May/June_AMP_Digital

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 0 8 METALS | POLYMERS | CERAMICS Specialty materials company Kymera International, Research Triangle Park, N.C., has acquired the Reading Alloys business from Ametek Inc., Berwyn, Pa. Kymera manufactures powders, pastes, and granules of primary and alloyed aluminum, copper, tin, zinc, and other niche products. Reading Alloys is a 67-year-old business that develops and produces master alloys, thermal barrier coatings, and titanium powders for use in aerospace and aircraft applications. kymerainternational.com . Arconic Corp., Pittsburgh, has launched as a standalone company manufacturing advanced aluminum sheet, plate, extruded, and architectural products primarily for the ground transportation, aerospace, industrial, packaging, and commercial building markets. The launch resulted from the separation of Arconic Inc. into two standalone companies—Arconic Corp. and Howmet Aerospace Inc. (the new name for Arconic Inc.). arconic.com. BRIEFS IMPROVING LIGHTWEIGHT ALUMINUM ALLOY DESIGN Researchers at Australia’s Monash University are working to better un- derstand the theta-prime strength- ening phase in the aluminum copper alloy system. Using a combination of atomic-scale imaging and simulations, they showed that improvement of the phase was enabled by introducing a large influx of specific crystal defects, or vacancies. The Monash team investigated the theta-prime transformation in the bi- nary alloy Al-1.7at.%Cu, which forms the basis of many commercial alloys used widely in the aerospace industry. They reported direct and rapid nucle- ation of the theta-prime phase, as well as of an unexpected precipitate phase. Researchers describe this nucle- ation pathway as template-directed, as it involves a precursor phase that serves as a structural template for the nucleated phases. They demonstrated that nucleation is rapid and abundant when heat treatment is applied to a sample with one of its dimensions at the nanoscale. The work also revealed the critical role of vacancies in enabling template-directed nucleation. Crystalline MOFs can now be converted into glass/liquid states, leading to new applications. Courtesy of Mindy Takamiya. TURNING CRYSTALLINE MOFs INTO GLASS OR LIQUID Scientists at Kyoto University, Japan, are exploring a new range of metal-organic framework (MOF) appli- cations by converting crystalline MOFs into glass and liquid states. Previously, MOFs have had applications in gas stor- age and separation, carbon capture, and in the catalysis of chemical reac- tions, among others. Tens of thousands of MOFs have been synthe- sized since they were first discovered in the late 1990s. Technology advan- ces are now allowing re- searchers to uncover what happens at the molecular level when some MOFs are heated to a melting point and then cooled to produce a glass-like state. So far, researchers have reported about ten MOFs that can be melted into a liquid and/or turned into a glass state. Their melt- ing temperatures range from 184°C to 593°C, depending on their crys- tal structures. Some MOFs require a mechani- cal grinding-like treatment for glass to form. During this process, adding cer- tain chemicals to the material could modulate some of its physical proper- ties, such as enhancement of proton conductivity. Liquid and glass MOFs could pro- vide a new state of material that de- monstrates porosity, ion conductivity, and optical properties such as lumines- cence. They also show promise for heat storage, in energy devices, and for gas permeation. Hybrid materials incorpo- rating glass or liquid MOFs with other materials, such as organic polymers, metal particles, or metal ions, could also be used as strong adhesives in en- ergy devices or in catalytic reactions. www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en.