Effect of Inconel 718 Filler on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Inconel 690 Joint by Ultrasonic Frequency Pulse Assisted TIG Welding.

Ultrasonic frequency pulse assisted TIG welding (UFP-TIG) experiments were conducted to join Inconel 690 alloy (IN690) by adding Inconel 718 alloy (IN718) as the filler. The effect of the filler on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and ductility dip cracking (DDC) susceptibility of IN690 joints were investigated. The results show that a variety of precipitates, including MC-type carbide and Laves phases, are formed in the weld zone (WZ), which are uniformly dispersed in the interdendritic region and grain boundaries (GBs). The increase in the thickness of the IN718 filler facilitates the precipitation and growth of Laves phases and MC carbides. However, the formation of Laves phases in the WZ exhibits a lower bonding force with the matrix and deteriorates the tensile strength of IN690 joints. Due to the moderate content of Laves phases in the WZ, the IN690 joint with 1.0 mm filler reaches the maximum tensile strength (627 MPa), which is about 96.5% of that of the base metal (BM). The joint with 1.0 mm filler also achieves the highest elongation (35.4%). In addition, the strain-to-fracture tests indicate that the total length of cracks in the joint with the IN718 filler decreases by 66.49% under a 3.8% strain. As a result, the addition of the IN718 filler significantly improves the mechanical properties and DDC resistance of IN690 joints.

Electronic and energy level structural engineering of graphitic carbon nitride nanotubes with B and S co-doping for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

The ideal photocatalyst used for photocatalytic water splitting requires strong light absorption, fast charge separation/transfer ability and abundant active sites. Heteroatom doping offers a promising and rational approach to optimize the photocatalytic activity. However, achieving high photocatalytic performance remains challenging if just relying on single-element doping. Herein, Boron (B) and sulfur (S) dopants are simultaneously introduced into graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanotubes by supramolecular self-assembly strategy. The developed B and S co-doped g-C3N4 nanotubes (B,S-TCN) exhibited an outstanding photocatalytic performance in the conversion of H2O into H2 (9.321 mmol g-1h-1), and the corresponding external quantum efficiency (EQE) reached 5.3% under the irradiation of λ = 420 nm. It is well evidenced by the closely combined experimental and (density functional theory) DFT calculations: (1) the introduction of B dopants can facilitate H2O adsorption and drive interatomic electron transfer, leading to efficient water splitting reaction. (2) S dopants can stretch the VB position to promote the oxidation ability of g-C3N4, which can accelerate the consumption of holes and thus inhibit the recombination with electrons. (3) the simultaneous introduction of B and S can engineer the electronic and energy level structural of g-C3N4 for optimizing interior charge transfer. Finally, the purpose of maximizing photocatalytic performance is achieved.

The relationship between ignition and oxidation of molten magnesium alloys during the cooling process.

Ignition of magnesium alloys during casting processes limits their processability and applications. For identifying the ignition mechanism of magnesium alloys during solidification, a Mg-Al-Zn alloy was solidified with different cooling rates and pouring temperatures. The oxide scale morphologies and thicknesses were identified by SEM and energy dispersive spectrometer. Based on the experimental results, the oxidation kinetics and heat released were calculated and the relationship between oxidation and ignition was discussed in detail. The calculation results indicate that oxide rupture directly induces combustion of the melt. The rupture route of the oxide scale was determined to be buckling cracks according to the experimental and calculation results. Based on the buckling mechanism of the oxide scale, the ignition criterion during solidification was correlated to the pouring temperature, cooling rate and casting modulus. This work reveals the underlying relationship between ignition and casting process parameters, and it helps to develop new technology for inhibiting ignition of molten magnesium alloys.

Zr-doped CoFe-layered double hydroxides for highly efficient seawater electrolysis.

Efficient generation of hydrogen from electrocatalytic water-splitting is of great importance to realize the hydrogen economy. In that field, designing efficient and bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is critical for water splitting. With the increasing demands for bifunctional catalysts, a universal strategy in favor of these catalytic processes is particularly important. Herein, a variety of Zr-doped layered double hydroxide (LDH) with low-crystalline grown on nickel foam (NF) is designed to promote the bifunctional activities of electrocatalysts. It is found that the doping of Zr4+ into CoFe-LDH/NF can tune the electronic structure and also expose abundant catalytic active sites to enhance the electrocatalytic activities. In 1 M KOH, the as-prepared CoFeZr/NF exhibits superior OER and HER activities with low overpotentials of 233 and 159 mV at 10 mA cm-2. When tested in alkaline simulated seawater electrolyte, CoFeZr/NF also shows high catalytic activities with almost no attenuation when compared with that in 1.0 M KOH. This work will provide a new way for the development of seawater electrolysis for large-scale hydrogen production.

Influence of ns-Laser Cleaning Parameters on the Removal of the Painted Layer and Selected Properties of the Base Metal.

The removal of the surface paint of Q345 (Gr·B) steel, as well as microstructure and hardness of the cleaned surface were investigated. The laser source used in this study is a nanosecond pulsed Gaussian light source. The surface morphology and microstructure were characterized by a scanning electron microscope and electron back-scattered diffraction. A hardness test was used for capturing variations of the parameter of the cleaned region in comparison to the base metal. The results show that when the X-scanning speed was 1500 mm/s and Y-moving speeds was 7 mm/s during ns-laser cleaning, respectively, the cleaned surface was relatively flat and there was only a few small residual paint. In addition, the contents of Fe and C elements on the cleaned surface reached to 89% and 9%, respectively. Moreover, the roughness was the lowest of 0.5 µm through the observation of the three-dimensional topography. In addition, a fine grain layer appeared on the cleaned surface after laser cleaning at the X-scanning speeds of 500 mm/s and 1000 mm/s. The maximum hardness of the fine grain layer was more than 400 HV, higher than the base metal.

An All-Organic D-A System for Visible-Light-Driven Overall Water Splitting.

Direct water splitting over photocatalysts is a prospective strategy to convert solar energy into hydrogen energy. Nevertheless, because of the undesirable electron accumulation at the surface, the overall water-splitting efficiency is seriously restricted by the poor charge separation/transfer ability. Here, an all-organic donor-acceptor (D-A) system through crafting carbon rings units-conjugated tubular graphitic carbon nitride (C-TCN) is proposed. Through a range of characterizations and theoretical calculations, the incorporation of carbon rings units via continuous π-conjugated bond builds a D-A system, which can drive intramolecular charge transfer to realize highly efficient charge separation. More importantly, the tubular structure and the incorporated carbon rings units cause a significant downshift of the valence band, of which the potential is beneficial to the activation for O2 evolution. When serving as photocatalyst for overall water splitting, C-TCN displays considerable performance with H2 and O2 production rates of 204.6 and 100.8 µmol g-1 h-1 , respectively. The corresponding external quantum efficiency reaches 2.6% at 405 nm, and still remains 1.7% at 420 nm. This work demonstrates that the all-organic D-A system conceptualized from organic solar cell can offer promotional effect for overall water splitting by addressing the charge accumulation problem rooted in the hydrogen evolution reaction.

A New Test Method for Evaluation of Solidification Cracking Susceptibility of Stainless Steel during Laser Welding.

A new test method named "Trapezoidal hot" cracking test was developed to evaluate solidification cracking susceptibility of stainless steel during laser welding. The new test method was used to obtain the solidification cracking directly, and the solidification cracking susceptibility could be evaluated by the solidification cracking rate, defined as the ratio of the solidification cracking length to the weld bead length under certain conditions. The results show that with the increase in the solidification cracking rate, the solidification cracking susceptibility of SUS310 stainless steel was much higher than that of SUS316 and SUS304 stainless steels during laser welding (at a welding speed of 1.0 m/min) because a fully austenite structure appeared in the weld joint of the former steel, while the others were ferrite and austenitic mixed structures during solidification. Besides, with an increase in welding speed from 1.0 to 2.0 m/min during laser welding, the solidification cracking susceptibility of SUS310 stainless steel decreased slightly; however, there was a tendency towards an increase in the solidification cracking susceptibility of SUS304 stainless steel due to the decrease in the amount of ferrite under a higher cooling rate.

Graphene quantum dots modified flower like Bi2WO6 for enhanced photocatalytic nitrogen fixation.

Graphene quantum dots modified Bi2WO6 (GQD/Bi2WO6) composites is applied to photocatalytic N2 fixation. The as-prepared GQD/Bi2WO6 samples showed considerable increase in photocatalytic nitrogen fixation compared to the pure Bi2WO6 and GQD. The results revealed that GQD uniformly placed on the surface of Bi2WO6 and tight junction between the two samples helped to boost the photocatalytic activity. The PL, photocurrent and EIS analyses further demonstrated that the composite had the low recombination rate of photo-generated charges. Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation test indicated that GQD/Bi2WO6 with 10 wt% GQDs exhibited the highest ammonia synthesis rate in the presence of visible light, which is 8.88-fold and 33.8-fold higher than pure Bi2WO6 and GQD. Simultaneously, the GQD/Bi2WO6 sample has high stability.

Ultrasonic cavitation erosion of 316L steel weld joint in liquid Pb-Bi eutectic alloy at 550°C.

Liquid lead-bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE) is applied in the Accelerator Driven transmutation System (ADS) as the high-power spallation neutron targets and coolant. A 19.2kHz ultrasonic device was deployed in liquid LBE at 550°C to induce short and long period cavitation erosion damage on the surface of weld joint, SEM and Atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to map out the surface properties, and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) was applied to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of elements in the micro region of the surface. The erosion mechanism for how the cavitation erosion evolved by studying the element changes, their morphology evolution, the surface hardness and the roughness evolution, was proposed. The results showed that the pits, caters and cracks appeared gradually on the erode surface after a period of cavitation. The surface roughness increased along with exposure time. Work hardening by the bubbles impact in the incubation stage strengthened the cavitation resistance efficiently. The dissolution and oxidation corrosion and cavitation erosion that simultaneously happened in liquid LBE accelerated corrosion-erosion process, and these two processes combined to cause more serious damage on the material surface. Contrast to the performance of weld metal, base metal exhibited a much better cavitation resistance.

Synthesis of few-layer MoS2 nanosheet-loaded Ag3PO4 for enhanced photocatalytic activity.

Novel few-layer MoS2/Ag3PO4 composites were fabricated. The results indicated that Ag3PO4 nanoparticles were directly formed on the surface of few-layer MoS2. The physical and chemical properties of the few-layer MoS2/Ag3PO4 composite photocatalysts were tested in order to investigate the effects of few-layer MoS2 on the photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4. The photocatalytic activity of the few-layer MoS2/Ag3PO4 composites was evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and bisphenol A (BPA) under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic activity of the few-layer MoS2/Ag3PO4 composites was higher than that of pure Ag3PO4. The optimal few-layer MoS2 content for the organic pollutant degradation of the heterojunction structures was determined. The synergic effect between few-layer MoS2 and Ag3PO4 was found to lead to an improved photogenerated carrier separation. The stability and the possible photocatalytic mechanism of the composites were also discussed.

Preparation, characterization and photocatalytic activity of AgBr/BiVO4 composite photocatalyst.

The AgBr/BiVO4 heterostructure were synthesized. The heterostructure materials were characterized by XRD, DRS, SEM-EDS, TEM, XPS and TG-DSC. In order to investigate the photocatalytic activity of AgBr/BiVO4 heterostructures, the methylene blue (MB) dye was used as a model compound. The result suggested that under visible light irradiation, the degradation efficiency of AgBr/BiVO4 reached 83.1% within 2.5 h, which was higher than that of the pure BiVO4. The presence of AgBr significantly increased the photocatalytic activity of the composites. The photocatalytic mechanism was also discussed.