Optimizing Silver Paste Conductivity with Controlled Convection for Nanowrinkle Growth.

Conductive silver paste plays a crucial role as an interconnecting material between electrodes and circuits in electronic circuits and solar cells. The quality of the silver paste is greatly influenced by the preparation of the conductive-phase silver powder and the sintering process. This study investigated the impact of fluid dynamics on the preparation of silver powder. Combined with X-ray diffractometer characterization and molecular dynamics simulation, the formation mechanism of wrinkled silver powder was explained. The wrinkled silver powder replaced the traditional smooth spherical silver powder, and the point contact between the smooth silver powder turned into a line and surface contact. After mixing and sintering with the micrometer flake silver powder, the electrical conductivity and sintering morphology of the silver paste were improved. Compared with the silver content of conventional silver paste (≥75 wt %), the silver paste of (9.23 ± 0.68) × 10-6 Ω cm can be prepared by curing at 250 °C for 45 min when wrinkled powder/flake powder = 1:1 and silver paste content was only 66.7%. This research work provides a new idea for the morphology control of submicrometer silver powder, which has important applications in the field of low-temperature silver paste for new N-type batteries.

Effect of Cu-Sn Addition on Corrosion Property of Pressureless Sintered Fe-Cu-Co Substrate Alloys.

Fe-Cu-Co prealloyed powder is used for bonding metal of diamond tools. In order to obtain diamond tools with good mechanical properties by pressureless sintering, it is necessary to add Cu-Sn sintering aids. The substrate also has high corrosion resistance requirements, which is conducive to the chemical erosion of diamond tools. This paper mainly studies the effects of Cu-Sn on the corrosion behavior of pressureless sintered Fe-Cu-Co substrate. The results show that the linear contraction rate and relative density of pressureless sintered Fe-Cu-Co alloy at 875 °C reach their peak when the Cu-Sn content is 8 wt.%, 15.13% and 97.5%, respectively. The substrate is mainly composed of α-Fe and Cu-rich phases, and selective corrosion occurs during electrochemical corrosion; namely, α-Fe grains are more prone to corrosion than Cu-rich grains to form porous corrosion surfaces. With the increase in Cu-Sn addition, the volume fraction of the Cu-rich phase increases, the corrosion current density and the passive current density gradually decrease, and the corrosion resistance of the alloy is improved. The amount and integrity of anodic passive film on the Fe-Cu-Co surface increases with the increase in Cu-Sn addition. The oxygen content of the anodic passivation film is lower than that of the active corrosion products of the α-Fe phase, thus reducing the oxygen concentration gradient and slowing down the corrosion. The addition of Cu-Sn is conducive to improving the corrosion resistance of Fe-Cu-Co alloy as the substrate of diamond tools.

Experimental and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study on Sol-Gel Conversion Process of Aluminum Carboxylate System.

Due to the lack of relevant in situ characterization techniques, the investigation of aluminum sol-gel progress is lacking. In this study, combined with molecular dynamics simulation and conventional experimental methods, the microstructures, rheological properties, and gelation process of the carboxylic aluminum sol system were studied. The experimental results showed that, with the increase in solid content, the microstructure of the colloid developed from a loose and porous framework to a homogeneous and compact structure. The viscosity of aluminum sol decreased significantly with the increase in temperature, and a temperature above 318 k was more conducive to improving the fluidity. The simulation results show that the increase in free volume and the connectivity of pores in colloidal framework structure were the key factors to improve fluidity. In addition, free water molecules had a higher migration rate, which could assist the rotation and rearrangement of macromolecular chains and also played an essential role in improving fluidity. The Molecular dynamics simulation (MD) results were consistent with experimental results and broaden the scope of experimental research, providing necessary theoretical guidance for enhancing the spinning properties of aluminum sol.

Preparation of Continuous Alumina Fiber with Nano Grains by the Addition of Iron Sol.

Continuous alumina fiber exhibits excellent mechanical properties owing to its dense microstructure with fine grains. In this study, alumina fiber was prepared by the sol-gel method using iron sol as a nucleating agent. It was proposed that the α-Al2O3 grain size be adjusted based on the modification of colloidal particle size. The effect of holding temperature and reaction material ratio on the iron colloidal particle size was studied. The microstructure of alumina fiber was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experiment results indicated that iron colloidal particle size increases with the holding temperature and the NH4HCO3/Fe(NO3)3·9H2O ratio. The alumina fiber with uniform nano α-Al2O3 grains was obtained by calcination at 1400 °C for 5 min. The mean grain size tends to rise with the mean colloidal particle size. Using the iron sol as a nucleating agent, the fiber with a mean grain size of 22.5 nm could be formed. The tensile strength of fibers increased with the decrease of grain size.

An atomic scale study of two-dimensional quasicrystal nucleation controlled by multiple length scale interactions.

Formation of quasicrystal structures has always been mysterious since the discovery of these magic structures. In this work, the nucleation of decagonal, dodecagonal, heptagonal, and octagonal quasicrystal structures controlled by the coupling among multiple length scales is investigated using a dynamic phase-field crystal model. We observe that the nucleation of quasicrystals proceeds through local rearrangement of length scales, i.e., the generation, merging and stacking of 3-atom building blocks constructed by the length scales, and accordingly, propose a geometric model to describe the cooperation of length scales during structural transformation in quasicrystal nucleation. Essentially, such cooperation is crucial to quasicrystal formation, and controlled by the match and balance between length scales. These findings clarify the scenario and microscopic mechanism of the structural evolution during quasicrystal nucleation, and help us to understand the common rule for the formation of periodic crystal and quasicrystal structures with various symmetries.

DFT Studies on the Al-Speciation and Its Structure in Aqueous Aluminum Sol Formed by Aluminum Formoacetate.

The investigation of the Al-speciation and its structure in aluminum sol at the molecular level plays an important role in knowing the subsequent lager polymer gels. In this work, to study the Al-speciation and its structure in aluminum sol prepared from aluminum formoacetate at the molecule level, density functional theory studies on the chemical behaviors of aluminum formoacetate under neutral and acidic conditions were systematically conducted at the B3LYP/6-311G** level. Due to the different thermodynamic dominance of hydration, hydrolysis, and polymerization, the structure of Al-speciation formed in neutral aqueous solution obviously differed from that formed in acidic solution. The products obtained from aluminum formoacetate in neutral aqueous solution contained more carboxyl groups acted as bridging bidentate ligand but less coordinated water molecules. The addition of H+ ion had a great impact on the structure of Al-speciation in aluminum sol prepared by aluminum formoacetate. This work would provide guidance for the understanding of the precursor gels of materials.

A large-scale fabrication of flower-like submicrometer-sized tungsten whiskers via metal catalysis.

Tungsten powder mixed with an appropriate amount of nickel and iron powders is used as raw material to fabricate large-scale tungsten whisker-like structure. The morphology, microstructure and composition of the whisker-like tungsten are observed and tested by scanning electron microscope and FESEM, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, respectively. The main component of the tungsten whisker-like structure is tungsten, which has the axial growth along the <100 > direction with large aspect ratio and possesses flower-like structure. Large-scale submicrometer-sized whisker-like tungsten was fabricated via vapor phase deposition approach with the aid of metal catalysts at 800°C by holding for 6 h in the appropriate atmosphere. The growth procedure of flower-like tungsten whisker is probably based on the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism at beginning of the formation of tungsten nuclei, then vapor-solid mechanism is dominant.