AMP_04_May_June_2021_Digital_Edition

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 1 8 METALS | POLYMERS | CERAMICS American Zinc Products (AZP), Mooresboro, N.C., completed two industrial-scale trials for the production of continuous galvanizing grade (CGG) zinc, a zinc-aluminum alloy. CGG zinc reduces zinc losses and improves the surface finish of galvanized steel products produced from the continuous galvanizing process. americanzincproducts.com . Rusal America, Rye Brook, N.Y., joined Neighborhood 91, an innovation center dedicated to additive manufacturing (AM) technology located at Pittsburgh International Airport’s Innovation Campus. Neighborhood 91 will be home to Rusal America’s high-performance aluminum AM powders business serving the aerospace and automotive industries. rusalamerica.com. Columbia Steel Casting, Portland, Ore., is celebrating its 120th anniversary. Founded in 1901 as Columbia Engineering Works, it was the first steel foundry west of the Mississippi River and supplied machinery parts for mining and lumber operations along the West Coast. Today, the company continues to manufacture steel wear parts for the mining, metal recycling, and power industries. columbiasteel.com . BRIEFS According to the researchers, the 2D-interlayer approach can be applied to a wide range of electrodes based on thinmetal films. They demonstrated the feasibility of their approach by using it to create a flexible electroluminescent LED device. Remarkably, they found that their strategy can substantially improve the electromechanical robust- ness of commonly used electrodes un- der multimodal deformation. This work could have significant implications for the development of future electronics. More specifically, their new electrode design could be used to fabricate a wide range of more resistant and better per- forming wearable devices. illinois.edu . UNDERSTANDING BULK METALLIC GLASSES Engineering applications for bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are often ob- structed by their poor plasticity at room temperature. Now, a team of research- ers at Yale University, New Haven, Conn., is working to better understand the plastic deformation and flow mech- anism of BMGs. With the smallest-scale mechanical deformation testing to date on bulk metallic glasses, the results provide insights critical to understand- ing the plastic deformation mecha- nism of BMGs at the atomic scale. One notable finding is a yield stress slightly above theoretical maximum and much higher than what has previously been measured. Another is the finding of ho- mogeneous plastic flow, which is not present in crystals, and does not occur on metallic glasses on larger length Graphical depiction of 2D interlayer- enabled delayed cracking of metal thin films and a metal-2D interconnector integrated flexible light-emitting device. Courtesy of Cho et al. STRAIN-RESISTANT ELECTRODES Researchers at University of Illi- nois at Urbana-Champaign introduced a new design to help develop strain-re- silient flexible electrodes that conduct electricity efficiently when stretched or deformed. Currently, many flexi- ble electrodes are made of metal thin films placed on elastic substrates. While some of these electrodes are flexible and efficiently conduct electricity, the metal films can be prone to fractures, resulting in sudden electricity discon- nection. The researchers found that inserting an atomically thin interlayer, such as graphene, into thin-film metal electrodes reduced the risk of fractures and increased the electrode’s ability to conduct electricity under varying de- grees of strain. This is due to strong and weak van der Waals interactions in the 2D materials inducing a unique buck- ling deformation that delays damages to the electrodes’ metal thin films. “We were interested in address- ing the outstanding unmet challenge of unexpected, complete electrical dis- connection of flexible electrodes that is commonly observed after the onset of inevitable mechanical fracture during their use, which severely limits the functional lifespan of flexible and wear- able electronics,” explains research- er SungWoo Nam. “Our work showed the elongated conductance of a metal thin film itself with strain for the first time by changing fracture behaviors of the metal film with the underlying 2D interlayers.”