This study presents the corrosion behavior and surface properties of SS304 modified by electrodeposited nickel–cobalt (Ni–Co) alloy coating with cauliflower-shaped micro/nano structures (Ni–Co/SS304) in the simulated PEMFC cathodic environment. The hydrophobicity of the as-prepared Ni–Co alloy coating can be improved simply by low-temperature annealing. The morphology and composition of the Ni–Co/SS304 were analyzed and characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD, and XPS. The polarization, wettability, and ICR tests were respectively conducted to systemically evaluate the performance of Ni–Co/SS304 in the simulated PEMFC cathode environment. As revealed by the results, the Ni–Co/SS304 can maintain its hydrophobicity under hot-water droplets as high as 80 °C and demonstrates higher conductivity than the bare SS304 substrate before and after polarization (0.6 V vs. SCE, 5 h), which is of great significance to improve the surface hydrophobicity and conductivity of bipolar plates.

Ti/IrO₂-Ta₂O₅ electrodes are extensively utilized in the electrochemical industries such as copper foil production, cathodic protection, and wastewater treatment. However, their performance degrades rapidly under high current densities and severe oxygen evolution conditions. To address this issue, we have developed a composite anode of Ti/Ta-Ti/IrO₂-Ta₂O₅ with a Ta-Ti alloy interlayer deposited on a Ti substrate by double-glow plasma surface alloying, and the IrO₂-Ta₂O₅ surface coating prepared by the traditional thermal decomposition method. This investigation indicates that the electrode with Ta-Ti alloy interlayer reduces the agglomerates of precipitated IrO₂ nanoparticles and refines the grain size of IrO₂, thereby increasing the number of active sites and enhancing the electrocatalytic activity. Accelerated lifetime tests demonstrate that the Ti/Ta-Ti/IrO₂-Ta₂O₅ electrode exhibits a much higher stability than the Ti/IrO₂-Ta₂O₅ electrode. The significant improvement in electrochemical stability is attributed to the Ta-Ti interlayer, which offers high corrosion resistance and effective protection for the titanium substrate.

Natural gas is a resource-rich clean energy source, and natural gas hydration technology is a promising method for natural gas storage and transportation at present. To realize the rapid generation of hydrates with a high gas storage capacity, in this paper NiMnGa micro/nanoparticles (NMGs) with different mass fractions (0.1 wt%, 1 wt%, 2 wt%) were prepared with 0.05 wt% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 1 wt% L-tryptophan to form static suspension solutions of gellan gum, and the methane hydration separation kinetics experiments were carried out under the condition of 6.2 MPa for the SDS-NMG-SNG (SNG) and L-tryptophan-NMG-LNG (LNG) systems. The results showed that the induction time of the systems with NMG micro-/nanoparticles was shortened to different degrees and the gas consumption rate was increased. The best effect was achieved in the SNG system with 1 wt% NMG, and the induction time was shortened by 73.6% compared with the SDS-gellan system (SG). The gas consumption rate of the system with L-tryptophan was better than that of the system with SDS, and the best effect was achieved in the system with 2 wt% NMG. The system with 2 wt% NMG had the best effect, and the problem of foam decomposition did not occur. The analysis concluded that NMG has strong mass transfer and phase-change heat absorption properties, which can significantly improve the kinetics of the natural gas hydrate generation process; L-tryptophan can weaken the diffusion resistance of methane molecules in the suspended static solution, further enhancing the mass transfer of the hydrate generation process. These findings will provide new perspectives regarding the application of phase-change micro-/nanoparticles in methane hydrate generation under static conditions.

Ti_49.2Ni_50.8 shape memory alloy (SMA) was processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) for eight passes at 450 °C. The deformation homogeneity was analyzed on various planes across the thickness by Deform-3D software. Strain standard deviation (SSD) was used to quantify deformation homogeneity. The simulation result shows that the strain homogeneity is optimized by the third pass. Deformation homogeneity of ECAP was analyzed experimentally using microhardness measurements. Experimental results show that the gradual evolution of hardness with increasing numbers of passes existed and the optimum homogeneity was achieved after three passes. This is in good agreement with simulation results.