The flash allowance and upset allowance have significant effects on characteristics of flash butt welded RS590CL steel joints. The overheated zone (OZ) widths increased with flash allowance (δf) increase, and decreased as the upset allowance (δu) increased. The coarsened upper bainite was formed in interface zone (IZ) and OZ as δf increased. With increasing δu, the large plastic deformation occurred and the interface formability improved. The hardness in IZ was a little lower than that in its vicinity OZ due to some ferrite existence and dislocation amount decreased in IZ. The tensile strengths of flash butt welding (FBW) joints were in good match with base metal and the ductilities were lower. The maximum bending crack length was 0.68 mm which indicated that the bending properties of FBW joints were good. Under this experiment, relatively large δf (10–12 mm) and δu (5.5–6.5 mm) were recommended for the benefit of high quality FBW joints.

The gene expression profile of a normal-suffering monozygotic twin pair is investigated to explore biological mechanisms of spastic type cerebral palsy. Main works include following three aspects: First, a cDNA microarray test is carried out to get the differentially expressed genes of the patient with cerebral palsy compared to her monozygotic twin sister. Second, these differentially expressed genes are searched for their bioinformation within 4 biological databases: FatiGO, FatiGOPlus, KEGG, and SOURCE. Third, a set of special genes and gene families are screened out from the spastic type cerebral palsy patient. These biological analyses reveal that those genes for cell junction are mostly down-regulated, while those genes for metabolism are mostly up-regulated. The individual genes, gene family, and their associated biological functions can reflect the pathological and physiological characteristics of the cerebral palsy.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and spectroscopy have been evolved to a stage such that they can be routinely used to probe the structure and composition of the materials with the resolution of a single atomic column. However, a direct in situ TEM observation of structural evolution of the materials in a lithium ion battery during dynamic operation of the battery has never been reported. In this paper, we report the results of exploring the in situ TEM techniques for observation of interfaces in the lithium ion battery during the operation of the battery. A miniature battery was fabricated using a single nanowire and an ionic liquid electrolyte. The structure and composition of the interface across the anode and the electrolyte was studied using TEM imaging, electron diffraction, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. In addition, we also explored the possibilities of carrying out in situ TEM studies of lithium ion batteries with a solid state electrolyte.

The ignition and reaction mechanisms of the thermal explosion reaction in the Ni-Ti-C system under air and Ar conditions were investigated. The reaction for the formation of TiC can be initiated at a low temperature under air. The ignition temperature under air is much lower than that under Ar. Under Ar, both the ignition and reaction mechanisms consist of dissolution, reaction, and precipitation. Under air, the ignition mechanism is confirmed to be the chemical oven mechanism, and the reaction mechanism is dissolution, reaction, and precipitation. The mechanism of gas transport plays a much more minor role in the ignition and reaction processes under air.

The ignition and reaction processes of the thermal explosion reaction from the Ti–B4C system in air were studied. The thermal explosion reaction for the formation of TiC and TiB2 can be initiated at a relatively low temperature with the incorporation of air. Generally, the ignition process in air is suggested to be a chemical oven rather than gas transport, and the reaction process is proposed to be dissolution and precipitation.

In the present study, pure titanium (Ti) plates were firstly treated to form various types of oxide layers on the surface and then were immersed into simulated body fluid (SBF) to evaluate the apatite-forming ability. The surface morphology and roughness of the different oxide layers were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the surface energies were determined based on the Owens–Wendt (OW) methods. It was found that Ti samples after alkali heat (AH) treatment achieved the best apatite formation after soaking in SBF for three weeks, compared with those without treatment, thermal or H2O2 oxidation. Furthermore, contact angle measurement revealed that the oxide layer on the alkali heat treated Ti samples possessed the highest surface energy. The results indicate that the apatite-inducing ability of a titanium oxide layer links to its surface energy. Apatite nucleation is easier on a surface with a higher surface energy.

Nanostructured Cu/304 stainless steel (SS) multilayers were prepared by magnetron sputtering. 304SS has a face-centered-cubic (fcc) structure in bulk. However, in the Cu/304SS multilayers, the 304SS layers exhibit the fcc structure for layer thickness of ≤5 nm in epitaxy with the neighboring fcc Cu. For 304SS layer thickness larger than 5 nm, body-centered-cubic (bcc) 304SS grains grow on top of the initial 5 nm fcc SS with the Kurdjumov-Sachs orientation relationship between bcc and fcc SS grains. The maximum hardness of Cu/304SS multilayers is about 5.5 GPa (factor of two enhancement compared to rule-of-mixtures hardness) at a layer thickness of 5 nm. Below 5 nm, hardness decreases with decreasing layer thickness. The peak hardness of fcc/fcc Cu/304SS multilayer is greater than that of Cu/Ni, even though the lattice-parameter mismatch between Cu and Ni is five times greater than that between Cu and 304SS. This result may primarily be attributed to the higher interface barrier stress for single-dislocation transmission across the {111} twinned interfaces in Cu/304SS as compared to the {100} interfaces in Cu/Ni.

Formation of nanocrystalline composites γ-TiAl + Ti2AlN by mechanically alloying (MA) Ti50Al50 in a N2 atmosphere and subsequent annealing treatment are investigated. The development of the microstructure was monitored by x-ray diffraction, and differential thermal analysis and transmission electron microscopy. The amorphous phase could be obtained after milling for 30 h in a nitrogen atmosphere. The TEM results show that some nanocrystalline solid solution of Al in Ti also existed in the amorphous matrix. The results of annealing treatments at different temperatures for 0.5 h on the amorphous phase obtained by MA in N2 gas for 30 h show the formation of γ-phase (TiAl) and a nitride of titanium and aluminum (Ti2AlN). Available annealing treatments could produced nanocrystalline composites of γ-TiAl and Ti2AlN with a grain size less than 20 nm. With increasing annealing temperature, the crystalline sizes of γ-TiAl and Ti2AlN increase, but the values of microhardness increase slightly.

We report new results on continuous wave Nd: YAG laser deposition of Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) thin films. Substrates were soda-lime silicate (SLS) glass, silica glass, silicon, alumina, and copper coated formvar sheets. As-deposited films were characteristically mixtures of cubic and hexagonal phases. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that two different grain size groups are present. As revealed by SEM micrographs, films had smooth surface morphology. Transmission electron microscopy analysis reveals that grain sizes were extremely small. Also, semiconductive behavior was noted.

Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was used to deposit epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films on (100) MgO substrates at 600°C. The metalorganic precursors employed in the deposition experiments were hydrated Ba(thd)2 (thd = C11H19O2) and titanium isopropoxide. The films were analyzed by means of transmittance spectroscopy, wavelength dispersive x-ray spectrometry, secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling, x-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, nanoscale energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry and second harmonic generation measurements. There was no evidence for interdiffusion between the film and substrate. The x-ray and electron diffraction studies showed that the films were oriented with the a-axis normal to the substrate surface, whereas second harmonic generation measurements showed that the films had some c-axis character.

A series of experiments have been performed to examine the ability of ion beam assisted thermal deposition to produce good adhesion of Au metallization on GaAs <100> substrates. A study of the influence of Ar ion-assisted thermal deposition of the Au films as well as in situ pre-sputtering of the GaAs surface with low-energy Ar ions prior to thermal deposition, shows that strong adhesion can be achieved without resorting to chemical cleaning. The substrate temperature and the relative flux of Ar ions to incident Au atoms were varied in order to correlate these parameters with film adhesion. The interfaces of films processed under these various conditions were examined by XTEM, RBS and XPS. Orientation texture was studied by x-ray diffraction (XRD).