Pressure-induced structural transition and thermodynamic properties of RhN2 and the effect of metallic bonding on its hardness

The elastic constant, structural phase transition, and effect of metallic bonding on the hardness of RhN2 under high pressure are investigated through the first-principles calculation by means of the pseudopotential plane-wave method. Three structures are chosen to investigate for RhN2, namely, simple hexagonal P6/mmm （denoted as SH）, orthorhombic Pnnm （marcasite）, and simple tetragonal P4/mbm （denoted as ST）. Our calculations show that the SH phase is energetically more stable than the other two phases at zero pressure. On the basis of the third-order Birch Murnaghan equation of states, we find that the phase transition pressures from an SH to a marcasite structure and from a marcasite to an ST structure are 1.09 GPa and 354.57 GPa, respectively. Elastic constants, formation enthalpies, shear modulus, Young＇s modulus, and Debye temperature of RhN2 are derived. The calculated values are, generally speaking, in good agreement with the previous theoretical results. Meanwhile, it is found that the pressure has an important influence on physical properties. Moreover, the effect of metallic bonding on the hardness of RhN2 is investigated. This is a quantitative investigation on the structural properties of RhN2, and it still awaits experimental confirmation.     

Theoretical investigation on the electronic structure,elastic properties, and intrinsic hardness of Si2N20

According to the density functional theory we systematically study the electronic structure, the mechanical prop- erties and the intrinsic hardness of Si2N2O polymorphs using the first-principles method. The elastic constants of four Si2N2O structures are obtained using the stress-strain method. The mechanical moduli （bulk modulus, Young’s mod-ulus, and shear modulus） are evaluated using the Voigt-Reuss-Hill approach. It is found that the tetragonal Si2N2O exhibits a larger mechanical modulus than the other phases. Some empirical methods are used to calculate the Vickers hardnesses of the Si2N2O structures. We further estimate the Vickers hardnesses of the four Si2N2O crystal structures, suggesting all Si2N2O phases are not the superhard compounds. The results imply that the tetragonal Si2N2O is the hardest phase. The hardness of tetragonal Si2N2O is 31.52 GPa which is close to values of β-Si3N4 and γ-Si3N4.     

Hardness of materials at high temperature and high pressure

The intrinsic character of the correlation between hardness and thermodynamic properties of solids has been established. The proposed thermodynamic model of hardness allows one to easily estimate hardness and bulk moduli of known or even hypothetical solids from the data on Gibbs energy of atomization of the elements or on the enthalpy at the melting point. The correctness of this approach is illustrated by an example of the recently synthesized superhard diamond-like BC₅ and orthorhombic modification of boron, γ-B₂₈. The pressure and/or temperature dependences of hardness were calculated for a number of hard and superhard phases, i.e. diamond, cBN, B₆O, B₄C, SiC, Al₂O₃, β-B₂O₃ and β-rh boron. Excellent agreement between experimental and calculated values is observed for temperature dependences of Vickers and Knoop hardness. In addition, the model predicts that some materials can become harder than diamond at pressures in the megabar range.     

Systematic Selection of Metalloporphyrin‐Based Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction by Modulation of the Donor–Acceptor Intermolecular Hardness

Incisive modulation of the intermolecular hardness between metalloporphyrins and O₂ can lead to the identification of promising catalysts for oxygen reduction. The dependency of the electrocatalytic reduction of O₂ by metalloporphyrins on the nature of the central metal yields a volcano‐type curve, which is rationalized to be in accordance with the Sabatier principle by using an approximation of the electrophilicity of the complexes. By using electrochemical and UV/Vis data, the influence of a selection of meso‐substituents on the change in the energy for the π→π* excitation of manganese porphyrins was evaluated allowing one to quantitatively correlate the influence of the various ligands on the electrocatalysis of O₂ reduction by the complexes. A manganese porphyrin was identified that electrocatalyzes the reduction of oxygen at low overpotentials without generating hydrogen peroxide. The activity of the complex became remarkably enhanced upon its pyrolysis at 650 °C.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of laser shock synchronous welding and forming of Copper/Aluminum

A novel laser shock synchronous welding and forming method is introduced, which utilizes laser-induced shock waves to accelerate the flyer plate towards the base plate to achieve the joining of dissimilar metals and forming in a specific shape of mold. The samples were obtained with different laser energies and standoff distances. The surface morphology and roughness of the samples were greatly affected by the laser energy and standoff distances. Fittability was investigated to examine the forming accuracy. The results showed that the samples replicate the mold features well. Straight and wavy interfaces with un-bonded regions in the center were observed through metallographic analysis. Moreover, Energy Disperse Spectroscopy analysis was conducted on the welding interface, and the results indicated that a short-distance elemental diffusion emerged in the welding interface. The nanoindentation hardness of the welding regions was measured to evaluate the welding interface. In addition, the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method was employed to simulate the welding and forming process. It was shown that different standoff distances significantly affected the size of the welding regions and interface waveform characteristics. The numerical analysis results indicated that the opposite shear stress direction and effective plastic strain above a certain threshold are essential to successfully obtain welding and forming workpiece.     

Enhanced Magnetic Hardness in a Nanoscale Metal–Organic Hybrid Ferrimagnet

A new layered metal–organic hybrid compound, namely, [Co₃(μ₃‐OH)₂(BTP)₂] ( 1 ; BTP=4‐(3‐bromothienyl)phosphonate), is reported. The inorganic layer can be viewed as a pseudo‐Kagomé lattice composed of corner‐sharing irregular triangles of Co₃(μ₃‐OH), with the cavities filled with the PO₃ groups. The interlayer space is occupied by the 3‐bromothienyl groups of BTP^2?. The bulk sample of compound 1 experiences a long‐range ferromagnetic ordering below 30.5 K, with a coercivity (H_c) of 5.04 kOe at 5 K. A systematic study on the size‐dependent magnetic coercivity of 1 reveals that the coercivity of 1 increases with reduced particle size from the micrometer to the nanometer scale. When the particle size is about 50–200 nm, the coercivity reaches 24.2 kOe at 5 K. The results demonstrate that compound 1 can vary from a soft magnet to one of the hardest molecule‐based magnets, simply by reducing the particle size to nanoscale region.     

Superhard silicon nanospheres

Successful deposition and mechanical probing of nearly spherical, defect-free silicon nanospheres has been accomplished. The results show silicon at this length scale to be up to four times harder than bulk silicon. Detailed measurements of plasticity evolution and the corresponding hardening response in normally brittle silicon is possible in these small volumes. Based upon a proposed length scale related to the size of nanospheres in the 20- radii range, a prediction of observed hardnesses in the range of 20- is made. The ramifications of this to computational materials science studies on identical volumes are discussed.     

密度泛函理论派生概念和原理在摩擦化学中的应用

评述了密度泛函理论派生概念和原理在摩擦化学中的应用，指出可以采用摩擦化学势(或摩擦化学电负性)和摩擦化学硬度作为表征固体摩擦材料和润滑剂分子力化学反应活性的量化参数，从而为摩擦化学计算与设计提供量子化学参数。     

NANOINDENTATION OF THIN-FILM-SUBSTRATE SYSTEM： DETERMINATION OF FILM HARDNESS AND YOUNG’S MODULUS

In the present paper, the hardness and Young‘s modulus of film-substrate systems are determined by means of nanoindentation experiments and modified models. Aluminum film and two kinds of substrates, i.e. glass and silicon, are studied. Nanoindentation XP Ⅱ and continuous stiffness mode are used during the experiments. In order to avoid the influence of the Oliver and Pharr method used in the experiments, the experiment data are analyzed with the constant Young‘s modulus assumption and the equal hardness assumption. The volume fraction model (CZ model) proposed by Fabes et al. (1992) is used and modified to analyze the measured hardness. The method proposed by Doerner and Nix (DN formula) (1986) is modified to analyze the measured Young‘s modulus. Two kinds of modified empirical formula are used to predict the present experiment results and those in the literature, which include the results of two kinds of systems, i.e., a soft film on a hard substrate and a hard film on a soft substrate. In the modified CZ model, the indentation influence angle, φ, is considered as a relevant physical parameter, which embodies the effects of the indenter tip radius, pile-up or sink-in phenomena and deformation of film and substrate.