This research focuses on the addition of low-cost rare earth metals (REMs) to improve the comprehensive properties of hyper duplex stainless steels (DSSs). The effects of REM on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and pitting corrosion of hyper DSSs were analyzed by optical/scanning electron microscope metallographic examination, X-ray diffraction analysis, tensile test, impact test, and potentiodynamic polarization test. With the addition of REM, micro/nanoscale REM inclusions were formed, and the microstructure of the alloy was refined. With the increasing content of REM, the average diameter and area of inclusions in the alloy decreased at first and then increased. While the mechanical properties showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. An appropriate amount of stable REM inclusions could reduce the susceptibility of pitting corrosion and improve the pitting corrosion resistance of the alloy. The hyper DSSs with REM content in the range of 0.018–0.031 wt% have excellent mechanical properties and pitting resistance.

Large scale Atomic/Molecular dynamic Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) molecular dynamics simulation software was used to simulate the copper and aluminum atom diffusion and changes of interface during heating and cooling process of copper and aluminum composite panels. The structures of the interface were characterized through scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscope (TEM), and the mechanical properties were also tested. The simulation results show that the diffusion rate of copper atom is higher than that of aluminum atom, and that the CuAl₂ radial distribution function of the interface at 300 K is consistent with that of pure CuAl₂ at room temperature. At 930 K, t = 50 ps Cu atoms spread at a distance of approximately four Al lattice constants around the Al layer, and Al atoms spread to about half a lattice constant distance to the Cu layer. The experimental results show that the thickness of the interface in copper–aluminum composite plate is about 1 μm, and only one kind of CuAl₂ with tetragonal phase structure is generated in the interface, which corresponds with the result of molecular dynamics simulation.

The copper/aluminum (Cu/Al) clad sheets were produced on a horizontal twin-roll caster and then were multi-pass rolled and annealed. The thickness of the as-cast clad sheet was 8 mm. Rolling was performed with total reductions of 12.5%, 25%, 37.5%, 50%, and 62.5%, separately. The effects of the rolling and annealing processes on the interface and peel strength of the Cu/Al clad sheets were investigated. The evolution of the interface and crack propagation were studied. The interface thickness of the as-cast clad sheet reached 9 μm to 10 μm. The average peel strength (APS) was only 9 N/mm. After multi-pass rolling, the peel strength first slightly increased and then gradually decreased with the increase of the rolling pass number. After annealing, the peel strength remarkably improved. The APS reached 25 N/mm when the rolled thickness was 7 mm. The improvement in the peel strength was due to the following three factors: (1) mechanical locking formed in the Cu/Al direct contact region after rolling, (2) the region of the Al matrix fracture, and (3) mechanical biting from the Cu/Al direct contact region.

In this paper, molybdenum (Mo) thin films are deposited on soda-lime glass (SLG) substrates by direct current magnetron sputtering and heated in three different modes at different temperatures, including substrate heating, annealing treatment, and both substrate heating and annealing treatment. The effects of heating temperature and heating mode on the structures, morphology, optical and electrical properties of Mo thin films were systematically investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and UV-visible spectrophotometer (UV-vis spectra). It is shown that as the substrate and annealing temperature increase, the crystallinity of Mo thin films is improved, and the grain sizes become bigger. Especially in the mode of both substrate heating and annealing treatment at higher temperature, the obtained Mo thin films show higher crystallinity and conductivity. Moreover, with the increase of substrate and annealing temperature in different heating modes, both the surface compactness of Mo films and the optical reflectance increase correspondingly. Furthermore, the Mo film, prepared at the substrate heating temperature of 400 °C and annealed at 400 °C, showed excellent comprehensive performance, and the resistivity is as low as 1.36 × 10⁻⁵ Ω·cm. Using this optimized Mo thin film as an electrode, copper indium gallium selenium (CIGS) solar cells have a maximum photo-conversion efficiency of 12.8%.

The micromechanical behavior of an Al/Al ₂ Cu/Cu multilayer with characteristic crystal orientation during uniaxial tensile deformation was investigated by molecular dynamics. The simulation results showed that under tensile loading, the dislocation nucleates at the Cu/Al ₂ Cu heterogeneous interface and moves toward the Cu layer along the {111} crystal plane. The deformation mechanism is intralayer confinement slip. As the dislocations proliferated, interactions between them occurred; resulting in the formation of insertion stacking faults and deformation twins in the Cu and Al layers. However, no dislocation lines were generated in the Al ₂ Cu layer during tensile deformation. As the load increased, the stress concentration at the Al ₂ Cu/Al interface led to the fracture of the complex. In addition, the microplastic deformation mechanism and mechanical properties of Al/Al ₂ Cu/Cu composites at different temperatures and strain rates were significantly different. These results revealed the microdeformation mechanism of laminated composites containing brittle phases.