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Materials science

Strength ceiling smashed for light metals

Nature volume 528, pages 486–487 (2015)Cite this article

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Nanoscale particles have been uniformly dispersed in a magnesium alloy, yielding composites with record-breaking strengths — and raising the prospect of using magnesium as a lightweight metal for structural applications. See Letter p.539

Magnesium has a density two-thirds that of aluminium, one-quarter that of steel and only slightly higher than that of many polymers. It is therefore regarded as a potentially ideal substitute for heavier metals — but magnesium's poorer mechanical behaviour has limited its application. On page 539 of this issue, Chen et al.1 report a method of fabricating magnesium composites that gives the materials the highest specific strength and stiffness of any structural metal. A crucial step in the process is the dispersion of a relatively large volume fraction of ceramic nanoparticles in the molten metal, overcoming a long-standing challenge in materials technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maria Teresa Pérez Prado and Carmen M. Cepeda-Jiménez are at the IMDEA Materials Institute, 28906 Getafe, Madrid, Spain.,

    Maria Teresa Pérez Prado & Carmen M. Cepeda-Jiménez

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  1. Maria Teresa Pérez Prado
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  2. Carmen M. Cepeda-Jiménez
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Correspondence to Maria Teresa Pérez Prado or Carmen M. Cepeda-Jiménez.

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Prado, M., Cepeda-Jiménez, C. Strength ceiling smashed for light metals. Nature 528, 486–487 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/528486a

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