The shear-band propagation in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) during deformation plays a key role in determining their macroscopic ductility. In this work, the shear band propagation during plastic deformation was investigated in the Cu46Zr46Al8 BMG and its in situ or ex situ prepared BMG composites. Compared with the brittle BMG, both types of ductile BMG composites show a more stable shear banding behavior as revealed by a larger power-law scaling exponent obtained from statistical analysis of serrations recorded in compressive curves. A higher cut-off elastic energy density (δc) linked with the multiplication of shear bands is observed for the in situ prepared BMG composites. However, the ex situ fabricated BMG composites show an almost equivalent or slightly larger δc since the dominant shear band but not multiple shear bands mainly governs their deformation. Such observations imply that the shear banding stability of BMGs during deformation is enhanced not only by inducing multiple shear bands but also by obstructing the movement of the dominant shear band at its driven path.

The BiFeO3 (BFO) / PbTiO3 (PT) multiferroic ceramic composites with multilayered structure were prepared from orderly laminated BFO and PT tapes by tape casting method. The dielectric constant εr, loss tanδ, remnant polarization Pr and field-induced strain of BFO/PT ceramic composites were 140 (1 kHz), 5% (1 kHz), 12 µC/cm2 (at 80 kV/cm) and 0.06% (at 80 kV/cm) respectively, which were comparable to those pure BFO ceramics and BFO-based solid solutions

The 0.6(Bi0.85La0.15)FeO3-0.4PbTiO3 (BLF-PT) ceramics were prepared by tape casting method. Effects of binder (polyvinylbutyl dibutyl PVB), plasticizer (phthalate-polyethylene glycol DBP-PEG) and dispersant (triethylolamine, TEA) concentration on the rheological properties of BLF-PT slurry were investigated. The optimized component ratio for ceramics powders, binder, plasticizer, dispersant and solvent (ethanol, EtOH) in the slurry was 50 wt.%, 4 wt.%, 6 wt.%, 1 wt.% and 39 wt.%. The dielectric constant εr, loss tanδ, and remnant polarization Pr of BLF-PT ceramics laminated from the tapes were 525 (1 kHz), 1.7% (1 kHz) and 30 μC/cm2 (45 kV/cm), respectively, which were comparable to those of BLF-PT ceramics prepared by traditional solid state reaction method.

The electron emission yield γ induced by Ne2+ and O2+ impacting on a clean tungsten surface has been measured. The range of projectile energy is from 3 keV/u to 14 keV/u. The total electron yield gradually increases with the projectile velocity. It is found simultaneously that the total electron yield for O2+ is larger than the total electron yield for Ne2+, which is opposite to the results for higher projectile velocity. After considering the contribution from recoiling atoms to the energy distribution and electron emission yield, we find that recoiling atoms are of crucial importance in electron emission in our energy range. Thus, the unexpected results in our experiment can be explained successfully.

A PVA-assisted hydrothermal synthesis route was utilized to fabricate single-phase Bi25FeO40 crystallites.X-ray diffraction results indicated that sillenite Bi25FeO40 have been synthesized at the temperature of 200 ℃ using the KOH concentration of 7 M. Scanning electron microscopy showed the morphology of the as-prepared products were cubic shape with side length of 26μm. The band gap of Bi25FeO40 was determined to be 1.8 eV (688 nm) by using UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. It was found that Bi25FeO40 exhibited a high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methyl orange under UV-Vis irradiation, being a potential material for photocatalytic decomposition of organic contaminants.