With increasing awareness of lead's harmful effects to the environment and human health, there is a large drive toward lead free products. One of the …
Whiskers are conductive filaments that spontaneously form on Sn-based coatings. They are a critical reliability issue as they can cause short circuits in electronic systems. …
Alloys, the most traditional and widely-used materials, are still attracting research interest with their diversity and novel properties. To understand or predict the properties of …
Lithium-rich transition metal oxides (LR-NMC) are attractive cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries due to their high capacity. Their structural instability during cycling remains one of …
In order to understand the stress behaviors in thin films, three related topics were investigated. First, intrinsic stress generation mechanisms were studied by in-situ stress …
The field of photovoltaics has been experiencing a revolution with emergence of perovskite-based solar cells (PSCs). While the swift rise in power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) …
Self-organized pattern formation can be produced by low energy ion bombardment. A continuum theory explains the ion-induced surface morphology evolution in terms of a balance …
Research on ZrB2-SiC based ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC) composites has drawn much attention due to their potential for application in future hypersonic vehicles. The aim …
Oxide materials have been a focus of recent thermoelectric research due to their thermal and chemical stability as well as cost effectiveness. In this thesis …
Sn, which offers large theoretical capacity (994 mAh/g), is a potentially useful anode material in lithium-ion batteries. However, Sn exhibits irreversible capacity loss through mechanical …
Fast charging of lithium-ion batteries while avoiding lithium metal plating is a central hurdle for widespread adoption of electric vehicles. As the most commonly used …
Ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs) are being used to replace metallic hot-section components, enabling higher operating temperatures and higher efficiencies in gas-turbine engines used to propel aircraft …
Due to its excellent mechanical, tribological and biocompatibility properties, polycrystalline diamond is a promising coating material on metallic implants. However, the biological responses of diamond …
Current aircraft jet engines use nickel-based superalloys in the hot sections. Their operation temperature is about 1050°C. To enhance performance and fuel efficiency, materials that …
A thorough understanding of the properties of oxides, including the formation of oxygen vacancy, surface termination, and an interface between oxide and metal, can benefit …
Mo-Si-B alloys are possible candidates for high-temperature applications beyond the capabilities of Ni-based superalloys. Specifically, multiphase Mo-Si-B alloys with a Mo solid solution matrix and …
The low formation energies of metal halide perovskites (MHPs) make it possible to solution-process them near room temperature, but also make them unstable. While significant …
Advanced high strength steels with a lath martensitic microstructure (MS-AHSS) and tensile strengths > 1 GPa are of interest for automotive applications but are susceptible to …