Recently, the Neutron Scattering Technology Engineering Research Center of DGUT published a research paper titled “Nano-precipitation leading to linear zero-thermal expansion over a wide temperature range in Ti22Nb” in “Scripta Materialia”, a top journal in the field of metallurgical materials. The paper described the recent progress in discovering a mechanism for the special thermal expansion properties of linear zero-thermal expansion titanium alloys over a wide temperature region. The neutron diffraction experiment in the paper was completed by relying on DGUT’s multi-physics spectrometer, which is the first user experiment achievement since the establishment of the multi-physics spectrometer. DGUT’s multi-physics spectrometer was jointly developed by DGUT (with an investment of RMB 80 million), the CSNS and the City University of Hong Kong. It is the first neutron total-scattering spectrometer in China and the first spectrometer of CSNS to be collaboratively developed in China. The performance of the spectrometer has reached the international advanced level.

The first author of this paper is Dr. Wang Haoliang from the School of Mechanical Engineering of DGUT, the corresponding author is Prof. Sun Zhenzhong from the School of Mechanical Engineering of DGUT, and the co-corresponding author is Dr. Matthias Bönisch from the University of Leuven. The co-authors Yin Wen, a researcher from CSNS, and Dr. Xu Juping, provided strong technical support for the research. Other co-authors, including Dr. Song Chenghao, Dr. Zhao Yuliang, and doctoral student Daniel Lai, also provided great assistance.

(Fig. 1. The zero-thermal expansion properties over a wide temperature region of Ti22Nb alloy obtained by precipitation of nanometer-sized second phase)

(Fig. 2(a). Neutron diffraction spectra of Ti22Nb alloy in different states, (b) XRD spectra of in situ increasing and decreasing temperature, (c) evolution of diffraction peak intensity of parent phase and precipitated phase with temperature)