Abstract
Stoichiometric intermetallic compounds have always been touted for their attractive chemical, physical, electrical, magnetic and mechanical properties, but few practical uses have materialized because they are brittle at room temperature1,2,3,4. Here we report on a large family of fully ordered, stoichiometric binary rare-earth intermetallic compounds with high ductility at room temperature. Although conventional wisdom calls for special conditions, such as non-stoichiometry, metastable disorder or doping to achieve some ductility in intermetallic compounds at room temperature, none of these is required in these unique B2 rare-earth compounds. Ab initio calculations of YAg, YCu and NiAl crystal defect energies support the observed deformation modes of these intermetallics.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank V. K. Pecharsky, S. B. Biner and B. N. Harmon for their comments and valuable suggestions. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Iowa State University, Institute for Physical Research and Technology and the Ames Laboratory of the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences, under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-82.
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Gschneidner, K., Russell, A., Pecharsky, A. et al. A family of ductile intermetallic compounds. Nature Mater 2, 587–591 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat958
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat958
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