Cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) thin films, characterized by a high atomic number, tunable optical bandgap, and excellent photoelectric conversion performance, hold significant potential in advanced applications such as thin-film photovoltaic cells, infrared imaging, and high-energy radiation detection. However, achieving low-cost fabrication and high-quality film formation remains a critical challenge for their industrial deployment. In this work, we systematically reviewed the vapor deposition techniques for CdZnTe thin films. While methods such as physical vapor transport, vacuum thermal evaporation, hot-wall epitaxy, magnetron sputtering, and close spaced sublimation offer advantages in simplicity and cost-effectiveness, they suffer from issues such as poor film uniformity and high lattice defect density. In contrast, molecular beam epitaxy and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition enable atomic-level precision and superior lattice integrity, but are constrained by high process costs and complex equipment, limiting their scalability. To enhance the quality of CdZnTe thin films, this work highlighted three key optimization strategies: (1) refining growth parameters for precise process control, (2) improving heteroepitaxial quality through interfacial buffer layer design, and (3) mitigating intrinsic defects via annealing treatments. Ultimately, we concluded that balancing film performance with production costs and overcoming the technical challenges of large-area uniform film deposition would be critical for the future advancement of CdZnTe thin films.

Surface defects in C19400 copper-iron alloys significantly degrade both electrical conductivity and mechanical properties, posing a key limitation on their application in high-end semiconductor packaging and electronic components. In this paper, origins and microscopic morphology of compositional defects in C19400 copper strips were systematically investigated. Distribution behavior of elements in the copper matrix was first predicted using Miedema model for thermodynamic calculations of Cu-Fe-P system. Subsequently, the defective samples were characterized in terms of microstructure and composition through methods including spark discharge optical emission spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Results revealed the presence of various inclusion defects and precipitation in C19400 copper strips. Specifically, oxide inclusions appeared as irregular flakes; carbides aggregated as dark fine particles in localized areas; phosphides were distributed inside pits; hard inclusions were embedded as irregular particles within the pits, and precipitates aligned in elongated forms along the rolling direction. Traceability analysis indicated that compositional defects introduced during the melting and casting stages remained through manufacturing process to strip stage. Subsequent rolling and annealing treatments further altered the size and distribution of these inclusions. This study clarified the evolution path and microstructural characteristics of these defects, providing a theoretical and experimental basis for optimizing processing of C19400 and enhancing reliability of this material in high-end electronic applications.

With the shortage of copper resources, bimetal matrix composites partly replacing copper with steel have high economic value. To combine high thermal conductivity of copper with high strength of stainless steel, this paper successfully prepared T1 copper/316L stainless steel composites by single-pass cold rolling. Effects of annealing temperature on the microstructure and properties of T1 Cu/316L stainless steel composites were studied by scanning electron microscopy, hardness tests, tensile tests, tensile shear tests and electrical conductivity tests. Results showed that annealing can eliminate interface defects and improve interface structure. With the increase of annealing temperature, hardness and strength of copper/stainless steel composite materials gradually decreased, while elongation gradually increased, and electrical conductivity improved. After annealing at 700 ℃ for 2 h, excellent comprehensive properties can be obtained, with a yield strength of 539 MPa, a tensile strength of 689 MPa, an elongation of 33%, a shear strength of 191 MPa, and an electrical conductivity of 54.9%IACS.

In this study, Cu-Ni-Sn-P (C19040) alloy strip materials with different compositions were prepared by horizontal continuous casting followed by multiple cold rolling and heat treatment processes. Effects of Sn and Ni mass fraction variations on the mechanical properties, softening resistance, and thermal contraction of Cu-Ni-Sn-P alloy strip materials were investigated. Results indicated that an increase in Sn mass fraction enhanced mechanical properties and softening resistance of Cu-Ni-Sn-P alloy through solid solution strengthening. However, excessive Sn mass fraction exacerbated Sn segregation, which worsened the thermal contraction behavior. An increase in Ni mass fraction promoted the formation of more Ni-P precipitates, significantly improving the softening resistance. When mass fraction of Sn was 1.5% and that of Ni was 0.85%, the alloy exhibited superior comprehensive properties, with a hardness of 174HV, tensile strength of 565 MPa, elongation of 4.3%, thermal contraction rate of 0.006%, and softening resistance hardness of 141HV. These properties met the requirements for lead frame materials.

To prevent fire incidents, investigating fire traces and identifying the cause of the fire is a primary task in fire forensic evidence identification. Analysis of microscopic characteristics of copper conductors after a fire is an effective method for this purpose. This study simulated the temperature, time, and atmospheric conditions of a fire environment, generating fires caused by overcurrent faults, to investigate surface morphology, cross-sectional grain shape, and size of copper conductors after a fire. As the temperature increased and duration extended, oxidation degree of the copper conductor deepened, and grains continuously grew, exhibiting an axial shape. At 400 ℃, the grain size was 7~11 μm. At 600 ℃, it increased to 8~14 μm. At 800 ℃, it reached 13~17 μm. During the grain growth process, a large number of twins appeared due to low stacking fault energy. Average grain size of copper conductors was directly proportional to both annealing temperature and time, with temperature having a more significant impact. Linear fitting results showed that activation energy for grain boundary migration during grain growth was 0.68 kJ/mol. Under actual overcurrent fault conditions, the failure copper conductor formed molten beads and dendrites at the fracture site, indicating that an excessive current in the circuit caused the conductor to overheat, ultimately leading to fracture, with abnormal grain growth occurring near fracture zone.

Aluminum bronze alloys are a type of bronze alloy formed by mainly adding aluminum to copper, along with other alloying elements such as nickel and iron. Aluminum bronze alloys feature excellent mechanical properties, wear resistance and corrosion resistance, and are widely used as gears, valves and propellers. With rapid advancement of industrial technology, increasingly stringent requirements are being imposed on various properties of aluminum bronze. For traditional as-cast aluminum bronze, the presence of casting defects combined with complex multiphase structure makes it susceptible to failure under specific service conditions. The composition, microstructure, and properties of the alloy should be systematically optimized and improved in a targeted manner to meet specific requirements of service conditions. This paper investigated intrinsic relationship among preparation process, microstructural characteristics, as well as mechanical, corrosion, and wear properties of aluminum bronze alloys. It provided a comprehensive review of recent advancements in the development of high-performance aluminum bronzes through alloying, heat treatment, additive manufacturing, surface modification, and other processes. Corrosion resistance and friction-wear resistance of aluminum bronze under various technological conditions were systematically summarized and analyzed before potential future research directions were outlined.

Ammonia plays an important role in human activities, which is used widely in various industries with noticeable economic values. The main method currently used in ammonia synthesis is Haber-Bosch method, which requires high-temperature or high-pressure conditions, suffering low efficiency and high energy cost. In comparison, electro-reduction of nitrite for ammonia production is a NH₃-selective green chemistry process with low energy consumption. Cu-based materials are chosen as common catalyst materials in electro-production of ammonia owing to the abundance of source materials and high reaction activity towards nitrite. State-of-art Cu-based materials applied in electro catalysis of nitrate for ammonia production are mainly: metallic Cu, metallic-doped Cu-based materials, alloys, Cu oxide, Cu-containing polymetallic oxide, Cu-containing metal-organic framework (MOF), etc. These catalysts improve performances of ammonia production with different mechanisms, such as surface modulation, electron structure modulation, synergy of catalytic active centers, construction of built-in electric fields, etc. This paper aims to integrate performances and mechanisms of different Cu-based catalysts for electrochemical production of ammonia, and to provide reference for future research in this field.

Grain boundary diffusion technology has emerged as a pivotal approach to overcome bottlenecks of high cost and significant remanence loss in traditional single-alloy methods by precisely regulating the distribution of heavy rare earths (HREs), thereby markedly enhancing the coercivity of NdFeB magnets. This study proposed composite diffusion sources formed by blending Tb-Al-Cu HRE alloys with pure Nd powder at varying ratios, systematically investigating their diffusion modification effects on both HRE-free and HRE-containing substrates. Experimental results demonstrated that under optimal diffusion source ratios, the maximum coercivity enhancements for the two substrates reached 1.036 T and 0.959 T, respectively, with remanence attenuation controlled within 0.59 kGs and 0.43 kGs. When TbAlCu-to-pure-Nd ratio was 3∶2 (for HRE-free substrates) or 2∶3 (for HRE-containing substrates), the magnets exhibited optimal comprehensive performance, achieving 48UH and 45EH grade levels, respectively. Microstructural analysis revealed that HRE-free substrates developed increased grain boundary phases, refined grains, and core-shell structures after diffusion, while HRE-containing substrates showed a significant increase in non-magnetic grain boundary phases. By designing composite diffusion sources, this study achieved remarkable magnetic performance improvements with low HRE consumption, offering a novel strategy for the green preparation and resource-efficient utilization of high-performance NdFeB magnets.

Rare-earth permanent magnets (e.g., Sm-Co, Nd-Fe-B, Sm-Fe-N) are core components of high-performance magnetic materials, widely used in new energy, electronic information, and national defense. Compared with physical methods, chemical preparation techniques for rare-earth permanent magnets exhibit unique advantages such as atomic-level mixing, morphology controllability, and low-temperature synthesis, and are gradually becoming research hotspots. This review systematically summarized the research progress of chemical preparation technologies including the sol-gel method, hydrothermal method, co-precipitation method, thermal decomposition method, and emerging synthetic approaches. It analyzed the microstructure regulation mechanisms and magnetic performance optimization strategies, followed by discussion of current challenges and future development directions in this field.

With unique multi-principal element alloy system, medium and high entropy alloys exhibit a series of outstanding comprehensive properties: not only do they possess high strength and hardness, but they also have strong wear resistance and good chemical stability. In high-temperature environments, medium and high entropy alloys can still maintain stable structures and properties, and have excellent oxidation resistance. These properties make them widely used in aerospace, electronic processes, mechanical engineering and other fields. Due to the precise formula and uniform mixing of multiple elements involved in preparation of medium and high entropy alloys, there are extremely high requirements for purity of raw materials and accuracy of composition contents. At the same time, during the smelting process, in order to prevent problems such as composition segregation and non-uniform microstructure in medium and high entropy alloys, it is necessary to precisely control smelting parameters to ensure uniformity of the alloy composition and stability of the microstructure. This review sorted out a large number of domestic and international literatures. It summarized composition design of medium and high entropy alloys, and discussed preparation process of medium and high entropy alloy coatings and influence of process parameters on coating quality, providing references for innovation in material composition and structure of medium and high entroply alloy coatings.

Accurate determination of germanium (Ge) content in smelting dust is of great guiding significance for scientific recycling of smelting dust. Smelting dust contains a large amount of metastannic acid, which can encapsulate the sample, making it difficult to achieve complete decomposition using hydrochloric acid (HCl) and nitric acid (HNO₃). A variety of sample dissolution methods were investigated, and complete sample decomposition was achieved by using sodium peroxide (Na₂O₂)-hydrochloric acid-nitric acid for sample digestion. Meanwhile, the temperature was controlled to avoid the volatilization loss of germanium. The analytical line of Ge at 259.253 nm was selected, and contents of sample solution were determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Overall, a method for determination of germanium in smelting dust was established. Under the optimized experimental conditions, mass concentration of germanium in the range of 0.50~15.00 µg/mL showed a good linear relationship with the emission intensity, with a linear correlation coefficient (r) of 0.99973, and a detection limit of 0.0013% (mass fraction). The matrix effect was investigated, and results showed that the coexisting elements in smelting dust had no significant influence on the determination of germanium. When the proposed method was applied to the determination of germanium in smelting dust samples, the relative standard deviation (RSD, n=11) ranged from 1.15% to 2.82%, and the recovery rate was in the range of 97.7% to 100.8%.

With the rapid advancement of electronic information technology and accelerated replacement of electronic products, the generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has continued to increase, becoming a major environmental and resource challenge worldwide. Efficient copper recovery from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs), a representative component of WEEE with high metal content, is particularly essential. This study focused on resource recovery of copper from WPCBs and systematically reviewed the main technological pathways currently applied, including physical-mechanical separation, thermal treatment, hydrometallurgical processing, and supercritical fluid extraction. Their performance was comparatively analyzed in terms of recovery efficiency, environmental impact, economic feasibility, and technical maturity. Results indicated that each technology exhibited distinct advantages in copper recovery, while several emerging technologies demonstrated strong potential to enhance recovery efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and mitigate secondary pollution. Based on these findings, the study proposed strategies to advance the high-value recycling of WPCBs, such as implementing multi-dimensional technology assessments, strengthening policy and financial support, establishing regional demonstration projects, developing localized green processes, and optimizing the recycling infrastructure. The novelty of this work lay in comparative analysis of multiple treatment technologies, comprehensive evaluation of their applicability to copper recovery, and formulation of systematic, context-specific countermeasures for China's WPCB recycling sector. These findings provided theoretical insights and technical guidance for promoting the sustainable and high-value utilization of WPCBs.

To address challenges of high fluoride concentration and strong corrosivity in waste acid from nonferrous metal smelting flue gas purification, which hinder the automation of treatment processes, a novel defluoridation reagent (JCFRR001) was developed. This study investigated the defluoridation performance of the proposed reagent. Results showed that the reagent exhibited good adaptability under fluctuating concentrations of sulfuric acid (5~55 g/L) and fluoride ions (F⁻, 5~25 g/L), achieving a consistent reduction of F⁻ to below 2.5 g/L in treated waste acid. Treatment of actual waste acid further demonstrated that, with initial F⁻ concentrations ranging from 5.6 to 18.4 g/L, the effluent F⁻ concentration decreased to 0.97~2.49 g/L after defluoridation. Resulting fluorite slag contained 77.47%~88.21% CaF₂ by mass, meeting the FF-75 grade requirements for fluorite concentrate (YB/T 5217—2019). Moreover, the study confirmed that the front-end defluoridation process had no significant impact on subsequent sulfide-based heavy metal removal process, thereby providing technical support for the automation of waste acid treatment systems.

Complex orebodies often exhibit intricate geometries, extensive branching and fault truncation, and the traditional practice of manually stitching wireframes one by one is inefficient and highly subjective. This paper proposed a refined and efficient modeling strategy tailored to complex orebody geometries. It formalized a signed distance field (SDF) definition and an efficient construction method based on contour lines, and implemented a hierarchical workflow—multi-wireframe automatic one-step modeling, local wireframe correction, and sporadic extrapolation modeling—that balanced automation with boundary fidelity. The method was validated on a structurally complex concession in the Democratic Republic of the Congo using the DIMINE platform. The overall modeling cycle was reduced from 230~440 h to 46~67 h. Over 170 mineralization models (≈1.91×10⁷ m³) and more than 180 orebody models (≈1.31×10⁷ m³) were successfully produced. Obtained models passed closure and topological validity checks with controllable errors. Results demonstrated that the proposed approach substantially improved automation for complex orebody modeling while retaining geometric accuracy at local mutation zones via secondary repairs, and thus offered a general technical path and implementation scheme for similar complex deposits.