In this work, the phase field model was developed to understand the redistribution behavior of insoluble particles during metal solidification. This was achieved by modifying the pure solidification model to incorporate the insoluble particle using an interaction term for phase change interactions and the Lagrange multiplier for particle conservation. The novelty of this work involves the use of the phase field model for solidification and the use of the Lagrange multiplier as a simple diffuse interface approach to simulate particle capture or pushing with changes in solidification variables compared to complicated interface tracking approaches where particle capture and pushing are difficult to simulate. The developed model was applied to investigate the influence of materials properties and processing conditions on particle behavior at the solidification interface. The effect of parameters like particle diameter, solidification velocity, particle thermal conductivity, particle–solid interfacial energies and melt viscosities were investigated. The developed model can predict the influence of different parameters on particle behavior during both planar and dendritic solidification. Comparison of results shows that particles are easily engulfed during planar solidification whilst particle engulfment during dendritic solidification is difficult. In both cases, the critical velocities for particle incorporation increase with an increase in particle–solid surface energy and a decrease in particle to melt thermal conductivity ratios and melt viscosities.

This article presents experimental results on the preparation and characterisation of a multi-component AB(2)-type intermetallic hydrogen storage alloy (A = Ti0.85Zr0.15, B = Mn1.22Ni0.22Cr0.2V0.3Fe0.06). The alloy samples were prepared by induction melting using Y2O3-lined alumo-silica and graphite crucibles. The characterisation results were compared with the ones for the reference sample of the same composition prepared by arc melting. It has been shown that the induction-melted samples exhibit reduced hydrogen sorption capacities and sloping plateaux on the pressure composition isotherms (PCI's). The origin of the observed effects has been shown to be in the inhomogeneity of the induction-melted alloys and their contamination due to crucible-melt interaction, particularly pronounced for the alloy melted in the alumo-silica crucible; this alloy was additionally characterised by the decrease of Zr/Ti ratio and, in turn, higher plateau pressures of the PCI's.

The wet phosphoric acid (WPA) process equipment is exposed to corrosive and wear conditions with aggressiveness determined by the phosphate rock chemical composition and process parameters employed. Stainless steels and nickel alloys are attractive materials considered for WPA plant construction since they are mechanically and chemically robust to withstand the aggressive environment encountered. This review first describes the WPA process emphasizing on the aggressiveness of the environment to plant construction materials. Then, principles behind design and fabrication of stainless steels and nickel alloys with properties tailored to withstand this aggressive environment are described. To withstand corrosion conditions encountered during the WPA process alloys should contain sufficient chromium (Cr), with some molybdenum (Mo) and nickel (Ni) contents and should possess a homogeneous microstructure. Wear resistance in a specific section of the plant is ensured by adjusting the carbon content and carbide formers contents to obtain adequate carbides for protection from abrasion. Reported data on deterioration rates and failure mechanisms of commonly used alloys is first presented before discussing selection and performance of these alloys in different sections of the WPA plant. Future challenges and opportunities in selection of suitable materials and development of novel materials are finally outlined.

Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) is widely used in various industrial processes, including fertilizer production. However, its highly corrosive nature poses a significant challenge to the materials used for transport and storage, particularly metals and alloys. This review provides an overview of corrosion types in iron and nickel-based alloys, commonly employed for handling sulphuric acid. The paper discusses alloy selection based on their corrosion behavior in different H2SO4 concentrations, temperatures, and harsh conditions such as erosion-corrosion and presence of contaminants. Additionally, it highlights the use of inhibitors and polymeric coatings for corrosion protection. Finally, the paper outlines future research directions for corrosion protection of alloys in sulphuric acid environments.

There is a huge demand for high-performance materials in extreme environments involving wear and corrosion. High chromium white cast irons (HCWCIs) display better performance than many materials since they are of sufficient hardness for wear protection and can be tailored in chemical compositions to improve corrosion resistance; however, their performance is often still inadequate. This article reviews the chemical composition and microstructure design aspects employed to tailor and develop HCWCIs with combined corrosion and wear resistance. The performance of these alloys under wear and corrosion is reviewed to highlight the influence of these parameters in the industry. Existing challenges and future opportunities, mainly focusing on metallurgical alloy development aspects like chemical composition, casting, and heat treatment design, are highlighted. This is followed by suggestions for potential developments in HCWCIs to improve the performance of materials in these aggressive environments. Many variables are involved in the design to obtain suitable microstructures and matrix composition for wear–corrosion resistance. Computational modeling is a promising approach for optimizing multi-design variables; however, reliable field performance data of HCWCIs in wear–corrosion environments are still inadequate. Quantitative evaluation of the wear–corrosion performance of HCWCIs requires the development of laboratory and field tests using standard conditions like abrasive type and sizes, severity of loading, slurry velocity, pH, and temperature to develop wear–corrosion maps to guide alloy development.

Precipitate coarsening is a major mechanism responsible for the degradation in mechanical properties of many precipitation-hardened alloys at high temperatures. With recent developments in processing of nanocomposite materials, a substantial volume fraction of inert second phase ceramic nanoparticles can be introduced into the grain interiors of polycrystalline materials. These intragranular nanoparticles can have synergistic effects of impeding dislocation motion and interacting with coarsening precipitates to modify the coarsening rate. In this work, the precipitate coarsening behavior of an alloy in the presence of intragranular inert nanoparticles was studied using the phase field method. Two key measurements of coarsening kinetics, precipitate size distribution and coarsening rate, were found to be affected by the volume fraction and the size of nanoparticles. Two novel mechanisms related to geometric constraints imposed by inter-nanoparticle distance and the blockage of solute diffusion path by nanoparticle–matrix interfaces were proposed to explain the observed changes in precipitate coarsening kinetics. The simulation results in general suggest that the use of small nanoparticles with large number density is effective in slowing down the coarsening kinetics.

We investigated the influence of oxygen vacancies (varying) on the structure and properties (dielectric and magnetic) of Co (fixed) and Mn (varied) co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) fabricated using the chemical precipitation technique. The oxygen vacancies in the lattice increased with an increase in dopants (Co, Mn) concentration. Annealing of the doped nanoparticles decreased their dielectric properties due to reduced grain boundaries caused by enhanced grain growth. Replacement of Zn ions with dopants in the lattice enhanced the samples' electrical conductivities due to the reduction in grain boundaries and increase of charge carriers. The co-doped nanoparticles annealed at 600 °C exhibited some hysteresis loop changes and became ferromagnetic (FM). The magnetization increased with an increase in dopants content in the ZnO matrix, while coercivity decreased. This shows that the properties of the doped samples are strongly related to the number of oxygen vacancies. These results demonstrated that the enhanced dielectric and magnetization responses of Co (fixed) and Mn (varied) co-doped ZnO nanoparticles are strongly correlated with the oxygen vacancies. The enhancement in optical, dielectric, and magnetic properties make transition metals (TM)-doped ZnO nanoparticles suitable for spintronics, and optoelectronic-based applications.

We successfully fabricated ZnO, Zn0.96Co0.04O, Zn0.95Co0.04Ce0.01O, Zn0.94Co0.04Ce0.02O, and Zn0.92Co0.04Ce0.04O nanoparticles and studied their room-temperature structure and magnetic properties. The X-rays diffraction (XRD) patterns of all the samples confirmed the presence of a wurtzite-type structure. XRD and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) results showed that Zn2+ ions originally at tetrahedral sites were replaced by high-spin Co2+ and Ce3+ ions. This study also showed that with an increase in co-dopant concentration, the average grain size of the samples increased. We found that Zn0.96-xCo0.04CexO (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4) nanoparticles were ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature above 300 K. In addition, a large increase in ferromagnetism, i.e., high coercivity field, Hc, of 90Oe and remanent magnetization, Mr, of 0.25 × 10−2 emu/g, was observed for Zn0.96-xCo0.04CexO (x = 0.2) nanoparticles. The origins of ferromagnetism may be either due to the intrinsic nature of Co and Ce co-doped samples or to the presence of certain undetected spinel-type impurities in the samples. Also, it was concluded that Co and Ce incorporation are responsible for ferromagnetism in the doped sample. The doping generates oxygen vacancies, which trap charges and cause a rise in F-centers, resulting in exchange interactions with impurity atoms and increased magnetism. All these results showed that co-doped ZnO-based diluted magnetic semiconductors could be considered for spin-based electronics and optoelectronics devices.

The properties of Ti-Al-Nb alloys strongly depend on alloy compositions and microstructures. Proper design of these important aspects requires detailed knowledge of the solidification sequences and liquidus projection. However, there are still some conflicts between previous experimental and calculated results about the liquidus projections in the composition range of Ti-(40-60)Al-(5-30)Nb and this has hindered Ti-Al-Nb alloy development. In this present work, we explicitly investigated the as-cast microstructures and phase constitution of 50 alloys with the composition range of Ti-(40-60)Al-(5-30)Nb and clarified the solidification sequences. We re-constructed the partial liquidus projection and found that the primary beta phase region extend to just below 55 at.% Al content and the primary alpha phase region extend to just below 24 at.% Nb content. Moreover, it was observed that the invariant reaction between Liquid, beta, alpha and gamma phases is a peritectic reaction (Liquid+beta+gamma ->alpha) and all the Liquid+beta+gamma, Liquid+beta+alpha and Liquid+alpha+gamma three-phase regions are of peritectic type. The present work provides essential information necessary for optimizing the Ti-Al-Nb thermodynamic database to accelerate alloy development. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This review highlights the state of art progress in crucible designs which have been identified as showing potential for induction melting three groups of titanium alloys based on the systems; Ti–Al, Ti–Ni, as well as multicomponent Ti-based hydrogen storage alloys. Several important parameters for crucible design, including; crucible-melt interactions, thermodynamic stability, and, thermal shock resistance of different crucibles will be discussed. Based on the findings of the review, the selection criteria for identifying crucibles for melting titanium alloys were outlined and several specific promising solutions were suggested.

The phase transformation sequences and phase equilibria in Ti-47Al-20Nb and Ti-47Al-22Nb (at.%) alloys were investigated through experiments and computational (CALculation of PHAse Diagrams) techniques. Experiments to study nonequilibria phase transformations involved quenching the alloys from high temperature followed by composition and microstructure characterization. The computed results show that with increase in temperature, the α + β + γ tie-triangle phase region shifts towards low Nb content. On the contrary, experimental results show that with increase in temperature the tie-triangle of α + β + γ moves towards high Nb content. These changes are attributed to the expansion of the α phase region and corresponding changes of the primary α, β and γ phase regions with increase in temperature. In the experimentally studied alloys, a part of the α phase transformed to γ phase by massive transformation and most of the β phase transformed to γ phase in high Nb content alloys.

The rich island morphology of two-dimensional (2D) materials during chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth process is studied using a computational model based on a Burton-Cabrera-Frank (BCF) type crystal growth theory. A previously formulated phase-field (PF) model for the BCF crystal growth process is employed to investigate the effect of various growth conditions, such as the concentration of absorbed atoms on the substrate and the growth temperature, that have been experimentally known to significantly impact the island morphology. It is shown that, within this simple model, the rich morphology of 2D islands in CVD growth can be well reproduced. With increasing substrate temperature, the 2D island changes from dendritic to compact shape. When considering the energy difference between the zigzag and the armchair edges of the 2D island, most commonly known morphologies, from quasi-sixfold compact islands to spiky triangular and compact triangular shapes, are observed in the model. Growth mechanisms associated with different island shapes and potential model improvements are also discussed.

This article outlines the findings in the comparison of the influence of mechanical and electromagnetic stirring (EMS) on ingot long-term purity and uniformity during Ohno continuous casting (OCC). The magnitude of the average optimum velocity flow field and stirring parameters required to effectively purify aluminum ingots using mechanical stirring of the melt was determined and analyzed. Basing on the determined optimum mechanical flow field, electromagnetic parameters producing almost the same flow field near the interface were obtained through careful adjustments of parameters. Optimum parameters of the mechanical and EMS were obtained by numerically solving the solidification model coupled with either the multi-reference frame model (for mechanical stirring) or the magnetohydrodynamic model (for EMS) in CFD Fluent 6.3.26 software. For mechanical stirring, an optimum stirring intensity of 2 mm/min was determined whilst for EMS, the optimum magnetic field with an amplitude of 20 mT and a frequency of 2.7 Hz was determined, and these produced same magnitude optimum flow fields resulting in high-purity aluminum ingots. Comparison of the two methods showed that EMS is good in covering all the regions near the solid–liquid interface and is more effective in bulk melt mixing; thus it produces more uniform and purer ingots for longer casting times.

PurposeThin coatings are of great importance to minimize corrosion attack of steel in different environments. A review of recent work on electrodeposition and corrosion performance of Zn-Ni-based alloys for sacrificial corrosion protection of ferrous substrates is presented. The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic comparison of the corrosion resistances of Zn-Ni alloy coatings. The review contains key and outstanding comparisons of references for the period from 2007 to 2017. Binary and ternary Zn-Ni-based alloys were compared and contrasted to provide a good knowledge basis for selection of best coating system to steel substrates.Design/methodology/approachThis article is a review article.FindingsZn-Ni-(X) alloys show great potential for replacing Cd metal in corrosion protection of steel substrates.Practical implicationsThe research on plating of binary Zn-Ni alloys from aqueous electrolytes is now well advanced and these alloys show improved corrosion resistance compared to pure Zn. Pulse plated and compositionally modulated multilayer Zn-Ni alloy coatings showed enhanced corrosion properties compared to direct plated Zn-Ni coatings of similar composition.Originality/valueThe work on electrodeposition of Zn-Ni based alloys from ionic liquids is still scarce, yet these liquids show great promise in improving corrosion resistance and reducing coating thickness when compared to aqueous electrolytes. Advanced plating techniques in ionic liquids such as electromagnetic, compositionally modulated multilayer, pulse plating, ternary alloys and composites should be considered as these electrolytes avoid water chemistry and associated defects.

We analysed the variation and effect of oxygen vacancies on the structural, dielectric and magnetic properties in case of Mn (4%) and Co (1, 2 and 4%) co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs), synthesized by chemical precipitation route and annealed at 750 °C for 2 h. From the XRD, the calculated average crystallite size increased from15.30 ± 0.73 nm to 16.71 ± 012 nm, when Co content is increased from 1 to 4%. Enhancement of dopants (Mn, Co) introduced more and more oxygen vacancies to ZnO lattice confirmed from EDX and XPS. The high-temperature annealing leads to reduction of the dielectric properties due to enhancement in grain growth (large grain volume and lesser number of grain boundaries) with the incorporation of Co and Mn ions into the ZnO lattice. The electrical conductivity of the Mn doped and (Mn, Co) co-doped ZnO samples were enhanced due to increase in the volume of conducting grains and charge density (liberation of trapped charge carriers in oxygen vacancies and free charge carriers at higher frequencies). The Mn-doped and (Mn, Co) co-doped ZnO NPs show ferromagnetic (FM) behaviour. The saturation and remnant magnetizations (M s and M r ) elevates from (0.235 to 1.489) × 10 −2 and (0.12 to 0.27) × 10 −2 emu/g while Coercivity (H c ) reduced from 97 to 36 Oe with enhancement in the concentration of dopants in ZnO matrix. Oxygen vacancies were found to be the main reason for room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) in the doped and co-doped ZnO NPs. The results show that the enhanced dielectric and magnetic properties of Mn doped and (Mn, Co) co-doped ZnO is strongly correlated with the concentration of oxygen vacancies. The observed enhanced RTFM, dielectric properties and electrical conductivity makes TM doped ZnO nanoparticles suitable for spintronics, microelectronics and optoelectronics based applications.

The effect of annealing temperature on the dielectric and magnetic properties of (Co, Zn) co-doped SnO2 nanoparticles under air/oxygen (O2) and argon (Ar) atmospheres at 600 °C have been systematically investigated. A significant decrease is observed in dielectric constant and dielectric loss resulting from the incorporation of Co and Zn into the SnO2 lattice. Higher dielectric constant and loss was observed in the O2 annealed sample. Moreover, the electrical conductivity of the (Co, Zn) co-doped SnO2 samples increased in comparison with that of pure SnO2 sample due to the increase of available charge carriers after replacement of Sn ions with Co and Zn ions. Room-temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) was observed for both the O2 and Ar annealed (Co, Zn) co-doped SnO2 samples. However, the remanent magnetization (Mr) varied drastically for different environmental annealing processes with Mr = 0.412 and 0.20 memu/g for the O2 and Ar-annealed samples, respectively. The results show that the enhanced dielectric and magnetic properties of (Co, Zn) co-doped SnO2 sample is strongly correlated with the increase in O2 vacancies. These findings not only demonstrate that (Co, Zn) co-doped SnO2 samples show tunable RTFM, but also suggests that RTFM can be influenced by introduction of O2 vacancies during O2 annealing.

Pure and Zn0.98Ni0.02O nanostructures were prepared by the co-precipitation method. The effects of annealing in Argon (Ar) and oxygen (O2) environment on the structure, dielectric, electric and magnetic properties were investigated. The structural analysis from X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray results confirmed that all the nanoparticles samples indexed to hexagonal wurtzite ZnO structure. A significant decrease was observed in the dielectric constant (ε r ) and dielectric loss (ε′′) resulting from the incorporation of Ni into the ZnO lattice. Higher ε r and ε′′ were observed in the O2 annealed sample. Moreover, the AC electrical conductivity (α AC ) of the Ni doped ZnO sample increased in comparison with that of pure ZnO sample due to the increase of available charge carriers after replacement of Zn ions with Ni ions. The 2 wt% Ni-doped ZnO sample annealed in O2 and Ar environment revealed room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) behavior, but higher ferromagnetic was only observed in the O2 annealed sample. The origin of RTFM may originate from the exchange interaction between Ni 2+ and excess of O2 vacancy in Zn0.98Ni0.02O nanoparticles.