Low-temperatures synthesis of CuS nanospheres as cathode material for magnesium second batteries

Rechargeable magnesium batteries(RMBs),as one of the most promising candidates for efficient energy storage devices with high energy,power density and high safety,have attracted increasing attention.However,searching for suitable cathode materials with fast diffusion kinetics and exploring their magnesium storage mechanisms remains a great challenge.Cu S submicron spheres,made by a facile low-temperature synthesis strategy,were applied as the high-performance cathode for RMBs in this work,which can deliver a high specific capacity of 396mAh g^(-1)at 20 mA g^(-1) and a remarkable rate capacity of 250 m Ah g^(-1)at 1000 mA g^(-1).The excellent rate performance can be assigned to the nano needle-like particles on the surface of Cu S submicron spheres,which can facilitate the diffusion kinetics of Mg^(2+).Further storage mechanism investigations illustrate that the Cu S cathodes experience a two-step conversion reaction controlled by diffusion during the electrochemical reaction process.This work could make a contribution to the study of the enhancement of diffusion kinetics of Mg2+and the reaction mechanism of RMBs.

Fabrication of corrosion-resistant superhydrophobic coating on magnesium alloy by one-step electrodeposition method

A one-step electrodeposition method was used to construct a superhydrophobic coating on the surface of magnesium alloy.Using magne-sium nitrate and ethanol solution of stearic acid as electrolyte,four groups of electrolytes with different ratios of stearic acid and magnesium nitrate were designed to explore the influence of electrolyte to the process.The contact angles of the four coating samples were 136.4±5.8°,152.7±2.8°,156.2±4.9°and 155.1±4.4°The addition of magnesium nitrate in the solution increased the hydrogen evolution reaction in the electrodeposition process,which was not conducive to electrodeposition process.During the deposition process,the sample prepared in a molar ratio of stearic acid to magnesium nitrate of 10:1 had the best corrosion resistance,and its corrosion circuit density was 3.74×10^(−8)A/cm^(2),far lower than the corrosion current density of the magnesium alloy substrate.

Influence of extrusion conditions on microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-2Gd-0.3Zr magnesium alloy

In general,different extrusion conditions will affect the microstructure of magnesium alloys and further determine the mechanical properties.The effects of extrusion parameters and heat treatment processes such as extrusion speed,pre-forging,annealing time,extrusion ratio and cooling rate on the microstructure,texture evolution and tensile properties of Mg-2Gd-0.3Zr alloys were investigated in this study.Compared with the as-cast alloy,the extrusion process significantly refines the grains and exhibit the rare earth texture.With the increase of extrusion speed and annealing time,the growth of recrystallized grains is accelerated,leading to the increase of elongation.Large pre-forging deformation achieves to refine the grains by promoting recrystallization nucleation,resulting in increased strength of Mg-2Gd-0.3Zr alloy.Decreasing the extrusion ratio or increasing the cooling rate will introduce coarse un-DRXed grains,which transformed the texture into the basal texture.In particular,the effect of rapid cooling on refining the recrystallized grains is also obvious.Different extrusion conditions influence the mechanical properties of the Mg-2Gd-0.3Zr alloy through the grain size,proportion of non-recrystallization region and texture type.

Effect of grain size on the electrochemical behavior of pure magnesium anode

Three kinds of pure magnesium anode materials with different grain sizes were prepared by extrusion at different temperatures.The grain size of each sample was calculated,then the effect of grain size on the electrochemical properties of pure magnesium anode was investigated by chemical immersion hydrogen test,potentiodynamic polarization scanning,constant current discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.As the extrusion temperature increases from 180℃ to 250℃,the average grain size of pure magnesium increases from 20m to 30m,and the pure magnesium extruded at 250℃ has the best electrochemical performance as magnesium anode,with the discharge potential of−1.571 V(vs.SCE).Plastic deformation process is a convenient method that can change the microstructure and improve the electrochemical behavior of magnesium anode.

Uncovering of the formation of rare earth texture and pseudo fiber bimodal microstructure in the high ductility Mg-2Gd-0.4Zr alloy during extrusion

The aim of this research was to elucidate the underlying mechanism involved in the formation of rare earth(RE)texture and pseudo fiber bimodal microstructure in the high ductility Mg-2Gd-0.4Zr alloy.The microstructure and texture evolution during the extrusion process were analyzed using various tech-niques,including optical microscopy(OM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),electron backscatter diffraction(EBSD),and electron probe microanalysis(EPMA).The findings revealed that the RE texture in the extruded Mg-2Gd-0.4Zr alloy emerged during the dynamic recrystallization(DRX)process and was further strengthened during the subsequent static recrystallization and grain growth processes.The nu-cleation and growth of grains in the streamline region of Zr particles were delayed in comparison to other regions due to the pinning effect of Zr particles,ultimately resulting in the formation of pseudofiber bi-modal microstructure in the extruded Mg-2Gd-0.4Zr alloy.

Annealing hardening effect aroused by solute segregation in gradient ultrafine-grained Mg-Gd-Zr alloy

In this study,a remarkable annealing hardening effect was detected in gradient ultrafine-grained(UFG)Mg-0.32Gd-0.11Zr(at.%)alloy sheet fabricated by sliding friction treatment(SFT).Under the precipitation-free condition,the annealed UFG structure shows an obvious hardness increment from 1.40 GPa to 1.89 GPa after 200℃ heating for 12 h,which exhibits a much higher hardening response than the annealed coarse-grained(CG)structure.The high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission elec-tron microscopy(HAADF-STEM)and elemental mapping reveal prominent segregation of solute Gd atoms along grain boundaries,which endows the UFG structure with excellent grain boundary stability.More-over,Gd segregation is also found around the extrinsic stacking fault(E-SFs)and the low-angle grain boundaries composed of edge dislocations.The large-scale solute partitioning provides a significant seg-regation hardening effect,which completely resists the softening effect aroused by the grain coarsening and dislocation annihilation.This work realizes a good combination of surface mechanical processing for fabricating UFGs and subsequent heat treatment,which earns desirable segregation hardening effects.

Improved Corrosion Resistance of Ultrafine-Grained Mg-Gd-Zr Alloy Fabricated by Surface Friction Treatment

Gradient ultrafine-grained (UFG) Mg-2Gd-0.4Zr (wt%) alloy sheet, with a UFG layer of about 118 nm on the topmost treated surface, was fabricated by sliding friction treatment (SFT). The corrosion resistance of the SFT-processed UFG surface layer was greatly improved compared to the original coarse-grained (CG) structure, representing as a higher impedance and a lower corrosion rate (CG: 4.11 mm y^(−1), UFG: 2.71 mm y^(−1)). The UFG layer with high density of grain boundaries exhibits an excellent impeditive effect on the cracking of corrosion product films. Compared to the CG sample, the stable corrosion product film inhibits the formation of pitting so providing a better protective effect. In addition, the Gd-rich clusters are randomly distributed after SFT processing, which decreases the tendency of galvanic corrosion on the UFG surface.