The simultaneous epitaxial growth of vertical nanorod arrays and thin films of zinc oxide (ZnO) was realized on a gold-plated plane sapphire substrate via a simple chemical vapor deposition method. In this nanostructure, the vertical single crystal nanorods are hexagonal prism or cylindrical in shape, and are all grown on a ZnO thin film, so that the vertical nanorods are connected to each other through the beneath thin oxide ZnO film. In comparison with ZnO nanofilms, the prepared nanostructure has excellent photoelectrochemistry (PEC) performance with an incident photocurrent efficiency of 2.4 times that of the simple ZnO nanofilms; while its light energy conversion efficiency is 5 times that of ZnO nanofilms. Its excellent PEC performance can be attributed to its high surface area-to-volume ratio and the carrier transport channel provided by the supporter ZnO film. The mechanism for cooperative growth of ZnO nanorod arrays and thin films was proposed as follows: during the processing, Au liquefies and absorbs Zn atoms in the atmosphere forming alloys. After the alloy droplets were supersaturated ZnO begins to nucleate, and then ZnO film formed on the surface of the substrate. At the same time, Zn autocatalyzed (vapor-solid)VS growth and Au catalyzed (vapor-liquid-solid)VLS growth occurred, respectively forming hexagonal prism nanorods and cylindrical nanorods, and finally a vertical nanorod array was connected through the underneath thin ZnO film.

Composites of C/ZrC-SiC with pyrolytic carbon (PyC) interlayers of different thickness, namely, S5-C/ZrC-SiC, S15-C/ZrC-SiC, S30-C/ZrC-SiC, and S50-C/ZrC-SiC were prepared by adjusting the deposition time. The variation of density, microstructure and ablation properties of C/ZrC-SiC composites with interlayer PyC of different thickness was systematically studied. The results show that with the increasing thickness of interlayer PyC, the density and porosity of C/ZrC-SiC composites decrease, but the content of the pioneer impregnation pyrolysis ZrC matrix decreases first and then increases. As for 20 s short time oxyacetylene ablation, S30-C/ZrC-SiC composites presents the best ablation performance, and its mass ablation rates and linear ablation rates are -0.84 mg/s and 3.00 μm/s, respectively; while for 60 s long time cycle ablation test, S15-C/ZrC-SiC composites has the best ablation performance, and its mass ablation rates and linear ablation rates are 1.22 mg/s and 3.80 μm/s, respectively. The mechanism for the 20 s oxyacetylene ablation of C/ZrC-SiC composites may be ascribed to mechanical erosion, while for the second 60 s oxyacetylene ablation of C/ZrC-SiC composites, the ablation mechanism may be described as that the ablation process changes from mechanical erosion to thermo-physical and thermo-chemical ablation.

A novel 3D orthogonal weaving carbon fibre reinforced Al-matrix composite was prepared by vacuum-pressure infiltration method. A finite element based micromechanical model by considering the interfacial action was developed according to the characteristics of cross-section morphology and weaving structure of yarns in the composite, and then the progressive damage and fracture behavior of the composites subjected to longitudinal tensile loading were assessed via experiment and numerical simulation. The results shown that the acquired tensile modulus, ultimate strength and fracture strain is 120.7 GPa, 771.75 MPa and 0.83%, respectively. The computationally predicted stress-strain curve agrees well with the experimental ones, and the calculation error of the above properties is -3.21%, 1.75% and -9.63%, respectively. At the initial tensile stage local interface failure was observed between the matrix alloy and Z directional yarns. With the increase of tensile strain, the matrix damage zone in the interspace of yarns accumulate gradually and lead to the transverse cracking of Z directional yarns and weft yarns successively. At the final tensile stage, the warp yarns and matrix alloy failed concurrently, and hence the composite lost its bearing capacity. Warp yarns fracture and transverse cracking of weft and Z directional yarns were observed on the tensile fracture morphology. The axial fracture of warp yarns, which play predominant role in load bearing, is flat and with limited fiber pull-out morphology. As a result, the composites exhibit quasi-brittle fracture behavior during the longitudinal tensile process.

The microstructure evolution and plastic removal induced by particle scratching for single crystal nickel were investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulation at the atomic level, meanwhile, the characteristics of microstructure evolution and the difference of plastic removal of different crystal surfaces were analyzed. The results show that the stress concentration in the close contact zone is not only the motivity for dislocation slip of single crystal nickel, but also the main cause of the transition from FCC structure to HCP structure and the plastic removal of the material. During abrasive particle scraping, the maximum horizontal tangential force appears on the Ni(110) crystal surface, correspondingly, the HCP structure with horizontal slip characteristics may form in the Ni(110) crystal plane, as a result, the dislocation slip may mainly be responsible to that the quantity of debris on the Ni(100) plane is more than that on the Ni(111) plane. Therefore, by the same level of particle scraping, the hysteresis of plastic ring abscission on Ni(110) crystal surface may emerge. At the same time, both the occurrence of stacking fault and the shear strain of the worn surface show remarkable crystal facet selectivity. Compared with the case of sliding scraping, the nickel atoms adhere to the outer surface of the abrasive particles significantly during rolling scraping, which is the main reason for the large oscillation of the tangential force during the scraping process.

Small gold nanorods were synthesized by seed growth method. The morphology and properties of the nanorods could be controlled by changing the synthesis parameters. The extinction characteristics and morphology of gold nanorods were measured and observed by uV-vis-nIR spectrophotometer and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The effects of the amount of AgNO₃, cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and seed crystal on the morphology and properties of gold nanorods were investigated. The results show that the gold nanorods prepared under different conditions have good reproducibility. The gold nanorods synthesized under the optimum conditions of 0.035 mL of (0.01 mol/L) AgNO₃, 11 mL of (0.1 mol/L) CTAB and 1.1 mL of seed crystal, have an aspect ratio of about 3.8, an average length of about 34 nm, and good morphology uniformity and dispersion. The small gold nanorods could be used to detect a residue called Thiram.

The BaTiO₃ nanowires (BTN) with different aspect ratios were synthesized through hydrothermal method, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used to adjust the surface chemical energy and electrostatic force of BTN (named as P-BTN). Subsequently, P-BTN were added into poly(metaphenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) matrix to prepare PMIA dielectric composites containing 10% P-BTN (mass fraction) with different aspect ratios. The influence of synthesized temperature on aspect ratio of BTN was investigated, and the effect of P-BTN with different aspect ratios on dielectric and electrical properties of PMIA composites as well as dielectric and electrical properties of P-BTN/PMIA composites at different temperatures were also investigated. The results show that with increase of synthetic temperature of BTN precursor, the aspect ratios of synthesized BTN significantly increased from 7.2 (130℃) to 46 (250℃). With increment of the aspect ratio of P-BTN in PMIA composites the dielectric constants of corresponding composites increased from 6.6 to 9.8. At the same time, the dielectric losses of all composites were less than 0.025 in entire frequency range. Furthermore, the prepared composites with different aspect ratios of P-BTN also maintained satisfied insulation performance. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss in the range of -20℃ to 200℃ of P-BTN-250-10 composite maintains stable. This P-BTN/PMIA composites can further increase the energy storage density.

Carbon fibre-reinforced aluminium laminates was prepared by vacuum hot pressing diffusion with 1060 series aluminum as matrix and nickel plated carbon fiber as reinforcement in this paper. The effects of preparation parameters (heating temperature, holding time, pressure) and carbon fiber volume fraction on the microstructure, interfacial bonding, mechanical strength and fracture morphology of Carbon fibre-reinforced aluminium laminates were investigated. The results show that the interface between carbon fiber and aluminum matrix is well bonded, and the nickel coating and aluminum matrix react near the carbon fiber to form Al₃Ni, which effectively prevents the formation of brittle phase Al4C between aluminum matrix and carbon fiber. With the increase of carbon fiber volume fraction, the bending strength first increases and then decreases.

It is known that the AMPD-4.1% SCN (Aminomethyl Propanediol-4.1% Succinonitrile) transparent hypoperitectic polymer alloy and the Ni₃Al hypoperitectic alloy present the similarity in directional solidification behavior, therefore, the former was selected as the reference material to simulate the effect of DC current on the directional solidification process of the later one. During the experiment, the real-time photo shooting and real-time temperature recording were carried out by the microscope photosensitive device (CCD) and an intelligent communication temperature measuring instrument. The results show that under the action of electric field, the primary β phase particles of the directionally crystallized subperitectic alloy migrate to the positive pole, which facilitates the peritectic reaction by making the composition of liquid phase near peritectic point at the frontier of solidification interface. The special growth morphology of dendrite tip splitting and the dendrite spacing decreasing of directionally solidified dendrite tip under the action of electric field may be mainly caused by Joule heating effect caused by electric field and supercooling caused by solute enrichment. Last but not least, results of the similar experiment for Ni₃Al-based alloy Ni-20Al-10Fe-0.2B proved fairly well the above observed growth morphology of the AMPD-4.1% SCN transparent hypoperitectic polymer alloy.

Graphene/polyaniline/manganese dioxide ternary composites (rGO/PANI/MnO₂) were prepared by hydrothermal method, followed by freeze-dried in vacuum treatment in this paper. The composites prepared by this simple and efficient method had self-supporting properties. The composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the prepared ternary composites had an interconnected network structure. During the reaction MnO₂ and polyaniline formed an irregular block structure and co-deposited on the network layer formed by graphene self-assembly. The composite electrode showed good capacitive properties, with a specific capacitance of 388 F·g^-1 (0.5 A·g^-1), which was better than that of graphene (rGO, 234 F·g^-1) and polyaniline (PANI, 176 F·g^-1). In addition, an asymmetric supercapacitor was assembled using the composite as the positive electrode and rGO as the negative electrode. The asymmetric capacitor could be reversibly cycled in the range of 0~1.6 V. When the power density was 17.48 W·kg^-1, the maximum energy density could reach 13.5 Wh·kg^-1.