Dear Readers, Welcome to the first issue of Advanced Engineering Materials in 2015. Times are changing and so does the field of engineering materials. However, one trend remains the same-we receive more and more submissions each year. Over the last three years the number of submissions has increased by 75%. Such an enormous growth in submissions means thatweare forced tobecome even more selective,sothe rejectionrateisincreasing accordingly. At the sametimeweaim at providing decisions as fast as possible and have reduced the average time it takes to receive an initial decision to below 30 days Since January 2014 AEM is published online only. One year later we can say that this change is seen very positive throughout the community. Especially the fact that color reproduction of figures is now free has been welcomed by our authors. Advanced Engineering Materials publishes manuscripts from a variety of fields, such as metal foams, bulk metallic glasses, advanced ceramics, alloys, metals, and polymers for a diversity of possible applications. Our authors discuss novel design concepts and new ways to analyze materials properties, including both experimental and modeling approaches. This broad range of topics is also reflected in the list of the most accessed articles in 2014 given in Table 1. Finally, it is my pleasure to welcome the following high-ranking scientists to the advisory board:

Crystalline solid solutions are typically formed in conventional alloys based on one or two host elements. Here, in this research, four alloys containing multiprincipal metallic elements (Ն5 elements) were prepared by casting, splat quenching, and sputtering. Their microstructures and crystal structures were investigated. It was interestingly found that solid solutions with simple fcc or bcc crystal structure were also practically formed in these alloys with multiprincipal elements. All different atoms are regarded as solutes and expected to randomly distribute in the crystal lattices without any matrix element defined.An ideal crystal structure is regarded as a superposition of a basis (an atom, or a group of atoms or ions) on a periodical framework, called a Bravais lattice. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Even though real crystals have point defects, such as vacancies and solute atoms, the phases of metallic alloys are known to have crystal structures, consistent with Bravais lattices, excluding quasi-crystals with fivefold symmetry. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Table I lists examples of metallic elements. [3,4,5] Their crystal structures normally fall into three main categories-fcc, bcc, and hcp. Most conventional alloys of crystalline solid solutions studied to date are based on one or two host elements, [10,11,12] raising the question of whether other crystalline solid-solution alloys with multiprincipal elements (more than the lattice points per unit cell) exist. Based on the general understanding of physical metallurgy and phase diagrams, abundant formation of intermetallic compounds or ordered phases is anticipated when multiprincipal elements are added into the alloys. [12] The complexity of such microstructures is expected not only to be responsible for their brittleness, but also for difficulties in processing and analysis. This fact has discouraged the design of new alloys with multiprincipal elements.However, solid solutions with multiprincipal elements tend to be thermodynamically stable because of their high mixing entropies. [13,14] Determining whether the alloys with multiprincipal elements could also crystallize into a simple Bravais structure would also be of interest. Some studies have developed a new approach to design alloys with multiprincipal metallic elements (Ͼ5 elements) in equimolar or near-equimolar ratios to exploit fully the high mixing entropy of the solid-solution state. [15][16][17][18] In this investigation, four alloys of multiprincipal metallic elements were prepared by different methods; solid solutions with simple fcc or bcc structures were also formed in alloys without detectable intermetallic compounds or ordered phases. No "matrix or host" element is defined, and all atoms are regarded as solutes, expected to be randomly distributed in the crystal lattices, according to a statistical average probability of occupancy.Four alloys that contain multiprincipal metallic elements were prepared by three methods-conventional casting, rapid solidification, and vacuum sputtering. Bulk CuCoNiCrFe, CuCo...

In this paper, we report on the formation and rupture of Ag nanofilament on planar Ag/TiO2/Pt cells using visual observation. During the forming process, the filament tends to stay very thin. Specifically, it is so thin that it breaks up into a chain of nanospheres (according to Rayleigh instability) right after the formation has been completed. Similar mechanical breakup may also impact vertically stacked cells, causing reliability concerns.

Functional 1D metal oxides have attracted much attention because of their unique applications in electronic, optoelectronic, and spintronic devices.[1] For semiconducting oxide nanowires (NWs) (e.g., ZnO, In 2 O 3 , and SnO 2 NWs), field-effect transistors and light-emitting diodes have been demonstrated. [2] Metallic oxide nanoscale materials, such as nanoscale RuO 2 , can be good candidates as interconnects in electronic applications.[3] RuO 2 nanomaterials have been produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and through chemical reaction. [3b,4] Recently, RuO 2 NWs have been synthesized using pure Ru as metal target under different flux ratios of O 2 /Ar in a reactive sputtering system.[5]For core/shell structures, extensive research has been carried out on systems such as Ge/Si, [6] GaN/AlN/AlGaN, [7] Ta 2 O 5 /SiO 2 , [8] and Fe 3 O 4 /MgO. [9] The Ge/Si core/shell NW, for example, is a high-performance field-effect transistor because of the reduced carrier scattering. GaN/AlN/AlGaN core/shell NWs exhibit a high electron mobility. For the SiO 2 / Ta 2 O 5 core/shell structure, the axial confinement of light propagation can effectively reduce the energy loss owing to the difference in refractive index between Ta 2 O 5 and SiO 2 . Following the successful synthesis of a RuO 2 /TiO 2 core/ shell structure by reactive sputtering, [10] we mainly focus on the investigation of the physical properties of the RuO 2 NWs in the present study. The detailed epitaxial relationship and electronic structures of the RuO 2 /TiO 2 core/shell structure synthesized by reactive sputtering are investigated. The mechanical, optical, and electrical properties and photocatalyst response to UV irradiation are characterized. Our results suggest the potential application of the NWs as interconnects and optoelectronic devices. Figure 1a shows a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of RuO 2 NWs synthesized by the reactive sputtering approach at a synthesis temperature of 450°C for 3 h, and indicates a high density of uniform RuO 2 NWs more than several micrometers long. In addition, most of the RuO 2 NWs have a square cross section, as shown in the inset of Figure 1a. The corresponding X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrum, shown in Figure 1b, confirms that the phase of the NWs is rutile-structured RuO 2 with lattice-constant values of a = 0.45 nm and c = 0.31 nm. After deposition of a thin TiO 2 layer via reactive sputtering deposition, the morphology of these NWs remains unchanged, but the sizes increase, as shown in Figure 1c. The corresponding XRD spectrum of the NWs is shown in Figure

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