The paper presents an overview of current and prospective applications of Ni₃Al based intermetallic alloys—modern engineering materials with special properties that are potentially useful for both structural and functional purposes. The bulk components manufactured from these materials are intended mainly for forging dies, furnace assembly, turbocharger components, valves, and piston head of internal combustion engines. The Ni₃Al based alloys produced by a directional solidification are also considered as a material for the fabrication of jet engine turbine blades. Moreover, development of composite materials with Ni₃Al based alloys as a matrix hardened by, e.g., TiC, ZrO₂, WC, SiC and graphene, is also reported. Due to special physical and chemical properties; it is expected that these materials in the form of thin foils and strips should make a significant contribution to the production of high tech devices, e.g., Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) or Microtechnology-based Energy and Chemical Systems (MECS); as well as heat exchangers; microreactors; micro-actuators; components of combustion chambers and gasket of rocket and jet engines as well components of high specific strength systems. Additionally, their catalytic properties may find an application in catalytic converters, air purification systems from chemical and biological toxic agents or in a hydrogen “production” by a decomposition of hydrocarbons.

Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been used to investigate the atomic and electronic structure of gold deposited (between 0.8 and 1.0 monolayer) on the Pt(111) face in ultrahigh vacuum at room temperature. The analysis of LEED and STM measurements indicates two-dimensional growth of the first Au monolayer. Change of the measured surface lattice constant equal to 2.80 Å after Au adsorption was not observed. Based on DFT, the distance between the nearest atoms in the case of bare Pt(111) and Au/Pt(111) surface is equal to 2.83 Å, which gives 1% difference in comparison with STM values. The first and second interlayer spacing of the clean Pt(111) surface are expanded by +0.87% and contracted by −0.43%, respectively. The adsorption energy of the Au atom on the Pt(111) surface is dependent on the adsorption position, and there is a preference for a hollow fcc site. For the Au/Pt(111) surface, the top interlayer spacing is expanded by +2.16% with respect to the ideal bulk value. Changes in the electronic properties of the Au/Pt(111) system below the Fermi level connected to the interaction of Au atoms with Pt(111) surface are observed.

The decontamination of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) from structures, environmental media and even personnel has become an area of particular interest in recent years due to increased homeland security concerns. This article reviews applications of catalytic methods used for decontamination of CWAs. Most attention was given to the following methods: thermocatalysis, photocatalysis and enzyme catalysis among the many methods of catalytic CWA decomposition. Unfortunately, there are not enough data obtained with real CWAs due to the difficulty in handling, so we have described also data available for CWAs simulants. These methods can be useful for decontamination systems that can reduce the damage caused by possible terrorism.

Sonochemical production of tin(II) and tin(IV) sulfides is investigated. Different conditions of syntheses are examined: used solvent (ethanol or ethylenediamine), source of tin (SnCl2 or SnCl4), the molar ratio of thioacetamide to the tin source, and time of sonication. The obtained powders are characterized by the X-ray diffraction method (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and the Tauc method. Raman and FT-IR measurements were performed for the obtained samples, which additionally confirmed the crystallinity and phase composition of the samples. The influence of experimental conditions on composition (is it SnS or SnS2), morphology, and on the bandgap of obtained products is elucidated. It was found that longer sonication times favor more crystalline product. Each of bandgaps is direct and most of them show typical values - c.a. 1.3 eV for SnS and 2.4 eV for SnS2. However, there are some exceptions. Synthesized powders show a variety of forms such as needles, flower-like, rods, random agglomerates (SnS2) and balls (SnS). Using ethanol as a solvent led to powders of SnS2 independently of which tin chloride is used. Sonochemistry in ethylenediamine is more diverse: this solvent protects Sn2+ cations from oxidation so mostly SnS is obtained, while SnCl4 does not produce powder of SnS2 but Sn(SO4)2 instead or, at a higher ratio of thioacetamide to SnCl4, green clear mixture.