Oxygen interstitials make metastable titanium alloys strong and ductile

Chong, Y.*; Gholizadeh, R.*; Guo, B.*; Tsuru, Tomohito; Zhao, G.*; Yoshida, Shuhei*; Mitsuhara, Masatoshi*; Godfrey, A.*; Tsuji, Nobuhiro*

Acta Materialia, 257, p.119165_1 - 119165_14, 2023/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2023.119165

Metastable titanium alloys possess excellent strain-hardening capability, but suffer from a low yield strength. As a result, numerous attempts have been made to strengthen this important structural material in the last decade. Here, we explore the contributions of grain refinement and interstitial additions in raising the yield strength of a Ti-12Mo (wt.%) metastable titanium alloy. Surprisingly, rather than strengthening the material, grain refinement actually lowers the ultimate tensile strength in this alloy. This unexpected and anomalous behavior is attributed to a significant enhancement in strain-induced martensite phase transformation, where in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction analysis reveals, for the first time, that this phase is much softer than the parent phase. Instead, a combination of both oxygen addition and grain refinement is found to realize an unprecedented strength-ductility synergy in a Ti-12Mo-0.3O (wt.%) alloy. The advantageous effect of oxygen solutes in this ternary alloy is twofold. Firstly, solute oxygen largely suppresses strain-induced transformation to the martensite phase, even in a fine-grained microstructure, thus avoiding the softening effect of excessive amounts of martensite. Secondly, oxygen solutes readily segregate to twin boundaries, as revealed by atom probe tomography. This restricts the growth of deformation twins, thereby promoting more extensive twin nucleation, leading to enhanced microstructural refinement. The insights from our work provide a cost-effective rationale for the design of strong yet tough metastable titanium alloys, with significant implications for more widespread use of this high strength-to-weight structural material.

Ultrahigh yield strength and large uniform elongation achieved in ultrafine-grained titanium containing nitrogen

Chong, Y.*; Tsuru, Tomohito; Guo, B.*; Gholizadeh, R.*; Inoue, Koji*; Tsuji, Nobuhiro*

Acta Materialia, 240, p.118356_1 - 118356_15, 2022/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118356

In this study, we systematically investigated the influences of nitrogen content and grain size on the tensile properties and deformation behaviors of titanium at room temperature. By high-pressure torsion and annealing, we obtained ultrafine-grained (UFG) Ti-0.3wt.%N alloy with a fully recrystallized microstructure, which combined an unprecedented synergy of ultrahigh yield strength (1.04 GPa) and large uniform elongation (10%). The hardening and strain-hardening mechanisms of Ti-0.3wt.%N alloy were comprehensively studied via deformation substructure observation and first-principles calculations. It is revealed that the contributions of nitrogen to the excellent strength/ductility balance in UFG Ti-0.3wt.%N were twofold. On one hand, nitrogen atoms inside the grains strongly impeded the motion of dislocations on prismatic plane due the shuffling of nitrogen from octahedral to hexahedral site, giving rise to a six-fold increase in the friction stress than pure Ti. Moreover, the greatly reduced stacking fault energy difference between prismatic and pyramidal planes in Ti-0.3wt.%N alloy facilitated an easier activation of dislocations, which contributed to an enhanced strain-hardening rate. On the other hand, some nitrogen atoms segregated near the grain boundaries, a phenomenon discovered in -titanium for the first time. These segregated nitrogen atoms served as an additional contributor to the yield strength of UFG Ti-0.3wt.%N, by raising the barrier against dislocation slip transfer between grains. Our experimental and theoretical calculation work provide insights for the design of affordable high strength titanium without a large sacrifice of ductility, shedding lights on a more widespread use of this high strength to weight material.

Two-step Mott transition in Ni(S,Se); SR studies and charge-spin percolation model

Sheng, Q.*; Kaneko, Tatsuya*; Yamakawa, Kohtaro*; Guguchia, Z.*; Gong, Z.*; Zhao, G.*; Dai, G.*; Jin, C.*; Guo, S.*; Fu, L.*; et al.

Physical Review Research (Internet), 4(3), p.033172_1 - 033172_14, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033172

First observation of a shape isomer and a low-lying strongly-coupled prolate band in neutron-deficient semi-magic Pb

Zhang, W. Q.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Liu, Z.*; Seweryniak, D.*; Huang, H.*; Li, Z. H.*; Li, J. G.*; Guo, C. Y.*; 34 of others*

Physics Letters B, 829, p.137129_1 - 137129_7, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2022.137129

The Fe(n,)Fe cross section from the surrogate ratio method and its effect on the Fe nucleosynthesis

Yan, S. Q.*; Li, X. Y.*; Nishio, Katsuhisa; Lugaro, M.*; Li, Z. H.*; Makii, Hiroyuki; Pignatari, M.*; Wang, Y. B.*; Orlandi, R.; Hirose, Kentaro; et al.

Astrophysical Journal, 919(2), p.84_1 - 84_7, 2021/10

https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac12ce

Supercritical water pretreatment method for analysis of strontium and uranium in soil (Andosols)

Nagaoka, Mika; Fujita, Hiroki; Aida, Taku*; Guo, H.*; Smith, R. L. Jr.*

Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 168, p.109465_1 - 109465_6, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109465

The radioactivities in the environmental samples are analyzed to monitor the nuclear power facilities. The pretreatment of radioactive nuclides of alpha and beta emitters in the environmental samples is performed with acid to decompose organic matter and extract object nuclide such as Sr, U and Pu. However, the pretreatment methods are time-consuming and used many concentrated acid solutions that are unsafe and hazardous. Therefore, we develop to the new pretreatment method using supercritical water instead of acid. Hydrothermal pretreatment of soils (Andosols) from Ibaraki prefecture (Japan) was used to improve methods for monitoring radioactive Sr and U. Calcined samples were pretreated with subcritical or supercritical water (SCW) followed by extraction with 0.5 M HNO solutions. With SCW pretreatment, recoveries of Sr and U were 70% and 40%, respectively. Experimental recoveries obtained can be described by a linear relationship in water density. The proposed method is robust and can lower environmental burden of routine analytical protocols.

Ultra-fine CeO particles triggered strong interaction with LaFeO framework for total and preferential CO oxidation

Zheng, Y.*; Xiao, H.*; Li, K.*; Wang, Y.*; Li, Y.*; Wei, Y.*; Zhu, X.*; Li, H.-W.*; Matsumura, Daiju; Guo, B.*; et al.

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 12(37), p.42274 - 42284, 2020/09

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c10271

Spectroscopic and first-principles investigations of iodine species incorporation into ettringite; Implications for iodine migration in cement waste forms

Guo, B.*; Xiong, Y.*; Chen, W.*; Saslow, S. A.*; Kozai, Naofumi; Onuki, Toshihiko*; Dabo, I.*; Sasaki, Keiko*

Journal of Hazardous Materials, 389, p.121880_1 - 121880_11, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121880

Effects of the nuclear structure of fission fragments on the high-energy prompt fission -ray spectrum in U()

Makii, Hiroyuki; Nishio, Katsuhisa; Hirose, Kentaro; Orlandi, R.; Lguillon, R.; Ogawa, Tatsuhiko; Soldner, T.*; Kster, U.*; Pollitt, A.*; Hambsch, F.-J.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 100(4), p.044610_1 - 044610_7, 2019/10

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.100.044610

Generation of He clusters via neutron-He absorption reaction toward visualization of full velocity field in quantum turbulence

Matsushita, Taku*; Sonnenschein, V.*; Guo, W.*; Hayashida, Hirotoshi*; Hiroi, Kosuke; Hirota, Katsuya*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Ito, Daisuke*; Kitaguchi, Masaaki*; Kiyanagi, Yoshiaki*; et al.

Journal of Low Temperature Physics, 196(1-2), p.275 - 282, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10909-018-02112-3