Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Atomic-scale hardening mechanisms apply on larger scales in ‘architected’ materials

Metals can be strengthened by mechanisms that work on the atomic scale. These same mechanisms used at a much larger scale have been found to also strengthen materials that contain hierarchical, engineered substructures.
  1. Gang Seob Jung

    1. Gang Seob Jung is in the Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Markus J. Buehler

    1. Markus J. Buehler is in the Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Atomic-scale mechanisms that affect the structural properties of materials can also inform the design of new materials needed for engineering, such as high-performance alloys. In a paper in Nature, Pham et al.1 report their use of 3D printing to translate some atomic-level hardening mechanisms typically found in crystalline materials to a larger scale. The resulting ‘architected’ materials contain substructures that are designed to mimic atomic arrangements in crystal lattices. Their work provides a fresh approach for developing designer materials and could facilitate the application of hardening mechanisms to different materials and on different scales.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 565, 303-304 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00042-y

References

  1. Pham, M.-S., Liu, C., Todd, I. & Lertthanasarn, J. Nature 565, 305–311 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Gao, W. et al. Comput. Aided Des. 69, 65–89 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Zheng, X. et al. Nature Mater. 15, 1100–1106 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Jingjie, Y. et al. Phys. Scr. 93, 053003 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Giesa, T., Spivak, D. I. & Buehler, M. J. Adv. Eng. Mater. 14, 810–817 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gil Sevillano, J., van Houtte, P. & Aernoudt, E. Prog. Mater. Sci. 25, 69–134 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Jacques, P., Furnémont, Q., Mertens, A. & Delannay, F. Phil. Mag. A 81, 1789–1812 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gu, G. X., Chen, C.-T. & Buehler, M. J. Extreme Mech. Lett. 18, 19–28 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links