Zhixiang Li

Fabrication of uniform core–shell structural calcium and titanium precipitation particles and enhanced electrorheological activities

A simple co-precipitation route was developed to synthesize uniform core-shell structured calcium and titanium precipitation (CTP) particles with ideal morphology and no aggregation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and interface tension/contact angle (CA) measurement were utilized to characterize the components, structure, morphology, and wettability of the SiO(2)-CTP materials. The obtained core-shell structural SiO(2)-CTP particles were well dispersed spherical nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution. The electrorheological (ER) properties were studied by the shear stress under various electric fields. The SiO(2) (2.3 wt%)-CTP ER fluid showed notable ER activity with a shear stress of about 109 kPa (at 5 kV mm(-1)), which outclassed the shear stress (65 kPa) of the CTP ER fluid. The ER properties of samples can be tuned by a few factors in the experimental process, such as the concentration of SiO(2) particles and citric acid, pointing out the great potential for application of this route in bulk synthesis of many other types of ER materials.

The Influence of RuO2 Addition on the Thermoelectric Properties of BiSbTe Alloys

P-type BiSbTe/RuO2 composite was fabricated using a combined process of melting and spark plasma sintering. The XRD patterns showed that RuO2 reacted with the matrix for the RuO2 content of 1.0 wt% and 4.0 wt% samples. The measured thermoelectric properties showed that the highest electrical conductivity was obtained for the sample with 2.0 wt% RuO2. The power factor (α2σ/κ) decreased with the increase of RuO2 below 450 K. The lattice thermal conductivity was lower than that of BiSbTe over the whole temperature range for BiSbTe/2.0 wt% RuO2.

Dynamic “Scanning-Mode” Meniscus Confined Electrodepositing and Micropatterning of Individually Addressable Ultraconductive Copper Line Arrays

Micro- and nanopatterning of cost-effective addressable metallic nanostructures has been a long endeavor in terms of both scientific understanding and industrial needs. Herein, a simple and efficient dynamic meniscus-confined electrodeposition (MCED) technique for precisely positioned copper line micropatterns with superior electrical conductivity (greater than 1.57 × 104 S/cm) on glass, silicon, and gold substrates is reported. An unexpected higher printing speed in the evaporative regime is realized for precisely positioned copper lines patterns with uniform width and height under horizontal scanning-mode. The final line height and width depend on the typical behavior of traditional flow coating process, while the surface morphologies and roughness are mainly governed by evaporation-driven electrocrystallization dynamics near the receding moving contact line. Integrated 3D structures and a rapid prototyping of 3D hot-wire anemometer are further demonstrated, which is very important for the freedom integration applications in advanced conceptual devices, such as miniaturized electronics and biomedical sensors and actuators.

Mechanical properties analysis of polyetherimide parts fabricated by fused deposition modeling

Polyetherimide (PEI) is a kind of high-performance polymer, which possesses a high glass transition temperature (T g), excellent flame retardancy, low smoke generation, and good mechanical properties. In this article, PEI was applied in the fused deposition modeling (FDM)–based 3-D printing for the first time. The entire process from filament extrusion to printing was studied. It was observed that the filament orientation and nozzle temperature were closely related to the mechanical properties of printed samples. When the nozzle temperature is 370°C, the mean tensile strength of FDM printing parts can reach to 104 MPa, which is only 7% lower than that of injection molded parts. It can be seen that the 0° orientation set of samples show the highest storage modulus (2492 MPa) followed by the 45° samples, and the 90° orientation set of samples show the minimum storage modulus (1420 MPa) at room temperature. The above results indicated that this technique allows the production of parts with adequate mechanical performance, which does not need to be restricted to the production of mock-ups and prototypes. Our work broke the limitations of traditional FDM technology and expanded the types of material available for FDM to the high-temperature engineering plastics.

Preparation and Characterization of High Textured KSr2Nb5O15 Lead-Free Piezoelectric Ceramics

Anisometric KSr2Nb5O15 (KSN) particles were synthesized by molten salt method with SrCO3, Nb2O5 and KCl as raw materials. With K2CO3, SrCO3 and Nb2O5 starting materials, KSN lead-free piezoelectric ceramics were prepared by conventional ceramics technique and reactive templated grain growth (RTGG) method, respectively. In the RTGG process, green compacts were fabricated by tapecasting using anisometric KSN as template particles. The KSN particles prepared by molten salt method were rodlike in shape and dense. The KSN ceramics prepared by RTGG not only had higher degree of grain orientation but higher sintered density compared with that prepared by solid-state reaction.