Ultrasonic preparation of nano-nickel/activated carbon composite using spent electroless nickel plating bath and application in degradation of 2,6-dichlorophenol

Ni was effectively recovered from spent electroless nickel （EN） plating baths by forming a nano-nickel coated activated carbon composite. With the aid of ultrasonication, melamine- formaldehyde-tetraoxalyl-ethylenediamine chelating resins were grafted on activated carbon （MFT/AG）. PdC12 sol was adsorbed on MFT/AC, which was then immersed in spent electroless nickel plating bath; then nano-nickel could be reduced by ascorbic acid to form a nano-nickel coating on the activated carbon composite （Ni/AC） in situ. The materials present were carefully examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electro- chemistry techniques. The resins were well distributed on the inside and outside surfaces of activated carbon with a size of 120 ± 30 nm in MFT/AC, and a great deal of nano-nickel particles were evenly deposited with a size of 3.8 ± 1.1 nm in Ni/MFT. Moreover, Ni/AC was successfully used as a catalyst for ultrasonic degradation of 2.6-dichloronhenol.

Effect of activators on the properties of nickel coated diamond composite powders

Nickel coated diamond composite powders were fabricated via a newly developed direct electrodeposition technique. The effects of activators on the coating of diamond were firstly investigated and diamond grinding wheels were then prepared from Ni-coated diamond composite powders with different activators. The microstructural characterizations of this composite powders were finally conducted by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, and the mechanical and tribological properties of as-prepared diamond grinding wheels were also measured. There are changes in microstructures and properties of the composite powders with activators. The activator concentration also has an influence on the morphologies and phase structures of the Ni coating on diamond particles.The composite powders with more compact coating of nickel can be prepared by adding 1 g dm^（-3） or more AgNO_3 as an activator to electrodeposit nickel on diamond. The mechanical and tribological properties of diamond grinding wheels were significantly improved when the coating phase structure of Ni crystal grew with（111） plane orientation on the surface of diamond particles. The wheels made from nickel coated diamond composite powders possessed the advantages of easy preparation and outstanding tribological properties. Therefore, Ni coated diamond composite powders exhibit a great potential to be extensively applied in diamond cutting and grinding tools.

Analytic estimation and numerical modeling of actively cooled thermal protection systems with nickel alloys

Actively cooled thermal protection system has great influence on the engine of a hypersonic vehicle, and it is significant to obtain the thermal and stress distribution in the system. So an analytic estimation and numerical modeling are performed in this paper to investigate the behavior of an actively cooled thermal protection system. The analytic estimation is based on the electric analogy method and finite element analysis（FEA） is applied to the numerical simulation. Temperature and stress distributions are obtained for the actively cooled channel walls with three kinds of nickel alloys with or with no thermal barrier coating（TBC）. The temperature of the channel wall with coating has no obvious difference from the one with no coating, but the stress with coating on the channel wall is much smaller than that with no coating. Inconel X-750 has the best characteristics among the three Ni-based materials due to its higher thermal conductivity, lower elasticity module and greater allowable stress. Analytic estimation and numerical modeling results are compared with each other and a reasonable agreement is obtained.