Wetting behaviors and interfacial characteristics of molten Al_(x)CoCrCuFeNi high-entropy alloys on a WC substrate

The wettability of molten Al_(x)CoCrCuFeNi(x is from 0 to 1.5,mol.%)high-entropy alloys(HEA)on a WC substrate was measured using a modified sessile drop method at 1823 K in an argon atmosphere.The wetting behaviors and interfacial characteristics between HEAs and WC were studied.Good wettability with final equilibrium contact angles of 0.5°-4.6°is obtained,and addition of Al deteriorates the wettability of the HEAs.The wetting of Al_(x)CoCrCuFeNi/WC system can be roughly divided into an initially sharp spreading stage and a subsequent steady-state phase.In the first stage,the adsorption of Cr atoms at the solid-liquid interface primarily contributes to the wetting,and the contact angle drastically reduces.However,both the wetting behavior and interfacial microstructure are determined by the Al content of the HEA in the next stage.For x≤0.5,the wetting is mainly driven by the dissolution of WC,although a few reaction products of(W,Cr)_(2)C are observed.Moreover,an obvious dissolution pit appears at the surface of the substrate.When the Al content of x≥1,the interfacial reaction is dominant in competition with the dissolution of WC,and massive reaction products precipitate at the HEA/WC interface,which leads to the formation of a continuous reaction layer.

Enhanced strength and ductility in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys fabricated by laser powder bed fusion using a synergistic grain-refining strategy

Grain refinement is critical to surpassing the bottlenecks of inherent hot tearing of high-strength aluminum alloys fabricated by additive manufacturing(AM).In this study,a synergistic grain-refining strategy including heterogeneous nucleation,solute-driven growth restriction and nanoparticle-induced growth restriction was introduced to control the microstructure of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys during the laser powder bed fusion(LPBF)process.Crack-free Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys with significantly refined grains were safely fabricated via LPBF by coincorporation of Ti C and TiHparticles.In-situ L1-AlTi particles were produced to promote the heterogeneous nucleation.The grain growth was restricted by adding Ti solute,while introduced TiC nanoparticles(NPs)improved the density of heterogeneous nucleation sites and blocked grain growth physically.The resultant elimination of columnar grains and hot cracks in the(1 wt.%)TiC-and(0.8 wt.%)TiH-modified Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy resulted in excellent ultimate tensile strength(UTS)of 593±24 MPa,yield strength(YS)of 485±41 MPa and elongation(EL)of 10.0%±2.5%under the T6 condition.This study provides new insights into improving the grain microstructure and mechanical properties of high-strength aluminum alloys during LPBF.

Generation of gene-target dogs using CRISPR/Cas9 system

Dear Editor,Dogs(Canis familiaris)serve as human companions and are raised to herd livestock,aid hunters,guard homes,perform police and rescue work,and guide the blind.Dogs exhibit close similarities to humans in terms of metabolic,physiological,and anatomical characteristics,and thus are ideal genetic and clinical models to study human diseases(Tsai et al.,2007).Gene target technology is a powerful tool to create new strains of animals with favorable traits.However,thus far,gene-target dogs have not been developed due to their unique species-specific reproductive characteristics,which limits the applications of dogs especially in the field of biomedical research.Recently,clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats(CRISPRs)/CRISPR-associated(Cas)9 system was applied to edit specific genes with a high efficiency(Cong et al.,2013;Mali et al.,2013).Here we attempt to explore the feasibility of producing gene knockout(KO)dogs by using this technology.Beagle dog,the most widely used breed in biomedical research,was used as our animal model.Myostatin(MSTN)was chosen as the first gene of interest.