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Metals
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Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films
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Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films

A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701). This special issue belongs to the section "Metallic Functional Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 9435

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Catalin-Daniel Constantinescu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratoire LP3 / UMR 7341 CNRS AMU, Campus de Luminy, 13009 Marseille, France
Interests: laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT); laser processing; thin films; surface structuring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ahmed Al-Kattan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratoire LP3/UMR CNRS 7341, Campus de Luminy, 13009 Marseille, France
Interests: metallic nanoparticles; surface structuring; laser ablation in liquids
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metallic materials play a vital role in the economic life of modern societies. The aim of this Special Issue is to cover all relevant aspects of the chemical and physical processes of the production, transformation and characterization of metallic materials in bulk, thin films, nanostructures and/or nanocomposites, as well as modeling aspects involving such structures.

Accordingly, this Special Issue welcomes original research and review manuscripts on the challenges and trends covering fundamental and experimental research, with a special focus on the design, synthesis, and characterization of any type of metallic material and/or alloys, and the study of their structure/property relationships.

We also welcome manuscripts on the development of new experimental concepts, from the transfer, chemical transformation, and high-resolution patterning of advanced thin films and nanomaterials to the design and fabrication of devices.

Dr. Catalin Constantinescu
Dr. Ahmed Al-Kattan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • material science
  • metallic thin films
  • metallic nanomaterials
  • surface structuring
  • metallurgy

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 7485 KiB  
Article
Hybrid Nanostructures of Fe3O4 and Au Prepared via Coprecipitation and Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis
by Lan Kresnik, Peter Majerič, Darja Feizpour, Klementina Pušnik Črešnar and Rebeka Rudolf
Metals 2024, 14(12), 1324; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14121324 - 23 Nov 2024
Viewed by 407
Abstract
The coupled processes of coprecipitation and ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) were used to synthesize Fe3O4-Au hybrid nanostructures. The first coprecipitation method enabled the synthesis of Fe3O4 nanoparticles by mixing iron salts’ ions (Fe2+ and Fe [...] Read more.
The coupled processes of coprecipitation and ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) were used to synthesize Fe3O4-Au hybrid nanostructures. The first coprecipitation method enabled the synthesis of Fe3O4 nanoparticles by mixing iron salts’ ions (Fe2+ and Fe3+) and ammonia as the base, and USP was used as the coating process of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles with Au. The formatted hybrid nanostructures consist of Fe3O4 nanoparticles that have Au on their surface in the form of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). AuNPs have a crystalline structure and range in size from 10 to 200 nm. Additional characterization techniques, including ICP-OES, TEM, SEM, EDS, DLS, zeta potential, and room temperature magnetic hysteresis loops, were used to determine the chemical, physical, and magnetic properties of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles and hybrid nanostructures. It was found that USP produces separate AuNPs too (not just on the Fe3O4 surface), suggesting a bimodal formation of AuNPs. The zeta potential of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles showed poor stability (−15 mV), indicating a high tendency to aggregate, and the zeta potential of the hybrid nanostructures was also very low (≅0), which, comparatively means even worse stability. The saturation magnetization of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles was 35 emu/g, which is relatively lower than that of bulk Fe3O4, while the saturation magnetization of the hybrid nanostructures was significantly lower (0.1 emu/g) compared to the Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films)
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21 pages, 387 KiB  
Article
New Method to Recover Activation Energy: Application to Copper Oxidation
by Dominique Barchiesi and Thomas Grosges
Metals 2024, 14(9), 1066; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14091066 - 18 Sep 2024
Viewed by 711
Abstract
The calculation of the activation energy helps to understand and to identify the underlying phenomenon of oxidation. We propose a new method without any a priori hypothesis on the oxidation law, to retrieve the activation energy of partially and totally oxidized samples subject [...] Read more.
The calculation of the activation energy helps to understand and to identify the underlying phenomenon of oxidation. We propose a new method without any a priori hypothesis on the oxidation law, to retrieve the activation energy of partially and totally oxidized samples subject to successive annealing. The method handles the uncertainties on the measurement of metal and oxide thicknesses, at the beginning and at the end of the annealing process. The possible change in oxidation law during annealing is included in the model. By using an adapted Particle Swarm Optimization method to solve the inverse problem, we also calculate the time of final oxidation during the last annealing. We apply the method to successive annealings of three samples with initial nanometric layers of copper, at ambient pressure, in the open air. One, two and three successive laws are recovered from experimental data. We found activation energy values about 105–108 kJ mol−1 at the beginning of the oxidation, 76–87 kJ mol−1 at the second step, and finally 47–59 kJ mol−1 in a third step. We also show that the time evolution of copper and oxide thicknesses can also be retrieved with their uncertainties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films)
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14 pages, 37796 KiB  
Article
Microgrid-Patterned Ni Foams as Current Collectors for Ultrafast Energy Storage Devices
by Un-Tae Kim, Myeong-Hun Jo and Hyo-Jin Ahn
Metals 2024, 14(3), 354; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14030354 - 19 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1240
Abstract
Current research is focused on developing active materials through surface functionalization, porosity, composites, and doping for ultrafast electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs). In this study, deviating from existing strategies focused on active materials, we designed tunable 3D microgrid-patterned (MP) surface morphologies on Ni [...] Read more.
Current research is focused on developing active materials through surface functionalization, porosity, composites, and doping for ultrafast electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs). In this study, deviating from existing strategies focused on active materials, we designed tunable 3D microgrid-patterned (MP) surface morphologies on Ni foams used as current collectors using SUS meshes as rigid stamps during roll pressing. The surface geometries of the MP-Ni foams were controlled to standard mesh scales of 24, 40, and 60 (denoted as 24MP-Ni, 40MP-Ni, and 60MP-Ni, respectively). The three MP-Ni samples with different microgrid sizes presented different surface geometries, such as root-mean-square roughness (Rrms), skewness roughness (Rsk), and width/depth scales of the microgrid patterns. Consequently, 40MP-Ni demonstrated an optimized surface geometry with high Rrms (35.4 μm) and Rsk (−0.19) values, which facilitated deep slurry infiltration and increased its contact area with the active material. Surface optimization of the MP-Ni enabled ultrafast and reversible charge transport kinetics owing to its relaxed electron transfer resistance and robust adhesion to the active material compared with bare Ni foam. EDLC electrodes with 40MP-Ni achieved an ultrafast-rate capability (96.0 F/g at 20 A/g) and ultrafast longevity (101.9% capacity retention after 5000 cycles at 5 A/g) without specific modification of active material. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films)
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15 pages, 6581 KiB  
Article
Elimination of Low-Angle Grain Boundary Networks in FeCrAl Alloys with the Electron Wind Force at a Low Temperature
by Md Hafijur Rahman, Sarah Todaro, Luke Warner, Daudi Waryoba and Aman Haque
Metals 2024, 14(3), 331; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14030331 - 14 Mar 2024
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1696
Abstract
Low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) accommodate residual stress through the rearrangement and accumulation of dislocations during cold rolling. This study presents an electron wind force-based annealing approach to recover cold-rolling induced residual stress in FeCrAl alloy below 100 °C in 1 min. This is [...] Read more.
Low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) accommodate residual stress through the rearrangement and accumulation of dislocations during cold rolling. This study presents an electron wind force-based annealing approach to recover cold-rolling induced residual stress in FeCrAl alloy below 100 °C in 1 min. This is significantly lower than conventional thermal annealing, which typically requires temperatures around 750 °C for about 1.5 h. A key feature of our approach is the athermal electron wind force effect, which promotes dislocation movement and stress relief at significantly lower temperatures. The electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis reveals that the concentration of low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) is reduced from 82.4% in the cold-rolled state to a mere 47.5% following electropulsing. This level of defect recovery even surpasses the pristine material’s initial state, which exhibited 54.8% LAGBs. This reduction in LAGB concentration was complemented by kernel average misorientation (KAM) maps and X-ray diffraction (XRD) Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) measurements, which further validated the microstructural enhancements. Nanoindentation tests revealed a slight increase in hardness despite the reduction in dislocation density, suggesting a balance between grain boundary refinement and dislocation dynamics. This proposed low-temperature technique, driven by athermal electron wind forces, presents a promising avenue for residual stress mitigation while minimizing undesirable thermal effects, paving the way for advancements in various material processing applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films)
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11 pages, 4343 KiB  
Article
How Cracks Induced by Straining Influence the Tribological Properties of Mo Films Deposited on Polyimide Substrates
by Edyta Kobierska, Megan J. Cordill, Robert Franz and Marisa Rebelo de Figueiredo
Metals 2024, 14(3), 295; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14030295 - 1 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1208
Abstract
Thin film materials used in flexible electronics are deposited on polymer substrates and must withstand a variety of static and dynamic mechanical loading conditions to ensure adequate reliability of the device. Tribological loads are also among these loading conditions, and suitable characterization methods [...] Read more.
Thin film materials used in flexible electronics are deposited on polymer substrates and must withstand a variety of static and dynamic mechanical loading conditions to ensure adequate reliability of the device. Tribological loads are also among these loading conditions, and suitable characterization methods and strategies are required for analyzing friction and wear for a variety of tribological contact situations. In the present work, Mo films were deposited on polyimide substrates by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering and then pre-conditioned by straining to several strain levels, including crack onset strain and strains within the crack saturation regime. Subsequently, ball-on-disk tests against different counterpart materials, namely glass, steel, and polymer, were performed to evaluate different tribological contact situations. The comparison of the results of morphologies and characteristics of the films using surface images for strained and unstrained samples provide insight into how increasing straining of the films and crack formation affect the enhanced fracture of the deposited Mo films, which served as a model system in these investigations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films)
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12 pages, 2976 KiB  
Article
Mechanical Properties of Thermally Annealed Cu/Ni and Cu/Al Multilayer Thin Films: Solid Solution vs. Intermetallic Strengthening
by Yang Zhou and Junlan Wang
Metals 2024, 14(3), 256; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14030256 - 21 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1280
Abstract
In this study, Cu/Ni and Cu/Al multilayers, with individual layer thickness varying from 25 nm to 200 nm, and co-sputtered Cu-Ni and Cu-Al single layer films were deposited at room temperature via magnetron sputtering and further annealed from 100 °C to 300 °C. [...] Read more.
In this study, Cu/Ni and Cu/Al multilayers, with individual layer thickness varying from 25 nm to 200 nm, and co-sputtered Cu-Ni and Cu-Al single layer films were deposited at room temperature via magnetron sputtering and further annealed from 100 °C to 300 °C. The mechanical and microstructural properties of the as-deposited and annealed samples were characterized by nanoindentation, x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. Both multilayer systems exhibit an increase in hardness with increasing annealing temperature. However, the Cu/Ni system shows a gradual and moderate hardness increase (up to 30%) from room temperature to 300 °C, while the Cu/Al system displays a sharp hardness surge (~150%) between 125 °C and 200 °C. The co-sputtered Cu-Ni and Cu-Al samples consistently demonstrate higher hardness than their multilayered counterparts, albeit with distinctly different temperature dependence—the hardness of Cu-Ni increases with annealing temperature while Cu-Al maintains a constant high hardness throughout the entire temperature range. The distinct thermal strengthening mechanisms observed in the two metallic multilayer systems can be ascribed to the formation of solid solutions in Cu/Ni and the precipitation of intermetallic phases in Cu/Al. This study highlights the unique advantage of intermetallic strengthening in metallic multilayer systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films)
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Review

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26 pages, 9206 KiB  
Review
Materials Design and Development of Photocatalytic NOx Removal Technology
by Gazi A. K. M. Rafiqul Bari, Mobinul Islam and Jae-Ho Jeong
Metals 2024, 14(4), 423; https://doi.org/10.3390/met14040423 - 3 Apr 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1646
Abstract
Nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollutants have a significant impact on both the environment and human health. Photocatalytic NOx removal offers a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to combatting these pollutants by harnessing renewable solar energy. Photocatalysis demonstrates remarkable efficiency in removing NO [...] Read more.
Nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollutants have a significant impact on both the environment and human health. Photocatalytic NOx removal offers a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to combatting these pollutants by harnessing renewable solar energy. Photocatalysis demonstrates remarkable efficiency in removing NOx at sub-scale levels of parts per billion (ppb). The effectiveness of these catalysts depends on various factors, including solar light utilization efficiency, charge separation performance, reactive species adsorption, and catalytic reaction pathway selectivity. Moreover, achieving high stability and efficient photocatalytic activity necessitates a multifaceted materials design strategy. This strategy encompasses techniques such as ion doping, defects engineering, morphology control, heterojunction construction, and metal decoration on metal- or metal oxide-based photocatalysts. To optimize photocatalytic processes, adjustments to band structures, optimization of surface physiochemical states, and implementation of built-in electric field approaches are imperative. By addressing these challenges, researchers aim to develop efficient and stable photocatalysts, thus contributing to the advancement of environmentally friendly NOx removal technologies. This review highlights recent advancements in photocatalytic NOx removal, with a focus on materials design strategies, intrinsic properties, fundamental developmental aspects, and performance validation. This review also presents research gaps, emphasizing the need to understand the comprehensive mechanistic photocatalytic process, favored conditions for generating desired reactive species, the role of water concentration, temperature effects, inhibiting strategies for photocatalyst-deactivating species, and the formation of toxic NO2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metallic Nanostructured Materials and Thin Films)
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