Due to its excellent glass-forming ability (GFA), the Zr₄₈Cu₃₆Al₈Ag₈ bulk metallic glass (BMG) is of great importance in glass transition investigations and new materials development. However, due to the lack of detailed structural information, the local structure and atomic packing of this alloy is still unknown. In this work, synchrotron measurement and reverse Monte Carlo simulation are performed on the atomic configuration of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass. The local structure is characterized in terms of bond pairs and Voronoi tessellation. It is found that there are mainly two types of bond pairs in the configuration, as the body-centered cubic (bcc)-type and icosahedral (ico)-type bond pairs. On the other hand, the main polyhedra in the configuration are icosahedra and the bcc structure. That is, the bcc-type bond pairs, together with the ico-type bond pairs, form the bcc polyhedra, introducing the distortion in bcc clusters in short range. However, in the medium range, the atoms formed linear or planar structures, other than the tridimensional clusters. That is, the medium-range order in glass is of 1D or 2D structure, suggesting the imperfect ordered packing feature.

The 8Nb isopleth section of a Ti-Al-Nb system is experimentally determined based on thermal analysis and thermodynamic calculation methods to obtain the phase transformation and equilibrium relations required for material design and fabrication. The phase transus and relations for the 8Nb-TiAl system show some deviations from the calculated thermodynamic results. The ordered β_o phase transforms from the disordered β/α phases at 1200–1400 °C over a large Al concentration range, and this transformation is considered to be an intermediate type between the first- and second-order phase transitions. Moreover, the β_o phases are retained at the ambient temperature in the 8Nb-TiAl microstructures. The ω_o phase transforms from the highly ordered β_o phase, rather than from α₂ or β_o with a low degree of atom ordering B2 (LOB2) structure, with Al concentration of 32–43 at% at approximately 850 °C. From the experimental detection, the transition of the ω_o phase from the β_o phase is considered to be a further ordering process.

Silicon plays an important role in the development of high-energy Lithium-ion batteries. However, the high volume expansion rate (>300%) makes it a commercially unfeasible independent Lithium-ion battery anode material. In this work, we adopt P and Sr complex modification and increase the cooling rate to refine the microstructure of Casting Al-20Si alloy, then acid etching Al-20Si alloy ingot to prepare porous silicon. The as-prepared silicon has a three-dimensional dendritic porous structure based on the SEM morphology characterization. The porous silicon electrode was prepared with Si powder: acetylene black: binder in a ratio of 2:1:1. The electrolyte solution was 1 M LiPF6/EC:EMC: DMC = 1:1:1 (V/V) with or without 5% FEC. In the electrolyte solution without 5% FEC, the first charge and discharge capacities of the porous silicon electrode are 2924.8 mAh/g and 1910.1 mAh/g, and the coulombic efficiency is about 65.31%. In the electrolyte solution with additive 5% FEC, the first charge and discharge capacities are 3444.6 mAh/g and 2469.5 mAh/g, respectively. Its first cycle coulombic efficiency is 72.19%. After adding 5% FEC into the electrolyte, the main component of SEI film is the decomposition product of FEC, which can effectively inhibit the decomposition of electrolyte solvent at a low potential and improve the specific capacity of the battery.

The present work aims to report and discuss the development of a novel grain refiner (Al–Y–B master alloys) focusing on the characterization of the phenomena that exist during their production....