Glass microlens arrays (MLAs) offer flexible designability and superior light modulation capability, making them essential in optical communication, sensing, and imaging. Glass compression molding (GCM) using metallic molds is regarded as one of the most promising methods for the mass production of glass MLAs elements. However, a significant challenge lies in fabricating fine micro- and even nanostructures on the surfaces of metallic molds for GCM. To overcome this limitation, we developed a non-mechanical method that exploits the unique thermoplastic forming properties of metallic glasses (MGs). Lens arrays with structural features of 75 mu m and 400 nm were successfully fabricated on the Zr-based MGs. The molded MGs were subsequently subjected to full crystallization and coated with an amorphous Ir-NiTa-Nb film. This 'spawning' process yielded metallic molds suitable for the GCM process. The resulting molds demonstrated excellent anti-adhesion performance and high-temperature durability, with a surface roughness of only about 4.6 nm, and no deterioration after 30 molding cycles at 620 degrees C. Using these molds, corresponding glass elements were replicated with high fidelity, and their reliable imaging and focusing performance was validated. Overall, we present a convenient and promising strategy for the high-volume fabrication of precision glass elements. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) are leading candidates for large-scale energy storage, but their commercialization is hindered by Zn anode dendrites and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), limiting cycle life to <200 h. Current strategies—interface engineering and alloying—offer marginal improvements but fail for scalability due to complex processing or high costs. Herein, we report a second-scale, room-temperature, low-stress ultrasonic vibration (UV) strategy that enables Ag/Cu/In doping of Zn anodes via enhanced atomic motion, concurrently achieving grain refinement and cost reduction with recyclable metal foils. The synergy of doping, grain refinement, and UV-induced stacking faults (SFs) and nanoscale defects enables uniform Zn deposition and suppressed HER. Ag-doped AZIBs deliver 5600 h cycle life at 0.5 mA·cm-2 and 0.5 mAh·cm-2, retaining 3180 h under rigorous conditions of 5 mA·cm-2 and 1 mAh·cm-2. Cu- and In-doped counterparts achieve 5350 h and 3090 h, respectively, at this high-current regime. This work resolves AZIBs’ cycle-life bottleneck, establishes a universal physical vibration paradigm for metal electrode engineering, and transcends AZIBs to enable scalable high-performance energy storage.

Metallic glasses (MGs), as distinctive amorphous metallic alloys, exhibit high-density undercoordinated sites and elevated Gibbs free energy, rendering them highly promising candidates for electrocatalysis. However, MGs inevitably undergo aging or structural relaxation over time, which inevitably triggers the degradation of their intrinsic catalytic properties. Consequently, reversing the aging effect of fully relaxed MGs to recover and even boost their catalytic performance has long remained a formidable and unresolved challenge in the field, given that conventional strategies are ineffective in reactivating the relaxed atomic configurations and restoring the high-energy state of MGs. Herein, we report an innovative energy modulation strategy-Ultrasonic Vibration Loading (UV loading). This strategy not only retrieves the energy of fully relaxed MGs but also induces the formation of a biphase structure with coexisting amorphous and crystalline phases, where the synergistic coupling of the crystalline phase's superior electrical conductivity and the amorphous phase's abundant unsaturated coordination sites optimizes the hydrogen adsorption Gibbs free energy to be closer to 0 eV, thereby remarkably enhancing their catalytic performance. The general applicability of this approach is validated by the superior hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of Pt-based MGs and Pd-based MGs in alkaline electrolytes. Our findings underscore the unique merits of UV loading in tailoring the surface energy and catalytic performance of MGs and provide a versatile paradigm for surface energy modulation of advanced electrocatalysts.

Here, we present a novel ultrasonic vibration compression (UVC) technique that enables the dual-phase Mg-9Li-1Al alloy to exhibit high strain rates (similar to 0.49 s(-1)), and large strain (similar to 1.6) super-malleability (circumferential elongation similar to 140 %) at room temperature within 2 s. Furthermore, the alloy after forming demonstrates excellent surface quality and a 17 % increase in microhardness. Preliminary application testing demonstrates that the proposed UVC technology is capable of effectively manufacturing magnesium alloy corrugated plates. This study may provide a new strategy for enhancing room-temperature formability and product manufacturing in magnesium alloys.

Lithium-ion batteries constitute the cornerstone of modern energy storage. However, commercial graphite anodes are increasingly limited by their theoretical capacity and energy density. Although high-capacity alternatives such as silicon and transition metal oxides have been explored, their practical implementation remains severely bottlenecked by structural instability. High-entropy materials (HEMs) have emerged as promising candidates capable of transcending these conventional limitations. Governed by the four fundamental core effects, HEMs exhibit unique synergistic attributes, including enhanced lattice resilience and superior electrochemical kinetics, that surpass those of conventional binary or ternary counterparts. This review systematically evaluates recent progress in HEM-based anodes for lithium storage, categorizing high-entropy alloys, oxides, and burgeoning derivatives, including sulfides and phosphides. We further dissect the multifaceted storage mechanisms and the practical hurdles facing the predominant high-entropy oxide anodes. Finally, we offer forward-looking perspectives on the field, emphasizing the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) for accelerated material discovery and the pathways toward industrial-scale application.

This study reports a UV-enhanced periodate (PI) activation strategy for reaction-driven in situ nanoengineering of Fe78Si9B13 amorphous alloy ribbons (Fe-AR) toward efficient methyl orange degradation under near-neutral conditions. The key issue addressed is whether an amorphous alloy surface can undergo self-optimizing dynamic reconstruction in a PI oxidative environment, thereby overcoming the passivation bottleneck of conventional iron-based catalysts. During the Fe-AR/UV/PI reaction, the initially smooth ribbon surface was spontaneously transformed into a three-dimensional nanostructured active interface, accompanied by a wettability transition from hydrophobicity to high hydrophilicity, with the water contact angle decreasing from 88.7 degrees to 12.0 degrees. Under 1 mmol L- 1 PI and 30 mW cm- 2 UV irradiation, 98.10% removal of methyl orange (20 mg L-1) was achieved within 50 min, with an apparent rate constant of 0.1378 min-1 , which was 21.2 and 30.0 times higher than those of the crystalline ribbon and commercial Fe powder, respectively. Comparative experiments, density functional theory calculations, and electrochemical analyses demonstrated that the enhanced performance was mainly attributed to the intrinsic amorphous structure, stronger PI adsorption, faster interfacial electron transfer, and continuous generation of reactive surface sites. Mechanistic investigations indicated that singlet oxygen (1O2) served as the dominant reactive species, while center dot OH and O2 center dot- acted as auxiliary species. Moreover, 95.8% degradation efficiency was retained after eight cycles, and effective degradation of methylene blue and tetracycline was also achieved. This work demonstrated that amorphous alloy catalysts could be self-activated through oxidative surface reconstruction, providing a promising strategy for developing antipassivation and high-performance catalytic materials for water purification.

The development of electronic components has put forward higher requirements for heat dissipation materials, manifested in the pursuit of higher thermal conductivity and lower thermal expansion. Cu/Diamond composite, combining excellent thermal conductive performance and process ability. However, it is limited by strict preparation conditions, such as high temperature and pressure, or complex intermediate medium coating. This work proposes a one-step and heat-source-free cold manufacturing method to fabricate Cu/Diamond composite under room temperature and a low pressure of ∼16 MPa within seconds via ultrasonic vibration. The applied pressure decreased by 200 to 500 times, and the required temperature was only 20

Magnesium (Mg) alloy applications are severely limited by their poor room-temperature formability, which stems from the scarcity of thermally activated slip systems under ambient conditions. Here, we report a novel forming approach which can obtain exceptional malleability in an AZ31 Mg alloy sheet by ultrasonic vibration compression (UVC) initiated at room temperature. At a high strain rate of 3 × 10–1 s−1 and a low compression stress of 43.23 MPa, the 20 kHz UVC triggers significant deformation. This process achieves a true strain of 1.7 and a circumference expansion of 140%, demonstrating exceptional formability. This technique can be applied to prepare Mg products with various complex geometries including pentagram, square, hexagon, circle, and gear shapes. The high-frequency ultrasonic loading induces strong dislocation multiplication and entanglement that promotes the microstructure to evolve through three stages of (i) twinning-induced initial recrystallization, (ii) twin exhaustion followed by activation of non-basal slip systems, and (iii) shear band-mediated formation of ultrafine grains, ultimately achieving a considerable grain refinement. The microstructure evolution jointly supports the observed super compressive malleability. Our work provides a simple and effective approach to develop Mg alloy products at room temperature that has great industrial application value.

Developing high-efficiency catalysts for the seawater urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is pivotal to advancing hydrogen production via seawater electrolysis. Defect engineering has established itself as a core strategy for regulating catalytic activity. However, conventional defect regulation technologies are predominantly hindered by inherent drawbacks such as high energy consumption, substantial costs, and environmental contamination. Herein, we introduce high-frequency ultrasonic vibration cold-manufacture (HUVCM) as a novel, eco-friendly, and highly efficient defect engineering approach to fabricate high-performance Ni-based catalysts for seawater UOR. Our findings demonstrate that HUVCM induces the formation of high-density dislocation defects on the surface of Ni-based alloys, which subsequently initiate the in situ construction of ultra-fine nanocrystalline structures with an average grain size of similar to 5 nm. The Ni-based alloys modified by HUVCM exhibit remarkably enhanced catalytic activity toward both the hydrogen evolution reaction and UOR. Notably, for UOR, the catalyst shows excellent activity with merely 1.4 V at 100 mA cm-2, placing the catalyst among the state-of-the-art Ni-based seawater UOR electrocatalysts. We further reveal that the superior catalytic performance stems directly from the elevated valence states of constituent elements, which are effectively modulated by the high-density dislocation defects introduced via HUVCM. This work proposes an efficient and facile defect-engineering strategy for electrocatalysts, while establishing a pivotal foundation for the industrial-scale production of hydrogen via seawater electrolysis. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(UOR)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(HUVCM)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)5 nm(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)100 mA cm-2(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)1.4 V(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic),(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).

The design of materials with desirable and tailorable properties is a long-standing goal within materials science, where composites represent a key strategy. However, a central dilemma in conventional composite manufacturing is that the thermal energy required to form strong interfacial bonds often simultaneously induces detrimental side effects, including interfacial reactions and reinforcement degradation. To resolve this generic conflict, we introduce a versatile "cold manufacturing" strategy utilizing metallic glasses as matrices. By exploiting an athermal ultrasonic vibration mechanism—which induces transient liquid-like behavior in metallic glasses without thermal activation—we achieve seamless interfacial bonding across diverse conductors, insulators, metals, and non-metals via oxide-layer-penetrating diffusion at ambient conditions. Crucially, successful fabrication underwater and in liquid nitrogen definitively demonstrates the technique's purely athermal nature, avoiding any thermal degradation pathways. By tuning metallic glasses binder ratios and additive compositions, we precisely engineer mechanical properties (Vickers hardness: 400-1450 HV) and magnetic response (saturation magnetization: 0-158.6emu/g), forming robust bonds. This work thus establishes a versatile and fundamentally distinct composite manufacturing platform, opening a generic pathway to multifunctional composites free from the intrinsic limitations of heat.

ABSTRACT Developing high‐performance non‐precious metal electrocatalysts for hydrogen production is vital to combat the energy crisis. Metallic glasses (MGs), a promising class of novel materials, have emerged as a focal point in the search for efficient catalysts. However, the lack of long‐range order in the amorphous structure of MGs poses significant challenges for precisely tuning their catalytic performance. Herein, we report a strategy to boost water electrolysis performance efficiency by using an ultralow magnetic field in soft‐magnetic MG wires. Remarkably, a magnetic field of merely 100 Oe, two orders of magnitude lower than that required for crystalline catalysts (10000 Oe for CoFe 2 O 4 ), can significantly enhance the OER activity of Fe‐, Ni‐, and Co‐based MGs. Among them, Ni 40 Fe 40 P 20 metallic glass can achieve an unprecedented overall water‐splitting performance with a cell voltage of 1.51 V @ 1000 mA cm −2 by magnetic modulation, marking a significant breakthrough among all catalysts reported ever. Furthermore, we revealed that the mechanism of magnetic enhancement is associated with the spin polarization within the unique periodic magnetic domain structure on the circumferential surface of MG wires, which increases orbital hybridization and net spin density. This work provides a new route for designing and modulating the electrocatalytic properties in disordered materials.

Metallic glasses (MGs) often suffer from sluggish hydrogen evolution reaction5 (HER) kinetics in neutral and alkaline media, with their catalytic performance predominantly confined to acidic environments. Herein, we reported a novel thermoplastic forming technique to fabricate a self-supported partially crystallized nanoporous Pt56.2Ni5.2Cu16.8P21.8 metallic glass (C-NPMG). The C-NPMG catalyst delivers ultralow overpotentials of 18.0 mV (0.5 M H2SO4), 42.2 mV (1 M KOH), and 88.0 mV (1 M phosphate-buffered saline (PBS)) at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, outperforming most state-of-the-art non-noble MGs and Pt-based benchmarks across all pH conditions. Notably, it maintains negligible performance decay for over 1000 h in alkaline electrolytes, showcasing superior stability. Experimental and computational analyses reveal that the enhanced HER activity arises from three synergistic effects: (1) the high-specific-surface-area nanoporous architecture that maximizes active site exposure; (2) the formation of crystallite-amorphous interfaces during partial crystallization, which lowers the energy barrier for H2 desorption; (3) the hierarchical super-hydrophilic and super-hydrophobic wettability of the C-NPMG, which optimizes mass transport and prevents electrolyte-induced corrosion. This work establishes a novel design paradigm for developing high-performance, pH-universal HER electrocatalysts by integrating structural nano-engineering and crystallite-amorphous phase synergy in metallic glass systems to overcome the trade-offs between performance and stability in electrochemical water splitting.

Biomimetic hierarchical structures (BHS) are a powerful strategy for engineering functional surfaces with exceptional properties. However, their practical application is limited by inefficient, costly and complex fabrication methods. This study presents a novel net-forming approach for the efficient, scalable fabrication of BHS inspired by the microstructure of rice leaves. By optimizing the tool surface design, the process achieves an ultra-low material loss of just 0.008‰ and a high processing efficiency of 18 mm2/s. The resulting BHS replicate the superhydrophobicity and anisotropic sliding behavior of rice leaves, while maintaining durable water repellency after more than 5000 hours of natural exposure and under severe abrasion. The method further offers substantial design flexibility, allowing the reconfiguration of BHS to accommodate diverse functions. This versatility is demonstrated by the fabrication of a mesh with BHS that exhibits efficient oil/water separation, achieving a separation efficiency of 99.07

Plastic pollution has become a pervasive environmental crisis, intensifying greenhouse gas emissions, contaminating soils, and potentially aggravating cardiovascular risks. Prevailing recycling strategies such as incineration, landfilling, and mechanical processing remain constrained by inefficiency, contamination, and excessive energy demand, resulting in limited reusability of the recovered materials. Therefore, developing an eco-friendly, high-performance technology that transforms plastic waste into valuable resources is imperative. Herein, we report a novel waste plastic upcycling strategy utilizing ultrasonic vibration cold fabrication to convert waste polyethylene terephthalate into carbon materials. The polyethylene terephthalate was treated via a combination of ultrasonic vibration and dissolution methods to produce highly carbonized, porous materials with high photothermal efficiency that enable high-performance seawater distillation. High-frequency stress treatment promotes rapid polymer chain scission, deoxygenation, and aromatization, facilitating heat-source-free carbonization. We further revealed that porous carbonized materials exhibit exceptional broadband photothermal conversion with an efficiency exceeding 95%. In seawater distillation, the material generated 2.19 kg m-2 h-1 of solar steam and maintained stability in high-salinity conditions. Leveraging the flexible fabrication capability of these porous carbons, we constructed a solar evaporation device and demonstrated a freshwater yield of 6.02 kg m-2 in 10 h of outdoor testing, which is 5.2 times that of natural evaporation.

Low-carbon steel is widely used in ships, bridges, and automobiles owing to its combination of plasticity, toughness, and economy. However, its relatively low surface hardness and limited wear resistance fail to satisfy the stringent surface property requirements of advanced manufacturing. Conventional surface modification techniques often suffer from one or more limitations, such as high heat input, weak interfacial bonding, or low processing efficiency, which hinder the long-term stability of surface enhancement. Here, we propose a highly efficient heat-source-free cold manufacturing method. This approach applies high-frequency ultrasonic vibration to the material surface, enabling controllable modulation of its microstructure. For Q235 steel, treatment at 2000 J increases nanohardness from 5.52 to 22.34 GPa, while reducing the wear rate from 13.56 & times; 10(-6) to 3.02 & times; 10(-6) mm(3) N-1 m(-1) at room temperature. The process exhibits notable advantages of low stress (<30 MPa), minimal temperature rise (similar to 280.6 degrees C), and short duration (<6 s). Moreover, the surface generates a gradient nanostructure about 10 mu m thick, with the grain size refined from similar to 5 mu m to similar to 300 nm. Overall, we propose an efficient and economical strategy that is anticipated to enhance the surface properties of steel and other metals by tailoring their microstructure, thereby expanding their practical applications.

Ultrasonic vibration has been widely applied to modify the properties of glasses, yet its influence on glass relaxation remains elusive. Here, we systematically examine the effects of ultrasonic vibrations over broad frequency and amplitude ranges on an organic molecular glass, N,N-bis(3-methylphenyl)-diphenyl-benzidine, during isothermal annealing below the glass transition temperature. Calorimetric up-scan indicates that samples annealed with ultrasound exhibit a higher probability and extent of crystallization compared to those annealed without ultrasound, while their enthalpy recovery remains unchanged. These results indicate that ultrasonic vibration facilitates local structural ordering towards crystallization, through a distinct pathway without detectably affecting the relaxation process and potential-energy evolution.

The growing usage of industrial dyes makes the sewage treatment a global issue, therefore low-cost, highly efficient catalysts are urgently demanded for wastewater purification. We present an ultrasonic-engineered catalytic technology, which can achieve an extremely high efficiency in azo dye degradation via a tiny dosage of 0.1 g L−1 (only one-fifth of the normally used dosage) Fe81Si9B10 amorphous powders (APs) with a low activation energy of 45.32 kJ mol−1 and a high reaction rate of 0.70291 min−1. The non-destructive ultrasonic vibration (UV) treatment with very short processing times (0.43–1.08 s) amplifies degradation efficiency by an astonishing 55-fold compared to untreated APs. Combined with high-energy X-ray diffraction and small-angle neutron scattering analyses, we reveal that the UV-induced structural reconstruction at both short- and medium-range order effectively lower reaction energy barriers while accelerating charge transfer kinetics. The high-energy ultrasonic attacks promote the exposure of massive fresh active sites, which enhance the Fe2+/Fe3+ redox circulation and thereby lead to the fast Fenton-like oxidation processes. By integrating ultrasonic physics with amorphous materials, this work develops an energy-efficient catalytic activation method, enabling sustainable water purification and innovative pollutant treatment strategies.

Ubiquitous electromagnetic signals enable modern information exchange but also cause radiation, interference, and data security risks. Shielding low-frequency magnetic fields (f < 100 kHz) remains challenging because conventional materials exhibit high residual magnetization that weakens shielding performance. Here, ultra-low residual magnetization in Co-based amorphous alloys is achieved through atomic ordering induced by multi-step rotating magnetic field (MS-RMF) annealing. The alloys show ultra-low coercivity (0.147 A/m), residual magnetic field of similar to 50 nT, and a maximum permeability of similar to 400,000, resulting in a 70% improvement in magnetic shielding effectiveness by reducing magnetic anisotropy and enhancing domain wall mobility.

Ni-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are emerging as promising candidates for high-temperature tribological applications due to their superior mechanical strength and remarkable thermal stability. This study aims to examine the high-temperature tribological behavior of a representative Ni-based BMG, Ni59.2Nb38.8P2, over an extensive temperature range from room temperature (RT) to 550 degrees C. The results obtained reveal that the alloy exhibits exceptional wear resistance in the RT-300 degrees C range, with wear rates gradually increasing from 3.26 +/- 0.4 x 10-6 mm3 N-1 m-1 to 7.30 +/- 0.5 x 10-6 mm3 N-1 m-1. However, at elevated temperatures, wear performance declines significantly, reaching 28.40 +/- 1.2 x 10-6 mm3 N-1 m-1 at 450 degrees C and escalating to 99.40 +/- 1.2 x 10-6 mm3 N-1 m-1 at 550 degrees C. This trend indicates a transition in the dominant wear mechanisms-from mild abrasive and oxidative wear to severe oxidative, adhesive, and abrasive interactions. The conducted structural analysis displays increased oxidation at higher temperatures, accompanied by distinct crystallization at 550 degrees C under combined thermal and mechanical stresses. These findings crucially shed light on the wear mechanisms and structural evolution of the Ni59.2Nb38.8P2 BMG under high-temperature conditions, offering valuable insights for its application in thermally and mechanically demanding tribological environments.