Evolution of the electrical resistivity of Sn-40wt%Bi melt with time under different overheating temperatures during isothermal experiments has been studied, and the relationship between different melt state, solidification behavior and solidified structure has also been investigated. The results show that the melt structure transition revealed by the abnormal change of resistivity would take place within a certain holding time just when the holding temperature is above a certain critical, and that the higher the temperature above the critical, the shorter the "incubation period" of the melt structure transition, and the faster the transition speed. The results of solidification experiments suggest that the melt structure transition caused by different holding time at the same temperature can lead to a higher so-lidification undercooling degree, finer grain size and change of microscopic pattern. Further exploration indicates that the solidification undercooling degree can come to a head when the melt is held at the specific temperature for a given time. The functionary mechanism of the phenomena above is also discussed briefly.
ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized via precipitation-pyrolysis (P&P), where the precursor zinc hydroxide carbonate (Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6) was obtained and then pyrolyzed. The results of TEM indicate that pyrolysis temperature is the predominant factor for controlling mean sizes of nanoparticles, ranging from 8 nm to 80 nm. Increasing the pyrolysis temperature enhances the mean size. The results of XRD show that nanoparticles are all of crystalline zincite. The mean size observed by TEM is in agreement with that calculated from the specific surface area(SSA) and the crystalline size calculated from the XRD patterns, indicating that the primary particles are rather uniform in size and have single crystals. The growth behaviors of epitaxy along the C-axis are responsible for the morphology of ZnO changing from sphere to rod-like shape, and then to reticulation. Compared with other synthesis approaches, P&P can get fairly good product with a relatively low cost.
The effect of the liquid-liquid structure transition(L-LST) on the solidification behaviors and morphologies of Sn-Bi alloys was studied further. The results show that the undercooling of the primary and eutectic phase increases and the microstructure becomes finer after solidifying from the melt experiencing the L-LST. In the meantime, in hypoeutectic alloy, when solidifying from the melt experiencing the L-LST, the morphology of primary phase changes from the fir-tree crystal into the equiaxed crystal, and less primary phase and more eutectic structure are observed. Moreover, in eutectic alloy, the spacing of eutectic phase decreases markedly. These investigations would be beneficial to further exploration of the correlation between the melt structure and the micro mechanism of solidification.
