Silicon nanoribbons (Si-NRs) were successfully synthesized by direct-current (DC) arc-discharge plasma in a mixed atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, and then characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), etc.. This work provides a low cost preparation method for the synthesis of Si-NRs, and it could be commercially produced with a production rate of 18.6 gh^-1. The Si NRs consist of fine sheets of ca 28 nm in width, over 200 nm in length and ca 6.2 nm in thickness with specific surface area of 164 m²g^-1. The measured electrochemical performance of the Si-NRs as anode of lithium ion batteries reveals that the first discharge specific capacity is 2460 mAhg^-1 and it reaches to 316 mAhg^-1 after 40 cycles, which exhibits a high activity of insertion/desertion of Li⁺ ions and possible potentials for further improvement of the cycle stability.

ZrB₂ coating was deposited on graphite by chemical vapor deposition with ZrCl_4-BCl_3-H_2-Ar as reaction ingredient at different temperatures, which then was characterized by means of X-ray diffractometer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the formation of ZrB₂ coating on graphite follows a mode of nucleation of ZrB₂ first, which grow as islets and then further grow and merger each other forming a complete film. The growing and merging of islets resulted in that a large number of holes existed in the coating side near the boundary ZrB₂ coating / graphite substrate, and thereby formed the fine grain zone there. In the initial deposition stage at 1300℃ to 1600℃, the primary grains of ZrB₂ coalesced to become secondary grains with preferential orientation <111>. As the deposition processed, the secondary grains changed to the plate-shaped grains. The plate-shaped grains transformed into the pyramid shaped ones with further growing, and the inner part of the coating turned to be dense columnar grains. Meanwhile the preferred orientation of the grains changed from <111> to <100>. When the edge of the pyramid shaped crystal grains passivated, the grains inside the coating transformed to equiaxed ones and correspondingly their preferred orientation changed from <100> to <101>.

304 stainless steels with different Al content were warm-rolled and subsequently solution-treated. The microstructure, phase constituent and composition of the alloys were characterized by means of OM, XRD and EPMA. The results show that black ferrite phase with shapes as strips, short rod and some granular-like distribute throughout the white austenite matrix;The majority of Al dissolves in the matrix,while there exist precipitates of AlN and other black-phases. The hardness and corrosion resistance of the steels increase gradually with the increasing rolling temperature, and their break elongation reaches about 47%. The deformation capacity of the steels is greatly improved and the tensile strength of the steel with 1% (mass fraction)Al achieves to 766 MPa. The fracture surfaces exhibit large and small dimples with size of 5~15 μm and ≤5 μm, respectively. The fracture models are similar and belong to ductile fracture. By the same rolling temperature the steel with 1.5% Al has better corrosion resistance performance.

Three composites of C/C-Cu i.e. carbon fiber reinforced carbon-copper mesh with different volume fraction (35%,40% and 45%) of carbon fiber were prepared by pressing mold method and then followed by four times impregnating with resin and three times high temperature carbonizing . Their compressive properties were measured on Instron-3369 mechanical testing machine. The effect of volume fraction of carbon fiber on the compressive property was investigated. The results show that the compression performance of C/C-Cu composites increased with increase of volume fraction of carbon fiber in the vertical direction. The compression strength of the composite with 40% carbon fiber was 20% higher than the one with 35%, and that with 45% carbon fiber was 13% higher than the one with 40%. These imply claerly that the compression strength of the composites first increased and then decreased with the increasing carbon fiber content. On the other hand, the carbon fiber volume fraction has no significant effect on the compression performance in the parallel direction. Among others, the composite with 45% carbon fiber has the best compression strength in both the vertical direction and parallel direction, i.e. 190.13MPa and 83.39MPa respectively. The difference of compressive strength in the vertical direction and parallel direction shows that the compression property of C/C-Cu composites was obviously of anisotropy. By compression stress the composite damaged in the vertical direction along 45°diagonal and in the parallel direction at the interface between the carbon fiber and copper mesh.

In order to achieve hydrophobic properties and good wear resistance of PET materials, diamond-like carbon films were deposited on PET substrates by linear ion beam (LIS) technology with varying ion beam current. The microstructure, morphology and wettability were analyzed, and the relationship between wetting behavior and surface morphology, microstructure, surface energy was investigated. The results show that the deposited diamond-like carbon film is typical amorphous carbon, its sp²/sp³ increased from 0.774 to 1.622 with increase of LIS current, which indicated the increased graphitization. Meanwhile, the water contact angle of PET increased from 63.51° to 103.7°. Further analysis found that the hydrophobicity can be attributed to the enhanced graphitization and formation of nano-micro structure, which could result in a decrease of surface energy. In addition, the transmissivity in visible light range of PET could reach to over 88.5%, which showed an enhanced effect within the range of 500~760 nm. Therefore, controlling proper surface morphology and low surface energy by plasma modification technology can effectively improve the hydrophobic properties of flexible polymer materials, while the transparency of PET material was maintained.

Composite coatings of Ni-Co/WC+G were fabricated on steel ZG45 by vacuum cladding. Their microstructure and phase constituents were characterized by SEM and XRD. The effect of graphite content on the wear behavior was investigated by experiment of tribology. The results show that the composite coatings present 3D texture-like structure with many “micro-pores” due to the addition of graphite,which could act as lubricant and thus improve tribological property of the composite coating. The friction coefficient, wear rate and wear loss of the GCr15 plate decreased with the increasing graphite content until the graphite content reaches 6%. The wear loss of the GCr15 plate with 8% graphite abruptly increased by 70% compared with the one with 6% graphite.

TC18 titanium was fabricated by Electron Beam Wire Deposition (EBWD). The distribution of crystal orientation and columnar structure of the alloy was investigated. The results show that the macrostructure of TC18 titanium consisted of large columnar grains orientated perpendicular to the workbench plane. The forming of columnar structure is a process of directly epitaxial growth of the β grains on the melt-pool bottom. Crystal orientation distribution has clear regularities, β-α phase structure transition has inherited characteristics. Most of the β grain with <001> direction present a strong fiber texture with orientation difference less than 10°. There are obvious characteristics among different columnar crystals and distribution direction for TD, LD and normal surface ND. Burgers orientation relation was strictly followed in the process of β→α. The lamella α phase precipitates within the same β grain satisfy the Burgers orientation relationship. There are 6 kinds of orientation for α phase in a columnar grain and there exists strong variant choice of orientations for β→α transformation process.

Organic/inorganic hybrid coatings were prepared on AZ31 magnesium alloy, which then was characterized by means of scanning electron microscope, scanning probe microscope, electrochemical analyzer, optical microscope and coatings thickness tester in terms of surface morphology, corrosion resistance, adhesion and thickness. While the influence of pH value of organic/inorganic hybrid sol-gel on the properties of organic/inorganic hybrid coating was also investigated. The results show that pH values of organic/inorganic hybrid sol-gel have important effect on the properties of the organic/inorganic hybrid coatings formed on AZ31 magnesium alloy: When pH value is in the range 3~3.5, a smooth and few defects hybrid coating of the thickness of 22 μm can be obtained; When pH value is in the range 2.2~2.8, the hybrid coating became thin and coarse with some big pores; When pH value equals to 3.0, the hybrid coating has good adhesion, highest corrosion potential and minimum corrosion current density (~7.34×10^-5 A/cm²). Corrosion inhibition efficiency of the hybrid coating prepared by sol-gel with pH 3.0 could reach ~ 99.7% compared to the blank AZ31 magnesium alloy.

To improve the flame retardancy and mechanical properties of iso-polypropylene (iPP), composites of iPP/poly(ethylene-co-octene)/intumescent flame retardant (iPP/POE/IFR),were prepared by melt-extrusion process with a twin-screw extruder. And then their flame retardancy and mechanical properties were investigated systematically. Particularly, the effect of two typical compatibilizers, i.e. maleic anhydride grafted polymers of POE-g-MAH and PP-g-MAH, on the properties of the composites was examined in detail. The results show that IFR is efficient for improving the flame retardancy of the iPP blend, while harmful to their mechanical properties. By comparing with the composite without compatibilizer, the addition of 1%(mass fraction) compatibilizer can improve significantly the flame retardency and mechanical properties for the composites. Furthermore, pp-g-MAH is more effective in improving the flame retardency, while POE-g-MAH is preferable to enhance the mechanical properties. The optimized comprehensive properties are resulted from the fine dispersion of the intumescent flame retardant.

Composite of nickel hydroxide/reduced graphene oxide (Ni(OH)₂/RGO) was synthesized by facile chemical precipitation-reflux method with graphite oxide and nickel sulfate hexahydrate as precursors and ammonium hydroxide as the precipitator. The surface morphology and microscopic structures of the composite were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scan electron microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical performance of the composite was assessed by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The influence of different mass ratio of graphite oxide to nickel hydroxide (GO: Ni(OH)₂) and the concentration of ammonium hydroxide on structures, morphologies, and electrochemical properties of the composite was investigated. The results show that the synthesized composite of β-Ni(OH)₂/RGO has mutually inserted structure. The composite of β-Ni(OH)₂/RGO exhibits high electrochemical performance of 334.9 mAh/g at 0.2C rate and 260.2 mAh/g at 5C rate when the concentration of ammonium hydroxide is 3 mol/L and the mass ratio of GO:Ni(OH)₂ is 1:8, while the product can still maintain 90% of the theoretical specific capacity of β-Ni(OH)₂. It displays that this electrode material has excellent electrochemical performance with excellent rate capability.

Sodium erosion has become a major factor affecting the durability of electrolytic cathode carbon block, therefore it is of significance to study the diffusion process of sodium in carbon block. In general, the carbon block can be considered as a multi-phase composite with carbon as aggregate and asphalt as binder, thus the sodium diffusion process might relate closely to the microscopic structure of the carbon block. First, seven microstructure models of cathode carbon block could be established by means of software Matlab in consideration of the different particle distribution and the amount of the carbon aggregate of various shapes such as circle, ellipse and polygon, and then which were through igs model file format introduced into ANSYS to establish a two-dimensional finite element numerical model. The ANSYS thermal analysis unit was used to simulate sodium diffusion process which based on the similarity of diffusion equation and the heat conduction equation, and analyzed the influence the size distribution, the amount and the shape of the carbon aggregate on the sodium diffusion process. The results show that the carbon aggregate shows stronger barrier effect to the sodium diffusion rather than the asphalt. For the carbon block with narrower range of the particle size distribution, lower roundness of the aggregate particles and higher amount of the aggregate, the sodium diffusion rate is slow down over time. The sodium diffusion rate is the slowest for the carbon block with 80% circular aggregate and the aggregate size distribution within a range 0.003~0.006 m. Furthermore, the above simulation results agree fairly well with experimental ones which proved the accuracy and reliability of the simulation.