Activating the plasticity of ZrB2 is a promising approach to improve its key properties for applications in hypersonic vehicles, including high temperature strength and thermal shock resistance. The present work demonstrates that ideal shear strength of ZrB2, which is a good indicator of the critical stress for dislocation nucleation, can be significantly reduced by dissolving of appropriate al...

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using a first principles-based Embedded-atom-Method (EAM) potential are used to simulate the exothermic alloying reactions of a NiAl bilayer at 1500 K and 1100 K. Both microcanonical (NVE) and isoenthalpic (NPH) MD simulations are used to demonstrate the influence of pressure on atomic mixing and subsequent alloying reaction. The NVE simulations, in which the...

Surface remelting/skin scanning of components is generally performed during the selective laser melting (SLM) process to improve the surface quality of a part. However, the chemical effects of surface remelting are not well understood. In this study, cuboidal parts fabricated with and without laser remelting were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface profilometry and X...

An experimental apparatus has been designed and an approach developed for imaging individual oxide supported nanoparticles with scanning tunneling microscopy ~STM! during their nucleation, growth, alloying, and ‘‘real world’’ chemical, thermal, and other in situ treatments. By careful selection of the tunneling conditions and using the STM tip to index the surface, it is demonstrated that prese...

Despite remarkable efforts have been put into the field of Pt-shelled catalysts containing an atomically thin Pt surface layer for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the last decade, further development of new Pt-shelled catalysts is still necessary. Here, a new set of Pt-shelled catalysts by subsurface alloying with early transition metals such as Mn and Fe is predicted to be a good candid...