Liquid metal extraction (LME), a pyrometallurgical recycling method, is popular owing to its negligible environmental impact. LME mainly targets rare-earth permanent magnets having several rare-earth elements. Mg is used as a solvent metal for LME because of its selective and eminent reactivity with rare-earth elements in magnets. Several studies concerning the formation of Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds and their effects on LME using Mg exist. However, methods for reducing these compounds are unavailable. Fe reacts more strongly with B than with Dy; B addition can be a reducing method for Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds owing to the formation of Fe2B, which takes Fe from Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds. The FeB alloy is an adequate additive for the decomposition of Fe2B. To accomplish the former process, Mg must convey B to a permanent magnet during the decomposition of the FeB alloy. Here, the effect of Mg on the transfer of B from FeB to permanent magnet is observed through microstructural and phase analyses. Through microstructural and phase analysis, it is confirmed that FeB is converted to Fe2B upon B transfer, owing to Mg. Finally, the transfer effect of Mg is confirmed, and the possibility of reducing Dy-Fe intermetallic compounds during LME is suggested.
Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)3(LATP) is considered a promising material for all-solid-state lithium batteries owing to its high moisture stability, wide potential window (~6 V), and relatively high ion conductivity (10-3–10-4 S/cm). Solid electrolytes based on LATP are manufactured via sintering, using LATP powder as the starting material. The properties of the starting materials depend on the synthesis conditions, which affect the microstructure and ionic conductivity of the solid electrolytes. In this study, we synthesize the LATP powder using sol-gel and co-precipitation methods and characterize the physical properties of powder, such as size, shape, and crystallinity. In addition, we have prepared a disc-shaped LATP solid electrolyte using LATP powder as the starting material. In addition, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic measurements are conducted to analyze the grain size, microstructures, and ion conduction properties. These results indicate that the synthesis conditions of the powder are a crucial factor in creating microstructures and affecting the conduction properties of lithium ions in solid electrolytes.
Because magnets fabricated using Nd-Fe-B exhibit excellent magnetic properties, this novel material is used in various high-tech industries. However, because of the brittleness and low formability of Nd-Fe-B magnets, the design freedom of shapes for improving the performance is limited based on conventional tooling and postprocessing. Laserpowder bed fusion (L-PBF), the most famous additive manufacturing (AM) technique, has recently emerged as a novel process for producing geometrically complex shapes of Nd-Fe-B parts owing to its high precision and good spatial resolution. However, because of the repeated thermal shock applied to the materials during L-PBF, it is difficult to fabricate a dense Nd-Fe-B magnet. In this study, a high-density (>96%) Nd-Fe-B magnet is successfully fabricated by minimizing the thermal residual stress caused by substrate heating during L-PBF.
High-temperature and high-pressure post-processing applied to sintered thermoelectric materials can create nanoscale defects, thereby enhancing their thermoelectric performance. Here, we investigate the effect of hot isostatic pressing (HIP) as a post-processing treatment on the thermoelectric properties of p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3.0 compounds sintered via spark plasma sintering. The sample post-processed via HIP maintains its electronic transport properties despite the reduced microstructural texturing. Moreover, lattice thermal conductivity is significantly reduced owing to activated phonon scattering, which can be attributed to the nanoscale defects created during HIP, resulting in an ~18% increase in peak zT value, which reaches ~1.43 at 100oC. This study validates that HIP enhances the thermoelectric performance by controlling the thermal transport without having any detrimental effects on the electronic transport properties of thermoelectric materials.
Thermoelectric materials and devices are energy-harvesting devices that can effectively recycle waste heat into electricity. Thermoelectric power generation is widely used in factories, engines, and even in human bodies as they continuously generate heat. However, thermoelectric elements exhibit poor performance and low energy efficiency; research is being conducted to find new materials or improve the thermoelectric performance of existing materials, that is, by ensuring a high figure-of-merit (zT) value. For increasing zT, higher σ (electrical conductivity) and S (Seebeck coefficient) and a lower к (thermal conductivity) are required. Here, interface engineering by atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used to increase zT of n-type BiTeSe (BTS) thermoelectric powders. ALD of the BTS powders is performed in a rotary-type ALD reactor, and 40 to 100 ALD cycles of ZnO thin films are conducted at 100oC. The physical and chemical properties and thermoelectric performance of the ALD-coated BTS powders and pellets are characterized. It is revealed that electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity are decoupled, and thus, zT of ALD-coated BTS pellets is increased by more than 60% compared to that of the uncoated BTS pellets. This result can be utilized in a novel method for improving the thermoelectric efficiency in materials processing.
Although the Ti–6Al–4V alloy has been used in the aircraft industry owing to its excellent mechanical properties and low density, the low formability of the alloy hinders broadening its applications. Recently, laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) has become a novel process for overcoming the limitations of the alloy (i.e., low formability), owing to the high degree of design freedom for the geometry of products having outstanding performance used in hightech applications. In this study, to investigate the effect of bulk shape on the microstructure and mechanical properties of L-PBFed Ti-6Al-4V alloys, two types of samples are fabricated using L-PBF: thick and thin samples. The thick sample exhibits lower strength and higher ductility than the thin sample owing to the larger grain size and lower residual dislocation density of the thick sample because of the heat input during the L-PBF process.
The Ti-6Al-4V lattice structure is widely used in the aerospace industry owing to its high specific strength, specific stiffness, and energy absorption. The quality, performance, and surface roughness of the additively manufactured parts are significantly dependent on various process parameters. Therefore, it is important to study process parameter optimization for relative density and surface roughness control. Here, the part density and surface roughness are examined according to the hatching space, laser power, and scan rotation during laser-powder bed fusion (LPBF), and the optimal process parameters for LPBF are investigated. It has high density and low surface roughness in the specific process parameter ranges of hatching space (0.06–0.12 mm), laser power (225–325 W), and scan rotation (15°). In addition, to investigate the compressive behavior of the lattice structure, a finite element analysis is performed based on the homogenization method. Finite element analysis using the homogenization method indicates that the number of elements decreases from 437,710 to 27 and the analysis time decreases from 3,360 to 9 s. In addition, to verify the reliability of this method, stress–strain data from the compression test and analysis are compared.
The semiconductor industry faces physical limitations due to its top-down manufacturing processes. High cost of EUV equipment, time loss during tens or hundreds of photolithography steps, overlay, etch process errors, and contamination issues owing to photolithography still exist and may become more serious with the miniaturization of semiconductor devices. Therefore, a bottom-up approach is required to overcome these issues. The key technology that enables bottom-up semiconductor manufacturing is area-selective atomic layer deposition (ASALD). Here, various ASALD processes for elemental metals, such as Co, Cu, Ir, Ni, Pt, and Ru, are reviewed. Surface treatments using chemical species, such as self-assembled monolayers and small-molecule inhibitors, to control the hydrophilicity of the surface have been introduced. Finally, we discuss the future applications of metal ASALD processes.