GH4169 is comparatively a new superalloy mainly used as turbine components because of its outstanding combination properties such as high-temperature strength, thermal stability and wear resistance. But these also make it hard to cut, and its machined surface quality and integrity are particularly sensitive to the manufacturing process employed. The existing researches on machining-induced surface integrity and machinability of hard-to-cut materials are briefly reviewed; the effects of processing parameters on surface integrity for GH4169 components are studied in detail via orthogonal-designed external grinding experiment. The single-factorial plain grinding experiment was designed to further investigate the influence of depth of cut on the surface integrity characteristics. The surface roughness, residual stress distribution, microhardness profile and microstructural alteration within the subsurface were obtained and analyzed. It was shown that the surface integrity is susceptible to the magnitude of depth of cut, and the components ground with low depth of cut are of more acceptable surface quality with less variation in residual stress and microhardness within the machining-affected layer than those obtained with high depth of cut. No severe microstructural alteration or adverse surface cracking was discerned when the depth of cut is reasonably set.

As one of the most versatile elements, carbon materials occupy the most plentiful allotropies composed of pure or mixed hybridization orbitals of sp¹/sp²/sp³. The design and synthesis of new carbon materials may be stimulated based on a deeper understanding of underlying structures and related properties. In this review, the initial early discoveries of carbon materials are examined based on their hybridization of orbitals. According to the type of hybridization, the discovered carbon materials are firstly classified and introduced in detail based on their crystal structures. Secondly, its physical and chemical properties, mainly including mechanical properties, optical properties and electronic properties, are reviewed. Thirdly, the existing methods of predicting carbon structure and synthesizing carbon materials are classified and summarized, and some typical carbon materials predicted or prepared are discussed respectively. Then, the main applications of newly synthesized carbon materials in the last two decades are classified and summarized, and the microstructure is linked with the macro properties and specific applications. Finally, the future research opportunities for carbon materials and their potential applications are prospected from the aspects of the gap between theoretical prediction and preparation, the current research hotspot of carbon materials and the incomplete application of carbon materials. It is the authors' intention for this review paper to serve not only as a valuable reference for research into carbon materials and related composites, but also as a guidance for novel materials design at the atomic level.

Superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted extensive attention over the last few decades. It is mainly due to their capabilities of providing several interesting functions, such as self-cleaning, corrosion resistance, anti-icing and drag reduction. Nanosecond pulsed laser ablation is considered as a promising technique to fabricate superhydrophobic structures. Many pieces of research have proved that machined surface morphology has a significant effect on the hydrophobicity of a specimen. However, few quantitative investigations were conducted to identify effective process parameters and surface characterization parameters for laser-ablated microstructures which are sensitive to the hydrophobicity of the microstructured surface. This paper proposed and reveals for the first time, the concepts of process and product fingerprints for laser ablated superhydrophobic surface through experimental investigation and statistical analysis. The results of correlation analysis showed that a newly proposed dimensionless functional parameter in this paper, R_hy, i.e., the average ratio of Rz to Rsm is the most sensitive surface characterization parameter to the water contact angle of the specimen, which can be regarded as the product fingerprint. It also proposes another new process parameter, average laser pulse energy per unit area of the specimen (I_s), as the best process fingerprint which can be used to control the product fingerprint R_hy. The threshold value of R_hy and I_s are 0.41 and 536 J/mm² respectively, which help to ensure the superhydrophobicity (contact angle larger than 150°) of the specimen in the laser ablation process. Therefore, the process and product fingerprints overcome the research challenge of the so-called inverse problem in manufacturing as they can be used to determine the required process parameters and surface topography according to the specification of superhydrophobicity.