Elastic metamaterials have promising applications in wave control and vibration isolation, due to their extraordinary characteristics, e.g., negative Poisson ratio, band gaps, effective negative mass density and effective negative modulus. How to develop new functional metamaterials using a special structure has always been a hot topic in this field. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) star structure is designed to construct metamaterials with both negative static and dynamic properties. The results show that the 3D star structure formed a wide band gap at lower frequency and had a negative Poisson’s ratio. Different from conventional acoustic metamaterials, the main physical mechanism behind the low-frequency band gap of the 3D star structure is the resonance mode formed by the bending deformation of each rib plate, which made it easier to achieve effective isolation of low-frequency elastic waves with a low mass density. In addition, many structural parameters of the 3D star structure can be modulated to effectively adjust the band gap frequency by changing the angle between the concave nodes and aspect ratio. This study provides a new way to design the 3D acoustic metamaterials and develop the lightweight vibration isolation devices.

Elastomer compositions containing various particulate fillers can be formulated according to the specific functions required of them. Stress softening—which is also known as the Mullins effect—occurs during high loading and unloading paths in certain supramolecular elastomer materials. Previous experiments have revealed that the load–displacement response differs according to the filler used, demonstrating an unusual model of correspondence between the constitutive materials. Using a spherical indentation method and numerical simulation, we investigated the Mullins effect on polyurethane (PU) compositions subjected to cyclic uniaxial compressive load. The PU compositions comprised rigid particulate fillers (i.e., nano-silica and carbon black). The neo-Hooke model and the Ogden–Roxburgh Mullins model were used to describe the nonlinear deformation behavior of the soft materials. Based on finite element methods and parameter optimization, the load–displacement curves of various filled PUs were analyzed and fitted, enabling constitutive parameter prediction and inverse modeling. Hence, correspondence relationships between material components and constitutive parameters were established. Such relationships are instructive for the preparation of materials with specific properties. The method described herein is a more quantitative approach to the formulation of elastomer compositions comprising particulate fillers.

We theoretically construct a rectangular phononic crystal (PC) structure surrounded by water with C _2v symmetry, and then place a steel rectangular scatterer at each quarter position inside each cell. The final complex crystal has two forms: the vertical type, in which the distance s between the center of the scatterer and its right-angle point is greater than 0.5a, and the transverse type, in which s is smaller than 0.5a (where a is the crystal constant in the x direction). Each rectangular scatterer has three variables: length L, width D, and rotation angle θ around its centroid. We find that, when L and D change and θ is kept at zero, there is always a linear quadruply degenerate state at the corner of the irreducible Brillouin zone. Then, we vary θ and find that the quadruply degenerate point splits into two doubly-degenerate states with odd and even parities. At the same time, the band structure reverses and undergoes a phase change from topologically non-trivial to topologically trivial. Then we construct an acoustic system consisting of a trivial and a non-trivial PC with equal numbers of layers, and calculate the projected band structure. A helical one-way transmission edge state is found in the frequency range of the body band gap. Then, we use the finite-element software Comsol to simulate the unidirectional transmission of this edge state and the backscattering suppression of right-angle, disorder, and cavity defects. This acoustic wave system with rectangular phononic crystal form broadens the scope of acoustic wave topology and provides a platform for easy acoustic operation.

The organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites such as CH₃NH₃PbI₃ have been considered as one of the most promising candidates for the next-generation photovoltaic materials due to its high absorption coefficient, low exciton binding energy, and long diffusion length. Herein, we have chosen NiOx as the hole transport material because metal oxides exhibit robust properties in air. We synthesized the NiOx film by a common sol-gel method. It is found that high-temperature annealing (500°C) is required to ensure the perovskite solar cell (PSC) with an efficiency over 15%. Low-temperature annealing (100°C) cannot convert the precursor materials to fully covered NiOx film, while the PSC based on mediate-temperature annealing (300°C) NiOx has larger resistance and thus lower efficiency. Fortunately, we have found that UV-ozone treatment on the NiOx film can reduce the resistance of the device based on 300°C annealed NiOx. The champion device can reach 16% efficiency with UV-ozone-treated 300°C annealed NiOx. This work has made it possible to reduce the annealing temperature of the sol-gel NiOx for high-efficiency PSCs, and it is believed that this simple surface treatment can be further employed in other metal oxide-based optoelectronic devices.

We construct new fractal acoustic metamaterials by coiling up space, which can allow subwavelength‐scale and broadband sound insulation to be achieved. Using the finite element method and the S‐parameter retrieval method, the band structures, the effective parameters, and the transmission losses of these acoustic metamaterials with different fractal orders are researched individually. The results illustrate that it is easy to form low‐frequency bandgaps using these materials and thus achieve subwavelength‐scale sound control. As the number of fractal orders increase, more bandgaps appear. In particular, in the ΓX direction of the acoustic metamaterial lattice, more of these wide bandgaps appear in different frequency ranges, thus providing broadband sound insulation and showing promise for use in engineering applications.

Marine noise pollution generated by propellers is of wide concern. Traditional propeller materials (nickel–aluminum bronze (NAB) alloys) can no longer meet the requirements for reducing shaft vibration. However, the Mn–Cu alloy developed to solve the problem of propeller vibration is affected by seawater corrosion, which greatly limits the application of the alloy in the field of marine materials. In this study, the M2052–NAB gradient alloy was developed for the first time using LENS technology to improve the corrosion resistance while retaining the damping properties of the M2052 alloy. We hope this alloy can provide a material research basis for the development of low-noise propellers. This study shows that, after solution-aging of M2052 alloy as the matrix, the martensitic transformation temperature increased to approach the antiferromagnetic transformation temperature, which promoted twinning and martensitic transformation. The aging process also eliminated dendrite segregation, promoted the equiaxed γ-MnCu phase, and increased the crystal size to reduce the number of dislocations, resulting in obvious modulus softening of the alloy. NAB after deposition had higher hardness and good corrosion resistance than the as-cast alloy, which offers good corrosion protection for the M2052 alloy. This research provides new material options for the field of shipbuilding.