Understanding the Nascent Plasmons and Metallic Bonding in Atomically Precise Gold Nanoclusters

The metallic bond is arguably the most intriguing one among the three types of chemical bonds, and the resultant plasmon excitation (e.g. in gold nanoparticles) has garnered wide interest. Recent...

Crystal and electronic structure of the new ternary phosphide Ho5Pd19P12

The title compound was prepared from the pure elements by sintering. The crystal structure was investigated by means of powder X-ray diffraction data. Ho5Pd19P12 exhibits the hexagonal Ho5Ni19P12-type structure with space group P 6 ‾ 2 m $P‾{6}2m$ , a = 13.1342(2), c = 3.9839(1) Å, R I = 0.060, R p = 0.080. The crystal structure can be described as a combination of two types of the structural units, [HoPd6P3] and [Ho3Pd10P6], respectively, mutually displaced by 1/2 along the crystallographic c axis. Quantum chemical calculations have been performed to analyze the electronic structure and provide deeper insight into the structure-property relationships. The results of the quantum chemical calculations indicate that the material features metallic bonding between Ho and Pd and covalent bonding between Pd and P.

A Novel Modeling Method to Study the Oxide Layer Effect on Metallic Bonding in Cold Gas Dynamic Spray Process

In this study; a new physically-based finite element approach is proposed to model and predict the superficial oxide layer removal and the occurrence of localized metallic bonding during particle impacts. The process physics; based on explosive welding theory and experiments; and method implementation is presented. Prediction of critical velocity of copper is obtained and compared to experimental data to validate the model. Moreover; the model is also able to show the bonding locations at the interface between particles and substrate. The predicted bonding locations are consistent with experimental data from literature for several metals.

Effect of laser surfacing on the microstructure and mechanical properties of ultrasonic welded NiTi joints

In the present work, the effects of laser surfacing aiming at modify the surface roughness on NiTi sheets prior to the application of ultrasonic welding (USW) were investigated. Three different configurations joining original and laser surfaced specimens were performed: original/original (referred as O/O), original/treated (referred as O/T); treated/treated (referred as T/T). The influence of surface roughness on the interface formation, diffusion, and mechanical behavior was investigated. It is observed that when both bonding surfaces becomes rougher (T/T configuration), the joint strength is the highest, followed by both smooth bonding surfaces (O/O configuration), and the strength of the joint is the lowest when only one of the bonding surfaces was roughened (O/T configuration), which is related to the degree of plastic deformation at the joining interface. The main joining mechanism of NiTi to the Al interlayer was a metallic bond caused by shear plastic deformation and formation and growth of micro welds at the joining interfaces. Laser surfacing facilitates the metallic bonding, which is directly reflected in the change of the thickness of the Al interlayer after USW. This also helps to produce mechanical interlocking at the interface, although there is no significant difference in the elemental diffusion. Interfacial failure occurred in all joints tested under different surface contact conditions and exhibited ductile-like fracture characteristics.

Site-specific electrodeposition enables self-terminating growth of atomically dispersed metal catalysts

The growth of atomically dispersed metal catalysts (ADMCs) remains a great challenge owing to the thermodynamically driven atom aggregation. Here we report a surface-limited electrodeposition technique that uses site-specific substrates for the rapid and room-temperature synthesis of ADMCs. We obtained ADMCs by the underpotential deposition of a non-noble single-atom metal onto the chalcogen atoms of transition metal dichalcogenides and subsequent galvanic displacement with a more-noble single-atom metal. The site-specific electrodeposition enables the formation of energetically favorable metal–support bonds, and then automatically terminates the sequential formation of metallic bonding. The self-terminating effect restricts the metal deposition to the atomic scale. The modulated ADMCs exhibit remarkable activity and stability in the hydrogen evolution reaction compared to state-of-the-art single-atom electrocatalysts. We demonstrate that this methodology could be extended to the synthesis of a variety of ADMCs (Pt, Pd, Rh, Cu, Pb, Bi, and Sn), showing its general scope for functional ADMCs manufacturing in heterogeneous catalysis.

Boron Concentration Induced Co-Ta-B Composite Formation Observed in the Transition from Metallic to Covalent Glasses

Due to their unique property combination of high strength and toughness, metallic glasses are promising materials for structural applications. As the behaviour of metallic glasses depends on the electronic structure which in turn is defined by chemical composition, we systematically investigate the influence of B concentration on glass transition, topology, magnetism, and bonding for B concentrations x = 2 to 92 at.% in the (Co6.8±3.9Ta)100−xBx system. From an electronic structure and coordination point of view, the B concentration range is divided into three regions: Below 39 ± 5 at.% B, the material is a metallic glass due to the dominance of metallic bonds. Above 69 ± 6 at.%, the presence of an icosahedra-like B network is observed. As the B concentration is increased above 39 ± 5 at.%, the B network evolves while the metallic coordination of the material decreases until the B concentration of 67 ± 5 at.% is reached. Hence, a composite is formed. It is evident that, based on the B concentration, the ratio of metallic bonding to icosahedral bonding in the composite can be controlled. It is proposed that, by tuning the coordination in the composite region, glassy materials with defined plasticity and processability can be designed.

Characterizing local metallic bonding variation induced by external perturbation

The reduced density gradient analyses on metallic bonding indicate that FCC metals can become more flexible/stronger with the electron/hole injection.

Imaging an unsupported metal–metal bond in dirhenium molecules at the atomic scale

Metallic bonds remain one of the most important and least understood of the chemical bonds. In this study, we generated Re2 molecules in which the Re–Re core is unsupported by ligands. Real-time imaging of the atomic-scale dynamics of Re2 adsorbed on a graphitic lattice allows direct measurement of Re–Re bond lengths for individual molecules that changes in discrete steps correlating with bond order from one to four. Direct imaging of the Re–Re bond breaking process reveals a new bonding state with the bond order less than one and a high-amplitude vibrational stretch, preceding the bond dissociation. The methodology, based on aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy imaging, is shown to be a powerful analytical tool for the investigation of dynamics of metallic bonding at the atomic level.