Effect of hydrogen on the integrity of aluminium-oxide interface at elevated temperatures

Inward motion of diamond nanoparticles inside an iron crystal

In the absence of externally applied mechanical loading, it would seem counterintuitive that a solid particle sitting on the surface of another solid could not only sink into the latter, but also continue its rigid-body motion towards the interior, reaching a depth as distant as thousands of times the particle diameter. Here, we demonstrate such a case using in situ microscopic as well as bulk experiments, in which diamond nanoparticles ~100 nm in size move into iron up to millimeter depth, at a temperature about half of the melting point of iron. Each diamond nanoparticle is nudged as a whole, in a displacive motion towards the iron interior, due to a local stress induced by the accumulation of iron atoms diffusing around the particle via a short and easy interfacial channel. Our discovery underscores an unusual mass transport mode in solids, in addition to the familiar diffusion of individual atoms.

Effect of the pressureless post-sintering on the hot isostatic pressed Al2O3 prepared from the oxidized AlN powder

The effect of the pressureless post-sintering in hydrogen on the structural and mechanical properties of the hot isostatic pressed Al₂O₃ prepared by oxidized AlN powder has been studied. The micrometer size AlN powder has been oxidized in air at 900° C and sintered by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) at 1700 °C, 20 MPa nitrogen atmosphere for 5 h. Pressureless sintering (PS) has been applied for all HIP sintered samples in H₂ gas at 1800° C for 10 h. It has been shown that the oxidation caused a core–shell AlN/Al₂O₃ structure and the amount of Al₂O₃ increased with increasing of the oxidation time of the AlN powder. For the first time, the green samples obtained from oxidized AlN powder have been successfully sintered first by HIP followed by post-sintering by PS under hydrogen without adding any sintering additives. All post-sintered samples exhibited the main α-Al₂O₃ phase. Sintering in H₂ caused the full transformation of AlN to α-Al₂O₃ phase and their better densification. Therefore, the hardness values of post-sintered samples have been increased to 17–18 GPa having apparent densities between 3.11 and 3.39 g/cm³.

Quantifying Real-Time Sample Temperature Under the Gas Environment in the Transmission Electron Microscope Using a Novel MEMS Heater

Accurate control and measurement of real-time sample temperature are critical for the understanding and interpretation of the experimental results from in situ heating experiments inside environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM). However, quantifying the real-time sample temperature remains a challenging task for commercial in situ TEM heating devices, especially under gas conditions. In this work, we developed a home-made micro-electrical-mechanical-system (MEMS) heater with unprecedented small temperature gradient and thermal drift, which not only enables the temperature evolution caused by gas injection to be measured in real-time but also makes the key heat dissipation path easier to model to theoretically understand and predict the temperature decrease. A new parameter termed as “gas cooling ability (H)”, determined purely by the physical properties of the gas, can be used to compare and predict the gas-induced temperature decrease by different gases. Our findings can act as a reference for predicting the real temperature for in situ heating experiments without closed-loop temperature sensing capabilities in the gas environment, as well as all gas-related heating systems.

Real-Time Visualization of Solid-Phase Ion Migration Kinetics on Nanowire Monolayer

Ion migration has been recognized as a critical step in determining the performance of numerous devices in chemistry, biology, and material science. However, direct visualization and quantitative investigation of solid-phase ion migration among anisotropic nanostructures have been a challenging task. Here, we report an in-situ ChemTEM method to quantitatively investigate the solid-phase ion migration process among coassembled nanowires (NWs). This complicated process was tracked within a NW and between NWs with an obvious nanogap, which was revealed by both phase field simulation and ab initio modeling theoretical evaluation. A migration "bridge" between neighboring NWs was observed. Furthermore, these new observations could be applied to migration of other metal ions on semiconductor NWs. These findings provide critical insights into the solid-phase ion migration kinetics occurring in nanoscale systems with generality and offer an efficient tool to explore other ion migration processes, which will facilitate fabrication of customized and new heteronanostructures in the future.

Hydrogen embrittlement in metallic nanowires

Although hydrogen embrittlement has been observed and extensively studied in a wide variety of metals and alloys, there still exist controversies over the underlying mechanisms and a fundamental understanding of hydrogen embrittlement in nanostructures is almost non-existent. Here we use metallic nanowires (NWs) as a platform to study hydrogen embrittlement in nanostructures where deformation and failure are dominated by dislocation nucleation. Based on quantitative in-situ transmission electron microscopy nanomechanical testing and molecular dynamics simulations, we report enhanced yield strength and a transition in failure mechanism from distributed plasticity to localized necking in penta-twinned Ag NWs due to the presence of surface-adsorbed hydrogen. In-situ stress relaxation experiments and simulations reveal that the observed embrittlement in metallic nanowires is governed by the hydrogen-induced suppression of dislocation nucleation at the free surface of NWs.

Impact of Hydrogen on the Intermediate Oxygen Clusters and Diffusion in Fluorite Structured UO2+ x

Uranium dioxide is the most prevalent nuclear fuel. Defect clusters are known to be present in significant concentrations in hyperstoichoimetric uranium oxide, UO_{2+ x}, and have a significant impact on the corrosion of the material. A detailed understanding of the defect clusters that form is required for accurate diffusion models in UO_{2+ x}. Using ab initio calculations, we show that at low excess oxygen concentration, where defects are mostly isolated oxygen interstitials, hydrogen stabilizes the initial clustering. The simplest cluster at this low excess oxygen stoichiometry consists of a pair of oxygen ions bound to an oxygen vacancy, namely the split mono-interstital, which resembles larger split interstitials clusters in UO_{2+ x}. Our data shows that, depending on local hydrogen concertation, the presence of hydrogen stabilizes this cluster over isolated oxygen interstitials.

Revealing the role of lattice distortions in the hydrogen-induced metal-insulator transition of SmNiO3

The discovery of hydrogen-induced electronic phase transitions in strongly correlated materials such as rare-earth nickelates has opened up a new paradigm in regulating materials’ properties for both fundamental study and technological applications. However, the microscopic understanding of how protons and electrons behave in the phase transition is lacking, mainly due to the difficulty in the characterization of the hydrogen doping level. Here, we demonstrate the quantification and trajectory of hydrogen in strain-regulated SmNiO₃ by using nuclear reaction analysis. Introducing 2.4% of elastic strain in SmNiO₃ reduces the incorporated hydrogen concentration from ~10²¹ cm⁻³ to ~10²⁰ cm⁻³. Unexpectedly, despite a lower hydrogen concentration, a more significant modification in resistivity is observed for tensile-strained SmNiO₃, substantially different from the previous understanding. We argue that this transition is explained by an intermediate metastable state occurring in the transient diffusion process of hydrogen, despite the absence of hydrogen at the post-transition stage.

Proton doping can induce metal-insulator transitions in rare-earth nickelates, demonstrating the complex interplay between dopants and electronic degrees of freedom. Chen et al. use results on strained films to argue that local proton-induced lattice distortions strongly influence the transition.

Intragranular Dispersion of Carbon Nanotubes Comprehensively Improves Aluminum Alloys

The room-temperature tensile strength, toughness, and high-temperature creep strength of 2000, 6000, and 7000 series aluminum alloys can be improved significantly by dispersing up to 1 wt% carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into the alloys without sacrificing tensile ductility, electrical conductivity, or thermal conductivity. CNTs act like forest dislocations, except mobile dislocations cannot annihilate with them. Dislocations cannot climb over 1D CNTs unlike 0D dispersoids/precipitates. Also, unlike 2D grain boundaries, even if some debonding happens along 1D CNT/alloy interface, it will be less damaging because fracture intrinsically favors 2D percolating flaws. Good intragranular dispersion of these 1D strengtheners is critical for comprehensive enhancement of composite properties, which entails change of wetting properties and encapsulation of CNTs inside Al grains via surface diffusion-driven cold welding. In situ transmission electron microscopy demonstrates liquid-like envelopment of CNTs into Al nanoparticles by cold welding.

Giant Blistering of Nanometer-Thick Al2O3/ZnO Films Grown by Atomic Layer Deposition: Mechanism and Potential Applications

Giant circular blisters of up to 300 μm diameter and 10 μm deflection have been produced on nanometer-thick Al₂O₃-on-ZnO stacks grown by atomic layer deposition at 150 °C followed by annealing at elevated temperatures. Their shape changes upon varied ambient pressures provide evidence that their formation is related to an anneal-induced outgassing combined with their impermeability. The former mainly occurs in the bottom ZnO layer that recrystallizes and releases residual hydroxide ions at elevated temperatures while the latter is dominantly contributed by the pinhole-free Al₂O₃ layer on top. Vibrations at a resonant frequency of ∼740 kHz are mechanically actuated and optically probed from an individual blister. By modulating the thickness and stacking sequence of Al₂O₃ and ZnO, we further demonstrate a localized circular film swelling upon electron-beam irradiation and its recovery after reducing the irradiation flux. The elastic blistering and the recoverable swelling of the nanometer-thick films represent a miniaturized event-driven mechanical system for potential functioning applications.