All-solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries are promising from the perspective of high safety, low cost, and high capability. Herein, composites of sulfur and microporous carbon (MSP20, MSC30) are prepared by a melt diffusion process, and their performance as electrode materials are compared with that of composites based on nanocarbons. In addition to the type of carbon, the degree of mixing with solid electrolytes is an important factor in the formation of ionic/electronic conduction pathways. The all-solid-state cell using S-MSC30-Li₃PS₄ shows a high initial discharge capacity of 1488 mAh per gram of sulfur at 25 °C at a current density of 1.3 mA cm⁻² and operates reversibly at a high current density of 12.7 mA cm⁻² (3C) at 100 °C. The amorphization of sulfur is effective for obtaining high capacity and sulfur impregnated into the meso- and micropores of carbon is more active than sulfur that forms nanocomposites with nanocarbon.

As chloride ions ingress into cement-based composites, the service life of the cementitious materials will be negatively affected when the part overloading the content threshold of chloride ion can not be bound by hydrated products in cement-based materials. This paper doesn’t only indicate the chloride binding capability as well as the various effects of comprehensive influential factors correspondingly. But it also elucidates different chloride binding mechanisms of various cement matrix materials. In addition, the relationship between chloride binding and chloride permeability was also reconsidered in this paper. Especially, for the prediction to service life-span of reinforced concrete structures with chlorination, the authors reflect on the contribution of the chloride binding. Ultimately, on the basis of considerable significant existing researches some vital issues and challenges with relevant countermeasure are proposed by the authors.

Calcined flint clay has a large reserve in China. In this paper, porous mullite ceramics are prepared by calcined flint clay, while the sawdust is pretreated with different concentrations of silica sol. Effects of sintering temperature and silica sol concentrations on physical properties and microstructures of the porous mullite ceramics are studied. Residual skeleton structure cross pores are clearly observed in the scanning electron microscope images, which is established as a key factor in improving the properties of specimens. With the pretreatment of silica sol on sawdust, mechanical properties are enhanced and thermal conductivities could be optimized. Under the firing temperature of 1350 °C, the compressive strength of specimens with sawdust pretreated in 5 wt % concentration of silica sol is 2.4 MPa.

Li₂CoTi₃O₈ has a spinel-type crystal structure, and it can be simply synthesized by a solid-state method using Li₂CO₃, CoO and TiO₂. Li₂CoTi₃O₈ is currently used as a cyan-colored pigment, and it is highly safe as is actually utilized for cosmetics. In this paper, we have studied the color development mechanism of Li₂CoTi₃O₈ with changing the synthetic temperatures, using X-ray diffraction (XRD), CIE-L*a*b* color coordinates, hue angle h, UV–Vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron spin resonance (ESR). Li₂CoTi₃O₈ formation was partially confirmed even at 500 °C, and single-phase Li₂CoTi₃O₈ was obtained at 950–1200 °C. All the samples synthesized at 750–1200 °C located in the cyan color zone (h ∼ 195–235°). The color change with synthetic temperatures, from whitish to deep cyan, was well explained by the visible light absorptions of Co²⁺ ions with different coordinations.

We successfully synthesized Tl-doped SiO₂ glasses by the spark plasma sintering method, and the prepared glasses doped with various concentration of Tl were studied for optical, scintillation, thermally-stimulated luminescence (TSL), and optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) properties. The Tl-doped samples indicated photoluminescence (PL) due to Tl⁺ ions characterized as an emission peak around 310 nm. The PL decay time constants ascribed to the emission from Tl⁺ were 0.56–0.60 µs. In the scintillation, an emission peak due to Tl⁺ was observed as well as the PL. The highest PL quantum yield and light yield among the present samples were 10.2% and 1100 photons/MeV under ²⁴¹Am α-ray exposure, respectively. Moreover, the Tl-doped samples showed the TSL and OSL emission peak caused by Tl⁺ and the dynamic range in OSL was confirmed from 0.01 to 100 mGy.

Understanding the mechanism behind the water durability improvement of phospho-vanadate glass is crucial for enabling the practical use of low-melting glass in lead-free sealing and secondary ion batteries. We demonstrate that Fe₂O₃ additive is a key component for improving the water durability while suppressing the rise of the glass transition temperature of V₂O₅–P₂O₅ (VP) glass, and characterize the local structural change by X-ray absorption fine structure measurements. In VP glass, the addition of Fe₂O₃ increases the coordination number of vanadium ion without changing the oxidation state. The water durability is relatively sensitive to the vanadium valence and coordination environment compared to the glass transition temperature and hardness. Minimizing V⁵⁺O₄ units in phospho-vanadate glass is the key to improving the water durability.

The local structure around Eu³⁺ ions in Eu-doped glasses prepared by a levitation technique was analyzed by X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The X-ray absorption near edge structure spectra demonstrated that Eu³⁺ ions in Al₂O₃–SiO₂ binary glasses were partly reduced during high-temperature melting. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra indicated that in La₂O₃–Nb₂O₅, La₂O₃–Al₂O₃, and La₂O₃–TiO₂ glasses that contained a large amount of La₂O₃, the bond lengths between Eu and O were distributed from 2.34 to 2.39 Å. The coordinated polyhedra around the Eu ions could be fitted to a single coordination sphere. It was found that the bond lengths tend to become shorter as the optical basicity of the glass increases. In the Al₂O₃–SiO₂ glasses without any network modifiers, the local structure around the Eu was more complex, leading to the broader first correlation peak of radial structure function.

The effect of cordierite crystallization on the densification and pyroplastic deformation (PD) of alumina-strengthened porcelain that contains talc is examined herein. During firing at a relatively low temperature below 1200 °C, the addition of fine talc powder with a mean diameter of approximately 7 µm is more effective in promoting the liquid phase sintering of the porcelain through an increase in the amount of the low-viscosity liquid phase due to Mg²⁺ doping than the addition of a coarse talc powder with a mean diameter of approximately 14 µm. Beyond the firing temperature, cordierite crystallization that is accelerated by the fine talc addition suppresses the PD of the porcelain through a decrease in the amount and an increase in the viscosity of the liquid phase due to the transfer of Mg²⁺ from the liquid to the cordierite crystals. As a result, a decrease in the water absorption (<0.5%) and PD index (<1.5 × 10⁻⁶ mm⁻¹) is realized for the porcelain with 32 mass % addition of the fine talc powder over a relatively wide firing temperature range from 1194 to 1336 °C.

Raspberry-shaped Co₃O₄ nanoparticles has a great potential as a CO oxidation catalyst in a wide temperature range because of a high stability and a low-temperature oxidation activity. In this study, primary particle sizes, morphology and crystallite sizes were controlled by changing a synthesis time to enhance the CO oxidation activity and to reveal growth mechanism of the raspberry structure. The primary particle sizes increased while decreasing crystallite size, indicating crystal orientation and particle growth of Co₃O₄ nanoparticles were occurred in multistage, and a single-crystal-like structure formed in the hydrothermal treatment for 3.0 h. Long-time hydrothermal treatment for 12.5 h caused decomposition of the crystallographic orientation and the raspberry structure. H₂-temperature programmed reaction analysis indicated that crystal orientation among multiple Co₃O₄ nanoparticles improved a mobility of bulk oxygen species, and our previous findings that 93% of CO conversion rate for the raspberry-shaped Co₃O₄ nanoparticles was confirmed analytically by the high oxygen mobility in the early 3.0 h-hydrothermal treatment.

Effects of annealing temperature on photovoltaic properties of lead-free (CH₃NH₃)₃Bi₂I₉ solar cells were investigated. The (CH₃NH₃)₃Bi₂I₉ photovoltaic cells were fabricated by a hot air blow-assisted spin-coating method. The spin-coated (CH₃NH₃)₃Bi₂I₉ photoactive layers were annealed at temperatures of 100–150 °C. Current density–voltage characteristics of the (CH₃NH₃)₃Bi₂I₉ photovoltaic cells showed that conversion efficiency increased with increasing annealing temperature. Microstructures and optical properties of the (CH₃NH₃)₃Bi₂I₉ photoactive layers were also investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and ultraviolet–visible–near infrared spectroscopy. The investigation revealed that the changes in lattice constants, crystallite size, surface morphology, and iodide/bismuth ratio of the (CH₃NH₃)₃Bi₂I₉ were attributed to the annealing temperature, resulting in the changes in the photovoltaic properties of the (CH₃NH₃)₃Bi₂I₉ solar cells.