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A family of ductile intermetallic compounds

Nature Materials volume 2, pages 587–591 (2003)Cite this article

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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Figure 1: Tensile stress–strain properties of polycrystalline YAg and YCu tested in air at 22 °C.
Figure 2: Optical micrograph of slip lines on the (8̄12) plane surface of a single-crystal YCu tensile-test specimen.
Figure 3: Transmission electron micrographs of dislocation cell structures in a YAg single-crystal tensile specimen after 5% strain under two diffraction conditions: a, g = 011̄ (with a beam direction B = [011]) and b, g = 110 (beam direction B = [1̄13]).
Figure 4: Comparison of anisotropy factor, A−½, versus the Poisson ratio for YAg, YCu and DyCu.

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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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ames Laboratory of the US DOE, 255 Spedding Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011-3020, Iowa, USA

    Karl Gschneidner Jr, Alan Russell, Alexandra Pecharsky, James Morris, Zhehua Zhang, Thomas Lograsso, Yiying Ye & David Kesse

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering 255 Spedding Hall, 255 Spedding Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011-3020, Iowa, USA

    Karl Gschneidner Jr, Alan Russell, Thomas Lograsso & David Kesse

  3. Department of Aerospace Engineering, 255 Spedding Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011-3020, Iowa, USA

    David Hsu

  4. Center for Nondestructive Evaluation, 255 Spedding Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, 50011-3020, Iowa, USA

    David Hsu & C.H. Chester Lo

  5. Center of Analysis and Testing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, Hubei, China

    Yiying Ye

  6. Bell Helicopter Textron, PO Box 482, Dept. 80, MS 1563, Fort Worth, 76006, Texas, USA

    Aaron Slager

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  1. Karl Gschneidner Jr
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Correspondence to Karl Gschneidner Jr.

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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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