A Generalized Gibbs Potential Model for Materials Degradation

It is well known that work done on a material by conservative forces (electrical, mechanical, chemical) will increase the Gibbs Potential of the material. The increase in Gibbs Potential can be stored in the material and is free/available to do work at some later time. However, it will be shown in this paper that while in this state of higher Gibbs potential, the material is metastable and the material will degrade spontaneously/naturally with time in an effort to reach a lower Gibbs Potential. A generalized Gibbs Potential Model is developed herein to better understand its impact on a materials degradation rate. Special attention will be given to dielectrics degradation.

A novel biodegradable Mg-1Zn-0.5Sn alloy:Mechanical properties,corrosion behavior,biocompatibility,and antibacterial activity

To meet the growing demand for antibacterial implants for bone-implant-associated infection therapy and avoid the adverse effects of secondary surgery,a degradable platform with pH responsiveness and ion-associated antibacterial properties was constructed.A small amount of Sn added to Mg-1Zn alloy reduces the biocorrosion rate,which can be attributed to Sn participation in outer-layer film formation,significantly reducing the biocorrosion rate and hydrogen evolution rate after implantation in vivo.These Mg alloys,which are susceptible to degradation in the acidic bacterial microenvironment,degrade by releasing Mg,Zn and Sn,producing favorably alkaline and antibacterial conditions.Samples with the composition of Mg-1Zn-0.5Sn were found to be beneficial for promoting initial cell adhesion and proliferation,resulting in improved biocompatibility and biosafety.The biocompatibility of this alloy was confirmed by the healthy behavior of animals and the absence of acute or chronic toxicity in the liver,spleen,and kidneys.Our results demonstrate that Mg-1Zn-0.5Sn is safe for biological systems,enabling its efficacious use in biomedical applications.

Photocatalytic Activity of Porous Magnesium Oxychloride Cement Combined with AC/TiO2 Composites

As a decorative material, magnesium oxychloride cement was used as a photocatalyst supporter to purify the pollutants indoors. Due to excellent adsorption properties of activated carbon（AC）, the photocatalytic composties, TiO2/AC, were prepared and introduced into the porous magnesium oxychloride cement（PMOC） substrate to composite a sort of photocatalytic cementitious material（PCM）. The optimal composite processes were assessed by gas chromatograph, using toluene as the target. By comparing the perspective of toluene purification and thorough decomposition, it can be found that the optimal mass ratio for TiO2/AC composites is 4/25, and the heat treatment to TiO2/AC sample at 350 ℃ can play the optimal synergetic role of adsorbents in photocatalytic process. The synergistic effect of TiO2, AC and magnesium oxychloride cement（MOC） was also evaluated by gas chromatograph. One-take molding process was adopted to introduce the TiO2/AC into PMOC substrate, and its optimal mass fraction was 4 wt%, while the appropriate density of substrate was 0.35 g/cm3. Toluene degradation showed that the prepared PCM can degrade pollutants efficiently. The appropriate treatment process of TiO2/AC, mass of TiO2/AC, substrate density, and stable pore structure should be coordinated to maximize the adsorption-photodegradation performance. The combination of photocatalytic materials, adsorbents, and building materials provided a new idea for the application of photocatalysis.

Analytical Predictive Models for Lead-Core and Elastomeric Bearing

Constitutive models aimed at predicting the mechanical response of lead-core bearing devices for passive seismic isolation are discussed in this paper. The study is focused on single-degree-of-freedom models which provide a relation between the shear displacement （shear strain） and the shear force （shear stress） in elastomeric and lad-core rubber bearings. Classical Bouc-Wen model along with a numerical procedure for identification of the model constants is described. Alternatively, a constitutive relation introducing a damage variable aimed at assessing the material degradation is also considered.

Internalization of Foreign Ions into Meta-stable Lattices:a Case Study of Transition-metal-doped Brookite

The connections between the building units of meta-stable lattice were generally considered to be easily disturbed during the doping process, causing serious hindrances blocking the development of functional doped materials. In this work, the synthesis of doped brookite, a typical meta-stable phase of TiO2, has been explored novelly by in-situ adding of cations of VIIIB and IB,IIB elements in the 3rd period（Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn） during the urea-lactate aided low-basicity hydrothermal process. The results showed that only Cu-doped brookite could be successfully synthesized with trace amount of copper intensively internalized into the brookite lattice, while the other dopants lead to the formation of anatase TiO2. Extensive characterizations indicated a two-step doping process, where copper ions were firstly dispersed in an amorphous layer on the lattice surface and then they were internalized into brookite lattice. Cu-doped brookite exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity in the phenol degradation under visible light compared to bare brookite. The enhancement of catalytic performance was assigned to the impurity band gap and the reduction of charge carriers＇ recombination introduced by the internalization of Cu ions. The investigation reported herein contributes to the understanding of complex ion-doping effects on the structures of meta-stable materials, and provides hints for obtaining other functional doped materials.

Review-material degradation assessed by digital image processing:Fundamentals,progresses,and challenges

Material degradation is accompanied by the changes in surface structure,morphology,and composition.These changes can be recorded by a variety of image acquisition devices that export digital images in grayscale or true color to a detector.Information regarding corrosion type and extent can be extracted with image processing methods.This paper provides a comprehensive review of material degradation assessed by digital image processing.Digital image processing systems used to assess material degradation are briefly reviewed,and the algorithms developed to process metallic materials degradation images are described.Physical and electrochemical methods that can be used to support digital image processing results are summarized,and future work that will augment the present methods of evaluating material degradation are discussed.