Extreme isotopic heterogeneity in Samoan clinopyroxenes constrains sediment recycling.

Lavas erupted at hotspot volcanoes provide evidence of mantle heterogeneity. Samoan Island lavas with high 87Sr/86Sr (>0.706) typify a mantle source incorporating ancient subducted sediments. To further characterize this source, we target a single high 87Sr/86Sr lava from Savai'i Island, Samoa for detailed analyses of 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd isotopes and major and trace elements on individual magmatic clinopyroxenes. We show the clinopyroxenes exhibit a remarkable range of 87Sr/86Sr-including the highest observed in an oceanic hotspot lava-encompassing ~30% of the oceanic mantle's total variability. These new isotopic data, data from other Samoan lavas, and magma mixing calculations are consistent with clinopyroxene 87Sr/86Sr variability resulting from magma mixing between a high silica, high 87Sr/86Sr (up to 0.7316) magma, and a low silica, low 87Sr/86Sr magma. Results provide insight into the composition of magmas derived from a sediment-infiltrated mantle source and document the fate of sediment recycled into Earth's mantle.

A defect-resistant Co-Ni superalloy for 3D printing.

Additive manufacturing promises a major transformation of the production of high economic value metallic materials, enabling innovative, geometrically complex designs with minimal material waste. The overarching challenge is to design alloys that are compatible with the unique additive processing conditions while maintaining material properties sufficient for the challenging environments encountered in energy, space, and nuclear applications. Here we describe a class of high strength, defect-resistant 3D printable superalloys containing approximately equal parts of Co and Ni along with Al, Cr, Ta and W that possess strengths in excess of 1.1 GPa in as-printed and post-processed forms and tensile ductilities of greater than 13% at room temperature. These alloys are amenable to crack-free 3D printing via electron beam melting (EBM) with preheat as well as selective laser melting (SLM) with limited preheat. Alloy design principles are described along with the structure and properties of EBM and SLM CoNi-base materials.

Metamorphic records of multiple seismic cycles during subduction.

Large earthquakes occur in rocks undergoing high-pressure/low-temperature metamorphism during subduction. Rhythmic major-element zoning in garnet is a common product of such metamorphism, and one that must record a fundamental subduction process. We argue that rhythmic major-element zoning in subduction zone garnets from the Franciscan Complex, California, developed in response to growth-dissolution cycles driven by pressure pulses. Using electron probe microanalysis and novel techniques in Raman and synchrotron Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy, we demonstrate that at least four such pressure pulses, of magnitude 100-350 MPa, occurred over less than 300,000 years. These pressure magnitude and time scale constraints are most consistent with the garnet zoning having resulted from periodic overpressure development-dissipation cycles, related to pore-fluid pressure fluctuations linked to earthquake cycles. This study demonstrates that some metamorphic reactions can track individual earthquake cycles and thereby opens new avenues to the study of seismicity.

Rapid Microwave Preparation and Composition Tuning of the High-Performance Magnetocalorics (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si).

Rapid preparation utilizing assisted microwave heating permits significantly shorter preparation times for magnetocaloric compounds in the (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si) family, specifically samples of (Mn,Fe)2-δP0.5Si0.5 with starting compositions of δ = 0, 0.06, and 0.12. To fully understand the effects of processing and composition changes on structure and properties, these materials are characterized using synchrotron powder diffraction, neutron powder diffraction, electron microprobe analysis (EMPA), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and magnetic measurements. The diffraction analysis reveals that increasing δ results in decreasing amounts of the common Heusler (Mn,Fe)3Si secondary phase. EMPA shows (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si) in all three samples to be Mn and P rich, whereas XRF demonstrates that the bulk material is Mn rich yet P deficient. Increasing δ brings the Mn/Fe and P/Si ratios closer to their starting values. Measurements of magnetic properties show an increase in saturation magnetization and ordering temperature with increasing δ, consistent with the increase in Fe and Si contents. Increasing δ also results in a decrease in thermal hysteresis and an increase in magnetic entropy change, the latter reaching values close to what have been previously reported on samples that take much longer to prepare.

Improving the thermoelectric properties of half-Heusler TiNiSn through inclusion of a second full-Heusler phase: microwave preparation and spark plasma sintering of TiNi(1+x)Sn.

Half-Heusler thermoelectrics offer the possibility to choose from a variety of non-toxic and earth-abundant elements. TiNiSn is of particular interest and - with its relatively high electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient - allows for optimization of its thermoelectric figure of merit, reaching values of up to 1 in heavily-doped and/or phase-segregated systems. In this contribution, we used an energy- and time-efficient process involving solid-state preparation in a commercial microwave oven and a fast consolidation technique, Spark Plasma Sintering, to prepare a series of Ni-rich TiNi1+xSn with small deviations from the half-Heusler composition. Spark Plasma Sintering plays an important role in the process by being a part of the synthesis of the material rather than solely a densification technique. Synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction and microprobe data confirm the presence of a secondary TiNi2Sn full-Heusler phase within the half-Heusler matrix. We observe a clear correlation between the amount of full-Heusler phase and the lattice thermal conductivity of the samples, resulting in decreasing total thermal conductivity with increasing TiNi2Sn fraction. This trend shows that phonons are scattered effectively as a result of the microstructure of the materials with full-Heusler inclusions in the size range of microns to tens of microns. The best performing samples with around 5% of TiNi2Sn phase exhibit maximum figures of merit of almost 0.6 between 750 K and 800 K which is an increase of ca. 35% compared to the zT of the parent compound TiNiSn.