Certain amounts of precipitate in CoCrFeNiMox (simplified as Mox) is beneficial to the wear resistance; however, the optimal chemical content of Mo and the anti-wear mechanism behind it remains unclear. The Mox (x = 0, 0.3, 0.5, 1, 1.5 in molar ratio) high entropy alloys (HEAs) were manufactured, the evolution of their microstructure, mechanical, friction, and wear properties with Mo content was studied. The results displayed that the mechanical properties of the FCC solid solution were enhanced from Mo0 to Mo0.3, then kept unchanged till x = 1.5. The volume fraction of the precipitates increased with Mo content. The Mo1 presents the lower average friction coefficient and wear rate, attributed to the desired types, amount, size, distribution of the hard σ and μ phases in the ductile FCC solid solution. The detailed mechanism behind their tribological behaviors were discussed in the manuscript.

In the present research, high chromium cast irons (HCCIs) were prepared using the lost foam casting (LFC) process. To improve the wear resistance of the high chromium cast irons (HCCIs), mechanical vibration was employed during the solidification of the HCCIs. The effects of vibration frequency on the microstructure and performance of the HCCIs under as-cast, as-quenched and as-tempered conditions were investigated. The results indicated that the microstructures of the LFC-produced HCCIs were refined due to the introduction of mechanical vibration, and the hardness was improved compared to that of the alloy without vibration. However, only a slight improvement in hardness was found in spite of the increase of vibration frequency. In contrast, the impact toughness of the as-tempered HCCIs increased with an increase in the vibration frequency. In addition, the wear resistance of the HCCIs was improved as a result of the introduction of vibration and increased with an increase in the vibration frequency.

A near β titanium alloy, Ti5Al2Sn2Zr4Mo4Cr, was fabricated by directed energy deposition (DED) with different powder feed rates to investigate the formation of fully equiaxed β grains. A two-dimensional numerical model was developed to investigate the thermal conditions of the molten pool. Experimental results showed that the formation of an epitaxial cellular structure at the bottom of the molten pool is almost unavoidable. An increase in the powder feed rate produces a moderate thermal condition and promotes the formation of equiaxed grains in a single cladding layer. However, it could not guarantee the formation of a fully equiaxed microstructure in a block sample. From a low to high powder feed rate, fully columnar, mixed equiaxed–columnar, and fully equiaxed microstructures were obtained. Grain morphology was also affected by the remolten process. Increasing the powder feed rate reduced the remolten depth and broke the continuity of the epitaxial cellular structure, leading to different grain morphologies.

Due to green development in recent years, water-borne epoxy resins (WBE) have become increasingly popular since they generate the lowest level of volatile organic compounds (VOC) during curing. However, because of the large surface tension of water, it is easy to produce voids and cracks during the curing process of the coating. An electrochemical strategy was used in this study to assess the impact of different SiO₂ content on the corrosion performance of a WBE coating, in which micron spherical SiO₂ particles were synthesized in a liquid phase reduction. The results showed that the synthesized micron spherical SiO₂ particles were about 800 ± 50 nm in diameter and in an amorphous state. By hydrophilizing the surfaces of these SiO₂ particles, uniform dispersion in an aqueous solvent and a WBE can be achieved. It is important to note that adding a small or excessive amount of SiO₂ to a coating will not improve corrosion resistance and may even reduce corrosion resistance. With the appropriate modification of SiO₂, corrosion resistance of composite coatings is greatly enhanced, as is the adhesion between the coatings and the metallic substrates. Because the appropriately modified SiO₂ can effectively fill the pores that are formed during the curing process, a corrosive medium is less likely to react with the matrix when the medium comes into contact with the matrix. Based on their incorporation content of 3 wt.%, their corrosion resistance is the best after 16 cycles of AC-DC-AC accelerated corrosion tests.

Water treatment technology based on ultrafiltration (UF) faces the problem of severe membrane fouling due to its inherent hydrophobicity. The use of amphiphilic polymers that possess both hydrophobic and hydrophilic chain segments can be advantageous for the hydrophilic modification of UF membranes due to their excellent combination in the membrane matrix. In the present study, we examined a novel amphiphilic CA–g–AN material, constructed by grafting citric acid (CA) to aniline (AN), as a modified material to improve the hydrophilicity of a PES membrane. This material was more compatible with the polymer membrane matrix than a pure hydrophilic modified material. The polyethersulfone (PES) membranes modified by amphiphilic CA–g–AN demonstrated a higher water flux (290.13 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹), which was more than eight times higher than that of the pure PES membrane. Furthermore, the flux recovery ratio (FRR) of the modified membrane could reach 83.24% and the value of the water contact angle (WCA) was 76.43°, demonstrating the enhanced hydrophilicity and antifouling ability of the modified membranes. With this study, we aimed to develop a new amphiphilic polymer to improve the antifouling property and permeability of polymer-based UF membranes to remove organic pollutants from water.