High-temperature alloy coatings that can resist oxidation are urgently needed as nuclear cladding materials to mitigate the danger of hydrogen explosions during meltdown. Here we apply a combination of computationally guided materials synthesis, high-throughput structural characterization and data analysis tools to investigate the feasibility of coatings from the Fe–Cr–Al alloy system. Composition-spread samples were synthesized to cover the region of the phase diagram previous bulk studies have identified as forming protective oxides. The metallurgical and oxide phase evolution were studied via in situ synchrotron glancing incidence x-ray diffraction at temperatures up to 690 K. A composition region with an Al concentration greater than 3.08 at%, and between 20.0 at% and 32.9 at% Cr showed the least overall oxide growth. Subsequently, a series of samples were deposited on stubs and their oxidation behavior at 1373 K was observed. The continued presence of a passivating oxide was confirmed in this region over a period of 6 h.

Magadiite (MGD), a synthetic layered silicate (Na 2 Si 14 O 29 Á9H 2 O) with surface chemistry similar to precipitated silica, was cation-exchanged with three different organic cations to explore the effect of varying MGD layer spacing on the mechanical properties of MGD-based styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) composites. This work also compares the mechanical properties of MGD/SBR composites with those formulated with montmorillonite (MMT) and precipitated silica. Dodecylpyridinium (DP 1 ) produces greater expansion of MGD layers than cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA 1 ); the resulting DP-MGD/SBR composites have greater yield strain, toughness, and rubbery storage modulus than comparable CTA-MGD/SBR composites. MGD treated with hexadecylammonium (HDA 1 ) has the greatest layer spacing, but the HDA-MGD layers collapse upon melt-blending with SBR. CTA-treated MMT (CMMT) exfoliates in aqueous suspension, but the platelets re-stack upon drying and during melt-blending with SBR. The presence of exfoliated and/or disordered platelet stacks in CMMT/SBR probably accounts for its higher tensile and dynamic moduli compared to MGD-and silica-based SBR composites. Dynamic mechanical properties are used to predict tire tread performance metrics for these composites.