Clarkson University

Ecohydraulics sits at the dynamic intersection of fluid mechanics and ecological function. As the impacts of climate change, urbanization, and industrial expansion intensify, this emerging discipline offers powerful tools for restoring and managing rivers, lakes, and coastal zones through nature-based, science-driven solutions. By integrating hydrodynamic principles with ecological objectives, ecohydraulics enables the design and assessment of interventions that not only rehabilitate degraded systems but also enhance long-term environmental resilience and sustainability. This Scientific Reports Collection highlights recent advances across experimental, modeling, and artificial-intelligence (AI)-driven approaches—from turbulence-based habitat design to coastal wave attenuation and fish-migration modeling—demonstrating how ecohydraulics connects scientific innovation with practical restoration and sustainable water management.

Molybdenum (Mo) is currently considered as a potential diffusion barrier material for copper (Cu) interconnects, and these interconnect structures are generally processed using the technique of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). While a limited number of publications on Mo CMP are presently available, the considerations for mitigating CMP-induced galvanic corrosion of Mo have remained largely underexplored. Using a model CMP system in pH-neutral slurries of citric acid with silica abrasives, the present work demonstrates how Mo barrier lines in contact with Cu wires in the CMP environment can develop CMP defects of galvanic corrosion. Including imidazole in the slurry considerably reduces the galvanic current of this corrosion process. The mechanisms of galvanic inhibition and material removal are examined by employing strategic tribo-electrochemical measurements. Open-circuit potential and potentiodynamic polarization measurements performed under surface abrasion aid the characterization of CMP-enabling surface reactions. The slurry’s surface chemistry initiates the primary modes of material wear for CMP, and corrosion-induced propagation of subsurface wear mostly governs the measured material removal rates for both Mo and Cu. Although the Cu:Mo selectivity of material removal is affected as the galvanic corrosion of Mo is suppressed, this effect can be controlled by varying the slurry content of imidazole.