Homogeneity of a supersaturated solid solution

Mechanical Alloying as a Way to Produce Metastable Single-Phase High-Entropy Alloys beyond the Stability Criteria

Various stability criteria developed for high-entropy alloys are applied to compositions produced by mechanical alloying. While they agree with the annealed samples, these criteria fail to describe the as-milled metastable systems, highlighting the ability of mechanical alloying to overcome the limitations imposed by these criteria. The criteria are based on atomic size (Ω ≥ 1.1 and δr ≤ 6.6%) and/or electronegativity misfit, as well as on mixing enthalpy (Λ>0.95 J mol-1K-1 and -5 kJ mol-1<∆Hmix<0), or purely thermodynamic (ϕYe>20; ϕKing>1; Teff<500 K). These criteria are applied to several compositions found in the literature and to two metastable fcc solid solutions produced by mechanical alloying with compositions Al0.75CoXFeNi with X = Cr and Mn. Single-phase microstructures are stable up to above 600 K, leading to more stable multiphase systems after annealing above this temperature. Mössbauer spectrometry shows that, whereas the alloy with Cr is paramagnetic in the as-milled and annealed state, the alloy with Mn changes from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic behavior (Curie temperature ~700 K) after annealing. Thermomagnetic experiments on annealed samples show for both compositions some hysteretic events at high temperatures (850 to 1000 K), probably ascribed to reversible ordering phenomena.

Printable and Flexible Copper-Silver Alloy Electrodes with High Conductivity and Ultrahigh Oxidation Resistance

Printable and flexible Cu-Ag alloy electrodes with high conductivity and ultrahigh oxidation resistance have been successfully fabricated by using a newly developed Cu-Ag hybrid ink and a simple fabrication process consisting of low-temperature precuring followed by rapid photonic sintering (LTRS). A special Ag nanoparticle shell on a Cu core structure is first created in situ by low-temperature precuring. An instantaneous photonic sintering can induce rapid mutual dissolution between the Cu core and the Ag nanoparticle shell so that core-shell structures consisting of a Cu-rich phase in the core and a Ag-rich phase in the shell (Cu-Ag alloy) can be obtained on flexible substrates. The resulting Cu-Ag alloy electrode has high conductivity (3.4 μΩ·cm) and ultrahigh oxidation resistance even up to 180 °C in an air atmosphere; this approach shows huge potential and is a tempting prospect for the fabrication of highly reliable and cost-effective printed electronic devices.

Structural evolution of Ag–Cu nano-alloys confined between AlN nano-layers upon fast heating

The paper presents a first comprehensive experimental investigation of the structural evolution of eutectic Ag–Cu nano-alloys, as confined between inert AlN barriers in a nano-multilayered configuration, upon fast heating.

First-principles calculations of the structural stability and magnetic property of the metastable phases in the equilibrium immiscible Co-Au system

To reveal the energetic sequence of the alloy phases in the Co-Au system, the lattice constants, cohesive energies, and bulk modulus of the fcc Au, hcp Co, the B1, B2, and L1(0) structured CoAu phases, and the D0(3), L1(2), and D0(19) structured Co(3)Au and CoAu(3) phases, respectively, are acquired by first-principles calculations within the generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) as well as within the local density approximation (LDA). In addition, the magnetic moment of the Co atom in the studied phases are also calculated. To further examine the structural stability, the elastic constants of the studied phases are calculated and the results suggest that the fcc-type structures could be elastically stable at Co/Au = 1:3, 1:1, and 3:1, whereas the hcp-type structures could be stable at Co/Au = 1:3 and 3:1. Moreover, the spatial valence charge density (SVCD) and spin density of the studied phases are also calculated to clarify the physical origin of the structural stability. It turns out that, in the relatively stable phases, the high SVCDs mostly distribute between the similar atoms, thus forming the attractive covalent bonding to stabilize the respective structures, and that the spin density may also play an important role in influencing the stability of the ferromagnetic metastable phases.

Bombardment-induced tunable superlattices in the growth of Au-Ni films

Highly ordered superlattices are typically created through the sequential deposition of two different materials. Here, we report our experimental observation of spontaneous formation of superlattices in coevaporation of Au and Ni under energetic ion bombardment. The superlattice periodicities are on the order of a few nanometers and can be adjusted through the energy and flux of ion beams. Such a self-organization process is a consequence of the bombardment-induced segregation and uphill diffusion within the advancing nanoscale subsurface zone in the film growth. Our observations suggest that ion beams can be employed to make tunable natural superlattices in the deposition of phase-separated systems with strong bombardment-induced segregation.