Effect of pre-annealing treatment temperature on compactibility of gas-atomized Al-27%Si alloy powders was investigated. Microstructure and hardness of the annealed powders were characterized. Pre-annealing results in decreasing Al matrix hardness, dissolving of needle-like eutectic Si phase, precipitation and growth of supersaturated Si atoms, and spheroidisation of primary Si phase. Compactibility of the alloy powders is gradually improved with increasing the annealing temperature to 400 ℃. However, it decreases when the temperature is above 400 ℃ owing to the existence of Si-Si phase clusters and the densely distributed Si particles. A maximum relative density of 96.1% is obtained after annealing at 400 ℃ for 4 h. In addition, the deviation of compactibility among the pre-annealed powders reaches a maximum at a pressure of 175 MPa. Therefore, a proper pre-annealing treatment can significantly enhance the cold compactibility of gas-atomized Al-Si alloy powders.
Novel colloidal processing using thermosensitive poly（N-isopropylacrylamide） （PNIPAM） as a coagulating agent has beendeveloped to prepare complex-shaped ceramic components. In this work, the properties of PNIPAM aqueous solutions and therheological behavior of ZnO suspensions with PNIPAM were investigated. The results show that the PNIPAM solutions exhibitobvious thermosensitivity and its transition temperature is around 32℃. When the temperature is above 40℃ （Tc, the criticaltransition temperature of thermosensitive suspension）, the 50% ZnO （volume fraction） suspension with 8 mg/mL PNIPAM has asharp increase in viscosity and reaches up to 11.49 Pa·s at 50℃, displaying strong elasticity. The main reasons are the increase ofeffective volume fraction attributed to precipitation of PNIPAM segments and the flocculation between ZnO powder particles. Inaddition, the maximum solid loading （volume fraction） at 20 ℃ is higher than that at 40℃, which proves that the phase transition ofPNIPAM can induce the flocculation of suspension.
Magnesium is a promising metal used as anodes for chemical power sources. This metal could theoretically provide negative discharge potential and exhibit large capacity during the discharge process. However, when the magnesium anode is adopted for practical applications, several issues, such as the discharge products adhered to the electrode surface, the self-discharge occurring on the anode material, and the detachment of metallic particles, adversely affect its inherently good discharge performance. In this work, the types of chemical power sources using magnesium as anodes were elaborated, and the approaches to enhance its anode performance were analyzed.
Mg-Al-Pb alloy is one of the newly developed materials for the seawater activated batteries. As-cast Mg-6Al-5Pb and Mg-6Al-5Pb-0.5Mn alloys with different additions of Al-15%Mn （mass fraction）, Al-30%Mn and Al-50%Mn master alloys were prepared by melting and casting. Their microstructures were observed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The electrochemical properties, hydrogen evolution and mass loss of Mg-6Al-5Pb-0.5Mn alloys were studied. The results show that Mg-6Al-5Pb-0.5Mn alloy added with Al-50%Mn master alloy provides more negative corrosion average potential （-1.66 V）, smaller corrosion current density （7 μm/cm2） and lower free corrosion rate （0.51 mg·cm-2·h-1） than other alloys. This is probably attributed to the presence of Al11Mn4 phase, which facilitates the self-peeling of corrosion products and enlarges the electrochemical reaction area as well as enhances the electrochemical activity.
