning electron concentration through electric field.

Enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymer composites could improve their performance in applications requiring fast heat dissipation. While significant progress has been made, a long-standing issue is the contact thermal resistance between the nanofillers, which could play a critical role in the composite thermal properties. Through systematic studies of contact thermal resistance between individual boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) of different diameters, with and without a poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) interlayer, we show that the contact thermal resistance between bare BNNTs is largely determined by reflection of ballistic phonons. Interestingly, it is found that a PVP interlayer can either enhance or reduce the contact thermal resistance, as a result of converting the ballistic phonon dominated transport into diffusion through the PVP layer. These results disclose a previously unrecognized physical picture of thermal transport at the contact between BNNTs, which provides insights into the design of high thermal conductivity BNNT-polymer composites.

Silicon (Si) is a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries but has long been suffering from low conductivity, drastic volume change, poor cycling performance, etc. Adding SiO, Al, etc. to form Si-based binary composite films can improve some properties but have to give up others. Here, we prepared a ternary Si-SiO-Al composite film anode by adding SiO and Al together into Si using magnetron sputtering. This film has an extraordinary combination of conductivity, specific capacity, cycling stability, rate performance, etc., when compared with its binary and unary counterparts. While both SiO and Al can separately mitigate anode cracking resulting from the huge volume expansion during the lithiation/delithiation cycling process, the synergetic effect of adding SiO and Al together to form a ternary composite film can produce much better results. This film maintains an island structure that can efficiently buffer the volume expansion during the cycling process, giving rise to superior cycling performance and excellent rate performance. In addition, the cosputtered Al improves the electrical conductivity of the anode at the same time. This unique combination of anode properties, together with the low cost, suggests that the Si-SiO-Al composite film has the potential to be commercialized as a binder-free anode for lithium-ion batteries. This work also provides an efficient means to modulate the anode properties with more degrees of freedom.

Various nanofillers have been adopted to enhance the thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposites. While it is widely believed that the contact thermal resistance between adjacent nanofillers can play an important role in limiting thermal conductivity enhancement of composite materials, lack of direct experimental data poses a significant challenge to perceiving the effects of these contacts. This study reports on direct measurements of thermal transport through contacts between silver nanowires (AgNWs) with a poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) interlayer. The results indicate that a PVP layer as thin as 4 nm can increase the total thermal resistance of the contact by up to an order of magnitude, when compared to bare AgNWs, even with a larger contact area. On the other hand, the thermal boundary resistance for PVP/silver interfaces could be significantly lower than that between polymer-carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Analyses based on these understandings further show why AgNWs could be more effective nanofillers than CNTs.

Understanding transport mechanisms of electrons and phonons, two major energy carriers in solids, are crucial for various engineering applications. It is widely believed that more free electrons in a material should correspond to a higher thermal conductivity; however, free electrons also scatter phonons to lower the lattice thermal conductivity. The net contribution of free electrons has been rarely studied because the effects of electron-phonon (e-ph) interactions on lattice thermal conductivity have not been well investigated. Here an experimental study of e-ph scattering in quasi-one-dimensional NbSe3 nanowires is reported, taking advantage of the spontaneous free carrier concentration change during charge density wave (CDW) phase transition. Contrary to the common wisdom that more free electrons would lead to a higher thermal conductivity, results show that during the depinning process of the condensed electrons, while the released electrons enhance the electronic thermal conductivity, the overall thermal conductivity decreases due to the escalated e-ph scattering. This study discloses how competing effects of free electrons result in unexpected trends and provides solid experimental data to dissect the contribution of e-ph scattering on lattice thermal conductivity. Lastly, an active thermal switch design is demonstrated based on tuning electron concentration through electric field.

Silver nanowires have been widely adopted as nanofillers in composite materials used for various applications. Electrical and thermal properties of these composites are critical for proper device operation, and highly depend on transport through the nanowires and their contacts, yet studies on silver nanowires have been limited to one or two samples and no solid data have been reported for individual contacts. Through systematic measurements of silver nanowires of different sizes, we show that the Lorenz number increases with decreasing wire diameter and has a higher value at wire contacts. Examination of the corresponding electrical and thermal conductivities indicates that these changes are due to contributions of phonons that become more important as a result of elastic stiffening. The derived contact thermal conductance per unit area between silver nanowires is ∼10 times that between carbon nanotubes. This helps to explain the more significant thermal conductivity enhancement of silver nanowires-based composites.

Fascinating phenomena can occur as charge and/or energy carriers are confined in one dimension

Nanoscale materials modified by crystal defects exhibit significantly different behaviours upon chemical reactions such as oxidation, catalysis, lithiation and epitaxial growth. However, unveiling the exact defect-controlled reaction dynamics (e.g. oxidation) at atomic scale remains a challenge for applications. Here, using in situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and first-principles calculations, we reveal the dynamics of a general site-selective oxidation behaviour in nanotwinned Ag and Pd driven by isolated stacking-faults and twin-boundaries. The coherent planar defects crossing the surface exhibit the highest oxygen binding energies, leading to preferential nucleation of oxides at these intersections. Fast diffusion of oxygen atoms along the planar-fault highways is shown to catalyse subsequent layer-by-layer inward oxide growth via atomic steps migrating on the oxide-metal interface. These findings provide an atomistic visualization of the complex reaction dynamics controlled by coherent planar defects in metallic nanostructures, which could enable the modification of physiochemical performance of nanomaterials through defect engineering.

Interfacial segregation can stabilize grain structures and even lead to grain boundary complexion transitions. However, understanding of the complexity of such phenomena in polycrystalline materials is limited, as most studies focus on bicrystal geometries. In this work, we investigate interfacial segregation and subsequent complexion transitions in polycrystalline Cu-Zr alloys using hybrid Monte Carlo/molecular dynamics simulations. No significant change in the grain size or structure is observed upon Zr dopant addition to a pure Cu polycrystal at moderate temperature, where grain boundary segregation is the dominant behavior. Segregation within the boundary network is inhomogeneous, with some boundaries having local concentrations that are an order of magnitude larger than the global value and others having almost no segregation, and changes to physical parameters such as boundary free volume and energy are found to correlate with dopant concentration. Further, another alloy sample is investigated at a higher temperature to probe the occurrence of widespread transitions in interfacial structure, where a significant fraction of the originally ordered boundaries transition to amorphous complexions, demonstrating the coexistence of multiple complexion types, each with their own distribution of boundary chemical composition. Overall, this work highlights that interfacial segregation and complexion structure can be diverse in a polycrystalline network. The findings shown here complement existing computational and experimental studies of individual interfaces and help pave the way for unraveling the complexity of interfacial structure in realistic microstructures.

Energy and mass transfer process are involved in many industries, such as energy, transportation, aeronautics and astronautics, electronic, manufacturing, among which, the heat exchanger plays a very key role. With the development of science and technology and the increasing requirements for energy conservation and emission reduction, the efficiency of heat exchange system has to be promoted to meet the demand of higher heat intensity and thermal load. The high-efficient and energy-saving compact heat exchanger such as microchannel heat sink has gained more attractions in academic researches and engineering applications. Microchannel with pin-fin is widely used in engineering applications due to its high efficiency in heat and mass transfer, but the high temperature region formed in the rear of the cylinder and the non-uniformity temperature field increase the temperature gradient and generate extra thermal spreading resistance, which would, to a large extend, influence the regulation of the system and the economy and reliability of the equipments. Therefore, the endwall fillet structure is proposed in this work, based on researches about the performance of CDA (controlled diffusion airfoil) blade with fillet, to improve the temperature uniformity and heat transfer performance of microchannel with pin-fin. The periodical laminar flow and heat transfer performances are comparatively studied. The results show that the flow resistance coefficient f of the microchannel with filleted pin-fin does not increase significantly compared to traditional pin-fined microchannel, which means the introducing of the fillet will enhance the heat transfer while f of the microchannel is almost a constant. The maximum increase of f is only 2.03%. Moreover, two separate symmetrical secondary flows develop in microchannel with smooth cylinder, with one on the top of the other. After adding the proposed structures, at low Reynolds number, the lower span-wise secondary flow is enhanced as the radius increases and these two span-wise secondary flows gradually merge into one which develops along the normal direction. At high Reynolds number, the mainstream low-temperature core region is obvious asymmetry: it moves downwards gradually as Reynolds number increases. Besides, at low Reynolds number (0–120), the fillet improves the heat and mass transfer between the main stream core and areas near the wall, enhances the thermal uniformity of the pin-fin and heated walls, improves the heat transfer performance of the rear of the cylinder and eliminates the high temperature area in the pin-fin. And local high-temperature region on the top half of the microchannel decreases, which contributes to the extension of low-temperature region and the decrease of average temperature. As the radius of the fillet increases, the effects mentioned above are gradually enhanced. The heat transfer coefficient of the channel reaches a maximum augmentation of 16.93%, and the flow resistance coefficient of the microchannel with filleted pin-fin does not increase significantly. Comparing with the synthetical thermal performance coefficient of pin-fined microchannel heat sink, that of the proposed filleted pin-fin microchannel increases 16.22% at most. As the Reynolds number increases, the influence of the fillet structure decreases. The study motivation of combining separation flow researches of rotatory machines with heat transfer enhancement, as well as the resulting design are a beneficial attempt for scientific research and engineering application.

In this work, a bulk gum metal (GM) was fabricated via arc melting from high purity powders. The ingots were first extruded using a conventional route followed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The mechanical behavior of the extruded GM and ECAP-processed GM was studied under both quasi-static and high strain rate compression conditions to evaluate the influence of strain rate. In addition, the associated mechanical anisotropy, or the lack thereof, was investigated through loading in different orientations with respect to the extrusion or ECAP direction. Precipitous stress drops were observed under dynamic compression of both extruded and ECAP-processed GM specimens when loading perpendicular to the extrusion direction. Adiabatic shear banding (ASB) was found to be associated with the precipitous stress drops on the dynamic stress-strain curves. The details of the ASBs were characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy, with emphasis on electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). The mechanisms responsible for the formation of ASB were examined both from thermal softening and geometrical softening perspectives. Significant microstructure refinement within ASBs was established, and a possible grain refinement mechanism was proposed.

Atomistic simulations are used to study segregation-induced intergranular film formation in Cu-Zr and Cu-Nb alloys. While Cu-Zr forms structurally disordered or amorphous films, ordered films comprised of a second phase usually precipitate in Cu-Nb, with a critical nucleation size of ~1 nm below which the ordered phase cannot form. While the ordered film is retained at high temperature for a low energy {\Sigma}11 (113) boundary, a disordering transition is observed for a high energy {\Sigma}5 (310) boundary at low dopant concentrations. Finally, the effect of free surfaces on dopant segregation and intergranular film formation is investigated for both alloys., Comment: 4 Figures

The grain boundary-mediated mechanisms that control plastic deformation of nanocrystalline metals should cause evolution of the grain boundary network, since they directly alter misorientation relationships between crystals. Unfortunately, current experimental techniques are unable to track such evolution, due to limits on both spatial and temporal resolution. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations are used to study grain boundary restructuring in nanocrystalline Al during both monotonic tension and cyclic loading. This task is enabled by the creation of new analysis tools for atomistic datasets that allow for a complete characterization and tracking of microstructural descriptors of the grain boundary network. Quantitative measurements of grain boundary character distribution, triple junction type, grain boundary plane normal, and other interfacial network characteristics are extracted and analyzed. The results presented here show that nanocrystalline plasticity leads to an increase in special boundary fraction and disruption of two-dimensional boundary connectivity, with the most dramatic evolution occurring in the smallest grain sizes.

Strengthening of metals through nanoscale grain boundaries and coherent twin boundaries is manifested by a maximum strength—a phenomenon known as Hall–Petch breakdown. Different softening mechanisms are considered to occur for nanocrystalline and nanotwinned materials. Here, we report nanocrystalline-nanotwinned Ag materials that exhibit two strength transitions dissimilar from the above mechanisms. Atomistic simulations show three distinct strength regions as twin spacing decreases, delineated by positive Hall–Petch strengthening to grain-boundary-dictated (near-zero Hall–Petch slope) mechanisms and to softening (negative Hall–Petch slope) induced by twin-boundary defects. An ideal maximum strength is reached for a range of twin spacings below 7 nm. We synthesized nanocrystalline-nanotwinned Ag with hardness 3.05 GPa—42% higher than the current record, by segregating trace concentrations of Cu impurity (

The wear-driven structural evolution of nanocrystalline Cu was simulated with molecular dynamics under constant normal loads, followed by a quantitative analysis. While the microstructure far away from the sliding contact remains unchanged, grain growth accompanied by partial dislocations and twin formation was observed near the contact surface, with more rapid coarsening promoted by higher applied normal loads. The structural evolution continues with increasing number of sliding cycles and eventually saturates to a stable distinct layer of coarsened grains, separated from the finer matrix by a steep gradient in grain size. The coarsening process is balanced by the rate of material removal when the normal load is high enough. The observed structural evolution leads to an increase in hardness and decrease in friction coefficient, which also saturate after a number of sliding cycles. This work provides important mechanistic understanding of nanocrystalline wear, while also introducing a methodology for atomistic simulations of cyclic wear damage under constant applied normal loads., 16 figures

It is well known that the ductility of tungsten is very sensitive to impurities while the ductility of tantalum is tolerant to them. However, the fundamental reason behind this preferential effect still remains elusive. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we demonstrated that impurities in tungsten are more likely to segregate into the investigated grain boundary region and the vicinity of straight screw dislocation core than in tantalum, thus having more chances to decrease the ductility. In turn, the presence of impurities, if deemed undesirable, will cause a greater reduction in the grain boundary separation energy for tungsten. The analyses of the chemical and mechanical effects of impurities based on an elegant model suggest that, for the deleterious impurities that have similar binding behavior with tantalum and tungsten, if their effect is repulsive at all relevant site, tungsten is more sensitive to them due to its low lattice constant and high elastic modulus despite other possible causes.

The utility of silicon carbide (SiC) as an engineering material is often limited by its brittleness. This work attempts to better illuminate the key mechanisms associated with this property by studying crack tip behavior. A multipronged investigative approach is taken, utilizing direct molecular dynamics simulations with empirical potentials, analytic modeling and electronic structure calculations. This approach enables us (i) to make atomistic-based predictions of the key mechanisms that occur at a SiC crack tip across a wide range of temperatures and strain rates; and (ii) to better understand the strengths and deficiencies of these analysis tools for predicting fracture in covalently bonded materials.

The defense mechanism that nacre (mother-of-pearl) uses to protect its living organism against high-speed predatory attack can provide lessons for engineered armor design. However, the underlying physics responsible for nacre’s dynamic energy dissipation has hitherto remained a mystery to be uncovered. Here we demonstrate a new energy dissipation mechanism hidden in nacre and activated only upon dynamic loading, where the crack terminates its propagation along nacre’s biopolymer interlayers but straightly impinges the aragonite platelets (95 vol%) in a transgranular manner. This intergranular-transgranular transition promotes the fracture energy dissipation, far exceeding that of the currently-used engineered ceramics. The mechanistic origin accounting for the enhancement of fracture energy dissipation is attributed to the unique nanoparticle architectured aragonite platelets. The dynamic manifestation in nacre can inspire a new route to design stronger-and-tougher engineered ceramic armors.

Nanoindentation is a powerful tool for characterizing the mechanical properties of materials at small length scales. Since the loading rate can be accurately recorded and controlled during a nanoindentation test, the strain rate dependence of these properties can also be determined. However, there are still a few problems that need to be addressed when it is applied to some special materials. High pressure torsion (HPT) processed metals are examples of these materials with non-uniform microstructures and mechanical properties. In this work, commercially pure niobium disks with diameter of ~10.0 mm and thickness of ~1.0 mm were processed by HPT. Grain sizes from a few nanometers to a few micrometers were generated due to a strong radial strain gradient in the disk. Instrumented nanoindentation tests were conducted at different radial locations of the HPT niobium disk. During each test, the loading rate was controlled so that the indentation strain rate was kept constant. Some key issues associated with the nanoindentation experiment, such as contact stiffness, contact area and the effect of pile-up or sink-in were evaluated and discussed carefully. The work-based method was used in data processing and it was compared with other approaches. The effects of indentation location, i.e., grain size, as well as indentation strain rate were characterized.

In this work, we studied the mechanical behavior of commercial purity Ti powder consolidates with an engineered microstructure containing multiple-length-scale features, over a wide range of loading rates. The microstructural length scales were engineered by mixing powders of different sizes, followed by either hot quasi-isostatic forging (QIF) or spark plasma sintering (SPS). We used electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy to examine the microstructure of the Ti materials. A bimodal grain size distribution has been achieved for the majority of the QIFed samples, while those consolidated via SPS exhibit a near-equiaxed morphology. All samples synthesized with powders milled in liquid argon show considerable uniform plastic deformation under quasi-static compression, with no failure, and their strength values are considerably high when compared to those of commercial purity Ti. Moreover, the materials consolidated from milled powders exhibit adiabatic shear banding under high rate uniaxial compression via the Kolsky bar technique. Samples prepared from a preselected proportion of powders milled in liquid nitrogen showed quasi-static strength as high as 2000 MPa, and dynamic peak stress as high as 2700 MPa, comparable to the strength of high-strength steels. However, these super-strong Ti samples are brittle under both quasi-static and dynamic compression. The strengthening of these Ti materials with an engineered microstructure is primarily attributed to the presence of interstitials. Twins were observed in nanometer-sized grains in the strongest and brittle samples, along with evidence of the TiN phase, which was attributed to exposure to a high level of nitrogen introduced during milling in liquid nitrogen. The high rate behavior can be rationalized on the basis of an adiabatic shear band model that takes into account strain and strain rate hardening.

Amorphous materials lack long-range order but short-range order can still persist through the recurrence of similar local packing motifs. While the short-range order in bulk amorphous phases has been well studied and identified as an intrinsic factor determining the material properties, these features have not been studied in disordered intergranular complexions. In this work, the short-range order in two types of amorphous complexions is studied with a Voronoi tessellation method. Amorphous complexions can have three distinct regions: amorphous-crystalline interfaces, regions deep inside the films that have short-range order identical to a bulk amorphous phase, and transition regions that connect the first two regions. However, thin amorphous films contain only the amorphous-crystalline interface and the transition region, providing further evidence of the constraints imposed by the abutting crystals. The thickness of the transition region depends on film thickness at low temperatures but becomes thickness-independent at high temperatures. Similarly, the complexion short-range order is dependent on the interfacing crystal plane at low temperatures, but this effect is lost at high temperatures. Our findings show that amorphous complexions contain spatial gradients in short-range order, meaning they are both structurally and chemically different from bulk metallic glasses., 10 figures

Deformation twinning rarely occurs in mineral materials which typically show brittle fracture. Surprisingly, it has recently been observed in the biomineral aragonite phase in nacre under high rate impact loading. In this Letter, the twinning tendency and the competition between fracture and deformation twinning were revealed by first principles calculations. The ratio of the unstable stacking fault energy and the stacking fault energy in orthorhombic aragonite is hitherto the highest in a broad range of metallic and oxide materials. The underlining physics for this high ratio is the multineighbor shared ionic bonds and the unique relaxation process during sliding in the aragonite structure. Overall, the unique deformation twining along with other highly coordinated deformation mechanisms synergistically work in the hierarchical structure of nacre, leading to the remarkable strengthening and toughening of nacre upon dynamic loading, and thus protecting the mother-of-pearl from predatory attacks.