In-situ additive manufacturing of high strength yet ductility titanium composites with gradient layered structure using N_(2)

It has always been challenging work to reconcile the contradiction between the strength and plasticity of titanium materials.Laser powder bed fusion(LPBF) is a convenient method to fabricate innovative composites including those inspired by gradient layered materials.In this work,we used LPBF to selectively prepare Ti N/Ti gradient layered structure(GLSTi)composites by using different N_(2)–Ar ratios during the LPBF process.We systematically investigated the mechanisms of in-situ synthesis Ti N,high strength and ductility of GLSTi composites using microscopic analysis,TEM characterization,and tensile testing with digital image correlation.Besides,a digital correspondence was established between the N_(2) concentration and the volume fraction of LPBF in-situ synthesized Ti N.Our results show that the GLSTi composites exhibit superior mechanical properties compared to pure titanium fabricated by LPBF under pure Ar.Specifically,the tensile strength of GLSTi was more than 1.5times higher than that of LPBF-formed pure titanium,reaching up to 1100 MPa,while maintaining a high elongation at fracture of 17%.GLSTi breaks the bottleneck of high strength but low ductility exhibited by conventional nanoceramic particle-strengthened titanium matrix composites,and the hetero-deformation induced strengthening effect formed by the Ti N/Ti layered structure explained its strength-plasticity balanced principle.The microhardness exhibits a jagged variation of the relatively low hardness of 245 HV0.2 for the pure titanium layer and a high hardness of 408 HV0.2 for the N_(2) in-situ synthesis layer.Our study provides a new concept for the structure-performance digital customization of 3D-printed Ti-based composites.

Exfoliation of bulk 2H-MoS_(2)into bilayer 1T-phase nanosheets via ether-induced superlattices

The exfoliation of bulk 2H-molybdenum disulfide(2H-MoS_(2))into few-layer nanosheets with 1T-phase and controlled layers represents a daunting challenge towards the device applications of MoS_(2).Conventional ion intercalation assisted exfoliation needs the use of hazardous n-butyllithium and/or elaborate control of the intercalation potential to avoid the decomposition of the MoS_(2).This work reports a facile strategy by intercalating Li ions electrochemically with ether-based electrolyte into the van der Waals(vdW)channels of MoS_(2),which successfully avoids the decomposition of MoS_(2)at low potentials.The co-intercalation of Li+and the ether solvent into MoS_(2)makes a first-order phase transformation,forming a superlattice phase,which preserves the layered structure and hence enables the exfoliation of bulk 2H-MoS_(2)into bilayer nanosheets with 1T-phase.Compared with the pristine 2H-MoS_(2),the bilayer 1T-MoS_(2)nanosheets exhibit better electrocatalytic performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction(HER).This facile method should be easily extended to the exfoliation of various transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs).