BACKGROUND Ultrafine particles have been hypothesised to be an important contributing factor in the toxicity and adverse health effects of particulate air pollution (PM10) and nanoparticles are used increasingly in industrial processes. AIMS To compare the ability of ultrafine and fine particles of titanium dioxide and carbon black to induce inflammation, cause epithelial injury, and affect t...

Silicon-based nanomaterials are promising anode materials in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high theoretical capacity of 4200 mA h g(-1), more than 10 times that of commercial graphite. Si nanoparticles (NPs) with a diameter of or below 10 nm generally exhibit enhanced lithium storage properties due to their small size and large surface area. However, it is challenging to generate su...

Accumulative roll bonding is an advanced manufacturing process, which capable of simultaneously refining the grain size into nanometer regime and different metallic sheet materials. Herein, homogenous aluminum/aluminum as well heterogeneous aluminum/steel laminated metal composite (LMCs) are fabricated. The residual stresses experimentally determined by X-ray diffraction hole-drilling method. G...

Severe surface roughening during the hydroforming of aluminum alloy parts can produce surface defects that severely restrict their application in the automobile and aerospace industry. To understand the relation between strain, grain size and surface roughness under biaxial stress conditions, hydro-bulging tests of aluminum alloy tubes were carried out, and the tubes with different grain sizes ...

In this research, we assessed the influence of an ultrafine 2CaO·SiO₂ powder on the hydration properties of a reactive powder concrete system. The ultrafine powder was manufactured through chemical combustion method. The morphology of ultrafine powder and the development of hydration products in the cement paste prepared with ultrafine powder were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (S...