This study explores a sustainable "waste-to-value" approach that employs barium slag (Ba-slag), a byproduct of BaCO3 production, as a roasting additive for vanadium extraction from V-slag. Key challenges addressed include isolating a pure V product from a multi-component leachate, explaining the leaching characteristics, and managing the tailings. In this work, a roasted mixture of Ba-slag and V-slag was leached under optimized conditions, yielding a leachate from which V2O5 with 99.50 % purity was recovered via precipitation and calcination. Tailings were repurposed into foamed ceramics, achieving a maximum compressive strength of 4.05 MPa as a potential structural component. Optimal leaching parameters, 30 wt% H2SO4, 80 degrees C, and a holding time of 90 min, resulted in a peak V leaching efficiency of 90.67 %. The leaching efficiency increased initially but declined under excessive leaching conditions due to cumulative effects. Elemental migration, crystal phase evolution, and morphology and elemental distribution analyzes revealed that Ba3V2O8 acts as the intermediate for V concentration, with newly formed small BaSO4 particles on the tailings surface confirmed cumulative effects. Further, a novel method for calculating kinetic parameters was proposed to elucidate the cumulative characteristics. The cumulative rate constant (kd) ranged from 0.0009 to 0.006, while the activation energy (Ea) ranged from 22.4 to 32.53kJ/mol, aligning with reported values and validating the reliability of the proposed calculation method.

H1.6Mn1.6O4 has emerged as an excellent adsorbent with selectivity and cost-advantages for liquid-phase lithium extraction. However, its precursor Li1.6Mn1.6O4 is accompanied by high levels of Mn dissolution during the delithiation process. This phenomenon resulted in a loss of lithium-adsorbent capacity, thereby compromising the material's service life. To address this limitation, this work developed two types of facet-engineered H1.6Mn1.6O4 particles: microspheres dominated by (110) crystallographic plane and microcubes with highindex (411) facet by controlling the hydrothermal reaction. Remarkably, the two facet-controlled adsorbents demonstrated 5-6 times lower Mn dissolution rates compared to conventional H1.6Mn1.6O4 adsorbents under identical preparation conditions. The (110)-faceted microspheres exhibited excellent structural stability, showing minimal Mn loss of 1.4 % and less than 4.5 % even after 5 cycles. The calculation results for the density of states of lithium ion sieves confirm that enhanced Mn-3d/O-2p orbital hybridisation underpins the robust stability of the (110) facet-LIS. In contrast, the (411)-faceted microcubes displayed superior lithium adsorption capacity (28.64 mg/g), attributed to enhanced Li+ binding affinity on the high-index surfaces. DFT calculations reveal that the (411) facet exhibits a stronger affinity for [Li(H2O)4]+, with an adsorption energy of -4.03 eV. The value of -3.04 eV is observed for the (110) facet. When applied to concentrated seawater from a desalination plant, the adsorbents achieved outstanding Li+/Mg2+ selectivity ratios of 355.26 for the (411)-faceted microcubes and 145.74 for the (110)-faceted microspheres.

Spinel H1.6Mn1.6O4 is a superior lithium adsorbent for selective lithium extraction. However, the adsorption effect is severely impaired by severe Mn dissolution during acid desorption. Herein, a novel method based on UV-assisted sodium persulfate oxidation eluent was developed to replace hydrochloric acid. This method establishes a “manganese protection” mechanism by employing photo-generated sulfate radicals to inhibit the disproportionation of Mn3+. Remarkably, this approach achieves a Li desorption rate of 97% with negligible Mn dissolution, representing a notable improvement over the 5% Mn dissolution observed with the HCl eluent. The adsorbent exhibits excellent stability, retaining 95% of its saturation capacity (37.37mg/g) after five cycles, and demonstrates high selectivity in complex authentic brines. The Li2CO3 product was also recovered from the eluate. Additionally, the spent adsorbent was repurposed into a value-added functional material, enabling full resource recycling. Techno-economic analysis reveals that the UV-assisted strategy reduces energy consumption by 78.6% and improves total revenue by 18 times compared to the traditional acid method. This work offers a closed-loop and eco-friendly way to extract lithium directly and recycle resources.

Bastnaesite is an important rare-earth mineral and a key precursor for functional materials. Controllable hydrothermal synthesis enables the preparation of composition-defined bastnaesite for investigating their thermal decomposition and roasting behavior. In this work, bastnaesite with different rare-earth compositions were synthesized hydrothermally from RECl3, NaF, and Na2CO3 at 100140 degrees C for 1272 h. Single-rare-earth bastnaesite samples containing Ce, La, Pr, and Nd were successfully prepared under optimized fluorine-containing conditions. In the cerium-containing system, CeF3 and CeO2 appeared under overly acidic or alkaline conditions, whereas chloride was more favorable than nitrate for bastnaesite formation because it suppressed Ce(III) oxidation. Rare-earth composition strongly affected the decomposition behavior. Increasing Ce content lowered the onset decomposition temperature from 418.9 degrees C for La-bastnaesite to 298.4 degrees C for Ce-bastnaesite, with further decreases in air. Under N2, Ce-bastnaesite underwent multistep decomposition involving decarbonation, formation of CeO2-x and CeF3, and subsequent generation of cerium oxyfluoride phases, whereas La-, Pr-, and Nd-based bastnaesite was largely insensitive to atmosphere and was converted mainly into the corresponding REOF phases in nitrogen. These results provide reference for understanding the roasting behavior and thermal-treatment window of bastnaesite.

Integrating microwave attenuation with infrared photon capture remains challenging because the electronic transport required for dielectric loss often causes impedance mismatch and infrared reflection. Here, vanadium nitride (VN)/Fe3O4 heterostructures were constructed through an additive-free ambient aqueous co-precipitation strategy, enabling the surface Fe3O4 phase to evolve from a conformal amorphous shell to interconnected crystalline nano-petals. Structural analyses confirm that Fe3O4 is chemically coupled with the VN framework through mixed-valence Fe-O units, V-O/Fe-O coordination sites and charge-redistributed heterointerfaces. This phase evolution produces waveband-selective attenuation optima rather than a single composition-dependent maximum. In Fe20, the continuous amorphous Fe3O4 shell contains abundant coordination defects and unsaturated bonds that generate localized electronic states and additional infrared-transition pathways. Consequently, Fe20 maintains an absorptance above 95% across 2.5–25 μm and exhibits a thermally buffered surface-temperature response. In Fe25, interconnected crystalline nanopetals establish extended conductive pathways and abundant polarized interfaces. The resulting charge accumulation, interfacial polarization and magnetic loss promote microwave-energy dissipation. Fe25 achieves a minimum reflection loss (RL) of −37.35 dB at 8.25 GHz and an effective absorption bandwidth of 2.1 GHz, with Computer Simulation Technology (CST) simulations showing a maximum radar cross-section reduction of approximately 20 dB. Electromagnetic-parameter analysis and first-principles calculations indicate that interfacial polarization, magnetic loss, conductive attenuation, impedance matching and interface-driven charge redistribution jointly regulate this waveband separation. These results establish phase-evolved VN/Fe3O4 heterostructures as a practical platform in which amorphous-shell and crystalline-petal states can be used to balance infrared absorption, thermal response and microwave dissipation.

In this paper, a new Pickering emulsion liquid membrane extraction system was developed using an Fe₃O₄-GO composite as the stabilizer, FeCl₃+HCl as the internal aqueous phase, TBP as the flow carrier, and kerosene as the membrane solvent to extract Li+ from HCl solutions. The Fe₃O₄-GO nanocomposite uses GO to improve the irregularity of Fe3O4 enhances emulsion stability, and using FeCl3 + HCl as the internal aqueous phase to maintain the chemical environment of the raw material solution. A Pickering Emulsion Liquid Membrane Stabilized by an Fe3O4-GO composite retains the advantages of emulsions while facilitating demulsification. The Fe₃O₄-GO-based Pickering emulsion liquid membrane exhibited optimal stability at a stabilizer dosage of 0.8 g, an oil-to-water ratio of 5:2, and 1 min of emulsification time. Under these conditions, an extraction efficiency of 82.7% was achieved with an initial Li⁺ concentration of 0.001 mol/L, an extraction time of 60 min, a water-to-emulsion ratio of 1:1, and an internal aqueous phase containing 0.4 mol/L FeCl₃ + 3 mol/L HCl.

In this paper, steel slag and fly ash as the main raw materials, silicate-based sintering materials (SBSM) were prepared by using high-temperature firing method. The effects of steel slag addition and firing temperature on the linear shrinkage, water absorption, bulk density, and compressive strength parameters of SBSM were studied. The results show that with the increase of steel slag addition and firing temperature, the water absorption rates of SBSM show a trend of first decreasing and then increasing; the volume density, shrinkage rate, and compressive strength show a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The main phase of SBSM is anorthite; however, a higher amount of steel slag and higher firing temperature can promote the formation of pyroxene phase. The microstructure composed of anorthite, pyroxene, and glass phases is similar to that of "reinforced concrete," which is more conducive to improving the strength and toughness of the SBSM. By calculating the crystallization activation energy and crystal index, a crystal activation energy of 50.72 kJ/mol is obtained, which is helpful for crystal formation. The crystal index is 1.22, indicating that the crystallization mode in the SBSM is surface crystallization.

This article comprehensively investigates the scouring mechanism of underwater cement paste (UWP) through parameter calibration, flume erosion testing, numerical simulations, and force chain analysis. Building upon the established ARR constitutive model, concurrent calibration involving flowability and rheological parameter experiments confirms that when fluidity ratio, yield stress, viscosity below 3.5, 7.5, 3.5

Electromagnetic wave absorbing materials are essential for pollution control, communication security, and stealth applications. This study presents a porous vanadium nitride (VN) material with excellent absorption performance. First-principles calculations reveal that ammonia-induced dehydrogenation-reduction facilitates lattice oxygen removal and structural collapse, forming through-hole channels and defect-rich interfaces. These features enhance dielectric loss and interface polarization. As a result, the material achieves a minimum reflection loss of -38.56 dB at 6.3 GHz with a thickness of 3 mm. When the thickness is reduced to 2 mm, the absorption bandwidth broadens to 10.86-14.00 GHz, demonstrating effective thickness-adjustable performance. The ammonia-driven pore-forming strategy enables both lightweight structure and high absorption efficiency. This work not only highlights the potential of VN as a standalone absorber but also as a composite matrix, offering a theoretical basis and practical route for developing composite broadband electromagnetic materials.

In recent years, photocatalytic antibacterial technology has attracted wide attention due to its advantages of broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, high stability, safety and non-toxicity. Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) reveals a strong response to visible light, however, the photocatalytic activity of pure BiVO4 remains unsatisfactory. In the present work, CuO/BiVO4 composites were successfully constructed, and the photocatalytic performance and antibacterial mechanism were systematically studied. The antibacterial results confirmed that the CuO/BiVO4 composites exhibited enhanced photocatalytic antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli). With the CuO addition of 12.5%, the CuO/BiVO4 composites presented superior antibacterial performance, and the antibacterial rate reached 100% under visible light irradiation for 30 min, while the antibacterial rate for BiVO4 was less than 20% under the same conditions. In addition, CuO/BiVO4 composites displayed a long-term effect, and the antibacterial rate was kept at >90% after 5 cycles. The antibacterial mechanism was mainly from ROS oxidative damage, in which ·O2 - played a major role in antibacterial activity.

The influence of the accelerated marine atmospheric environment on the corrosion and mechanical properties of the K4648 alloy was investigated with electrochemical and creep tests in this work. The results show that the K4648 alloy is covered by Al2O3, Cr2O3, NiO, NiCr2O4, and Fe2O3 in the marine atmospheric environment. After accelerated corrosion, corrosion pits emerged on the alloy surface, accompanied by a decrease in the alloy's corrosion potential from-154.23 mV to-401.75 mV, an increase in the corrosion current density from 0.0037 mu A/cm2 to 0.0733 mu A/cm2, an approximate 60 % reduction in the thickness of the passive film. The creep life drops substantially, and under a stress of 80 MPa, the steady-state creep rate increases by 73 times compared to that before corrosion. In addition, the creep mechanism changes from being jointly dominated by diffusion and dislocations before corrosion to being dominated by dislocations. This study reveals the relationship between the long-term marine atmospheric environment and both the corrosion and creep behaviors of the K4648 alloy, and highlights the corrosion in the marine atmospheric environment which should be regarded as a core challenge that must be overcome for superalloys under actual working conditions.

In this work, diboron trioxide and calcium fluoride are applied as composite additives to explore a process suitable for processing low-grade, high-vanadium, ultra-high-titanium vanadium–titanium magnetite. The metallized coal-based direct reduction–electromagnetic separation experiment was conducted. Results show that a good metallization ratio, separation, and the recovery of valuable components can be achieved under the following conditions: 8 pct diboron trioxide additive content, 8 pct calcium fluoride additive content, reduction temperature of 1100 °C, and reduction time of 30 min. The metallization ratio is 94 pct, and the recovery ratio of Fe, V, and Ti are 96, 84, and 85 pct, respectively. The X-ray diffraction results show that the phase transition under this condition is relatively simple, mainly metallic iron and different titanium oxides, without much intermediate product formation. Scanning electron microscope–energy-dispersive spectroscopy analysis shows that different conditions make the reduction products present differently in size, number, shape, and element distribution under different conditions, and this difference leads to differences in the separation and recovery effects of valuable components. The larger the metallic iron particle size is, the better the effect of component separation is. Diboron trioxide plays a role by destroying [SiO 4 ] radicals to promote reduction. Fluorine is mainly diffused into silicate slag phase, and part of calcium fluoride still exists at relatively lower temperature of 1100–1150 °C. Overall, the metallization reduction–magnetic separation process with diboron trioxide and calcium fluoride as composite additives has achieved excellent metallization ratio, satisfied separation and recovery of valuable components, and large-scale lowered reaction temperature and time.

The development of electrochemical energy storage devices has a decisive impact on clean renewable energy. Herein, novel ultrafast rechargeable hybrid sodium dual-ion capacitors (HSDICs) were designed by using ultrathin carbon film (UCF) as the cathode material. The UCF is synthesized by a simple low temperature catalytic route followed by an acid leaching process. UCF owns a large adsorption interface and number of additional active sites, which is due to the nitrogen doping. In addition, there exists several short-range order carbons on the surface of UCF, which are beneficial for anionic storage. An ultrafast rechargeable remarkable performance, remarkable anion hybrid storage capability and outstanding structure stability is fully tapped employing UCF as cathode for HSDICs. The electrochemical performance of UCF in a half-cell system at the operating voltage between 1.0 and 4.8 V, achieving an admirable specific discharge capacity of 358.52 mAh·g-1at 500 mA·g-1, and a high capacity retention ratio of 98.42% after cycling 2500 times at 1000 mA·g-1, respectively. Besides, with the support ofex-situTEM and EDS mapping, the structural stability principle and anionic hybrid storage mechanism of UCF electrode are investigated in depth. In the full-cell system, HSDICs with the UCF as cathode and hard carbon as anode also presents a super-long cycle stability (80.62% capacity retention ratio after cycling 1300 times at 1000 mA·g-1).

In this work, novel efficient epoxy resin based shielding materials enhanced with BN powder against nuclear radiation was proposed. The composites were prepared by using epoxy resin E51, polyamide resin 651 and BN powder. Neutron shielding performance was analyzed by using Evaluated Nuclear Data File, partial density method and a moderated 241Am-Be neutron source. In addition, gamma ray shielding performance and me-chanical property were tested by a137Cs gamma ray source and an electronic universal testing machine, respectively. The results indicate that the addition of BN powder could improve the shielding performance for thermal neutron, fast neutron and gamma ray. Neutron shielding performance of prepared composite materials is nearly the same with the variation of densities. Nuclear shielding performance is better than commercial shields (SWX-213, SWX-201 and SWX-261). And the bending strength is greater than 12.78 MPa. In addition, shielding attenuation mechanism for neutron at 10- 5-2 x 108 eV is mainly contributed by elastic scattering attenuation interaction produced by H and C from epoxy resin matrix, and absorption attenuation interaction produced by B from BN powder at 10- 5-102 eV.

Boron mud, a byproduct of the boron industry, contains a complex mixture of acids/alkalis, valuable components, and hazardous substances. Its recycling has been largely confined to laboratory research due to prohibitive costs and high energy consumption. A cost-efficient methodology based on room-temperature mixing process is introduced for the mixture of boron mud and epoxy resin to produce nuclear radiation shielding composites (BMERCs). BMERCs demonstrate shielding performance comparable to high-end composites. The study provides a deep understanding of the relationships between neutron energy attenuation capabilities and the composition of boron mud, identifying hydrogen and boron as the primary elements contributing to neutron attenuation. Regression models were developed based on the dual-level mechanisms to enhance the fabrication of BMERCs, aiming to achieve optimal shielding performance for future application. This study demonstrates the feasibility of transforming boron mud into valuable nuclear radiation shielding composites using simplified, and low-cost techniques.

The metallization reduction-magnetic separation process was adopted to carry out the experiments to promote the recovery ratio of valuable elements by adding diboron trioxide additive in this work. It is demonstrated that diboron trioxide has the function of destroying Si-O-Si bond for the reduction of ultra-high-titanium magnetite. The optimum experimental condition is found to be the reduction temperature of 1125 degrees C, the reduction time of 30min, and the diboron trioxide percent of 8 wt% for which the metallization ratio is 92%, and the recovery ratio of ferrum, vanadium, titanium is 90.9%, 78.5%, 76.1%, respectively. V and Ti are synchronously concentrated in non-magnetic materials. The phase composition transformation rule of the valuable components was Fe3O4 (FeTiO3) -> FeO -> Fe; FeTiO3 (-> FeTi2O5) -> (Fe,Mg)Ti2O5; FeTiO3 -> TiO2 -> Ti3O5 -> Ti2O3; (Fe3O4 + TiO2) -> Fe3Ti3O10 -> Fe. Increasing the temperature can promote the aggregation and growth of iron particles, but too high temperature is not conducive to the separation of Fe, V and Ti. It is evidently observed that when the temperature exceeds 1150 degrees C, the iron particles are closely connected with the gray titanium oxide, while at 1125 degrees C, the iron particles are relatively independent. Meanwhile, part of Ti is observed in silicate phase as solid-dissolved form because of high temperature and cause loss. Overall speaking, the metallization reduction-magnetic separation process with diboron trioxide as an additive has achieved the better separation of valu-able components, with a higher degree of metallization, and large-scale lowered reaction temperature and time.

Excellent thermal neutron absorption performance of boron expands the potential use of boron rich slag to prepare epoxy resin matrix nuclear shielding composites. However, shielding attenuation behaviors and mechanism of the composites against gamma rays are unclear. Based on the radiation protection theory, Phy-X/PSD, XCOM, and 60Co gamma ray source were integrated to obtain the shielding param-eters of boron rich slag/epoxy resin composites at 0.015-15 MeV, which include mass attenuation co-efficient (& mu;t), linear attenuation coefficient (& mu;), half value thickness layer (HVL), electron density (Neff), effective atomic number (Zeff), exposure buildup factor (EBF) and exposure absorption buildup factor (EABF).& mu;t, & mu;, HVL, Neff, Zeff, EBF and EABF are 0.02-7 cm2/g, 0.04-17 cm-1, 0.045-20 cm, 5-14, 3 x 1023-8 x 1023 electron/g, 0-2000, and 0-3500. Shielding performance is BS4, BS3, BS3, BS1 in descending order, but worse than ordinary concrete. & mu; and HVL of BS1-BS4 for 60Co gamma ray is 0.095-0.110 cm-1 and 6.3-7.2 cm. Shielding mechanism is main interactions for attenuation gamma ray by BS1-BS4 are elements with higher content or higher atomic number via Photoelectric Absorption at low energy range, and elements with higher content via Compton Scattering and Pair Production in Nuclear Field at middle and higher energy range.& COPY; 2023 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

In order to achieve the goal of resource utilization of High-Ti vanadium titanomagnetite (High-Ti VTM), the high-temperature sintering characteristics of High-Ti VTM were investigated by micro-sintering experiments, while the effects of different ordinary iron ore dosage and basicity on the sintering process parameters and sinter quality were investigated by sintering pot experiments. The results showed that the TiO 2 and SiO 2 contents increased gradually with increasing dosage of High-Ti VTM, and the liquid phase fluidity index and binder phase strength increased gradually, while the assimilation temperature and intergranular consolidation strength showed a decreasing trend. With the increase of the dosage of ordinary iron ore, the vertical sintering speed was reduced, while the sinter yield and tumble index gradually increased. As the basicity of the sinter gradually increased, the sintering time and the pulverization degree of the sinter gradually increased and the sinter yield gradually decreased, while the vertical sintering speed and the tumble index both showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The results of the study provide data to support the preparation of sinter with High-Ti VTM.

Iron-bearing dust is one of the main solid wastes in the metallurgical industry, and currently, it is mainly disposed of according to accumulation, which brings great environmental risks. Therefore, this paper proposes a method of preparing X-ray shielding materials by hot pressing using iron-bearing dust as the filler and polyimide resin powder as the matrix. A CT imaging system was used to test the X-ray shielding performance of the materials. The results demonstrated that shielding material I-95 had a shielding percentage of more than 95% at a tube voltage of 55 kVp and a tube current of 2 mA, and the thickness of the half-value layer was less than 0.68 mm. The shielding percentage and mass attenuation coefficient of the composites showed an increasing trend with increased filler addition, tube voltage, and tube current intensity, while the half-value layer thickness showed the opposite trend. Furthermore, the shielding percentage of composites with different fillers was affected by the voltage and hardly affected by the current variation. The dominant part of the shielding material interaction across the tested tube voltage range was photoelectric absorption. The prepared composite is a low-cost material and has high efficiency and is an ideal medical X-ray shielding material.