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Nanostructured metals

Less is more

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 515–516 (2006)Cite this article

Annealing out dislocations in deformed metals usually leads to reduced strength and increased ductility. Exactly the opposite has been observed in bulk nanostructured aluminium.

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Figure 1: High-resolution transmission electron micrographs showing dislocations in a nanostructured aluminium grain (120 nm in diameter) produced by a large deformation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    E. Ma

  2. Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, 87545, New Mexico, USA

    T. D. Shen

  3. State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China

    X.L. Wu

Authors
  1. E. Ma
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  2. T. D. Shen
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  3. X.L. Wu
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Correspondence to E. Ma.

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Ma, E., Shen, T. & Wu, X. Less is more. Nature Mater 5, 515–516 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1671

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