title: Nanoparticle-induced unusual melting and solidification behaviours of metals.
abstract: Effective control of melting and solidification behaviours of materials is significant for numerous applications. It has been a long-standing challenge to increase the melted zone (MZ) depth while shrinking the heat-affected zone (HAZ) size during local melting and solidification of materials. In this paper, nanoparticle-induced unusual melting and solidification behaviours of metals are reported that effectively solve this long-time dilemma. By introduction of Al2O3nanoparticles, the MZ depth of Ni is increased by 68%, while the corresponding HAZ size is decreased by 67% in laser melting at a pulse energy of 0.18 mJ. The addition of SiC nanoparticles shows similar results. The discovery of the unusual melting and solidification of materials that contain nanoparticles will not only have impacts on existing melting and solidification manufacturing processes, such as laser welding and additive manufacturing, but also on other applications such as pharmaceutical processing and energy storage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.|Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.|Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri 65409, USA.
authors.forename: Lianyi
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3720-398X
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Chezheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaochun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li