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.
Metallurgy involves science and engineering of metals, from fundamental understanding of physical and chemical behavior of metals to processing of metallic components. Metals serve as important structural components as load-bearing materials and provide protection against harsh environments. This collection highlights experimental and theoretical work published in Nature Communications on the science and engineering of load-bearing materials. Explore the latest research on high entropy alloys, bulk metallic glasses, grain boundaries, phase transitions, and crystal growth, and processing, defects, and mechanical properties.
Commercial maraging alloys provide high strength and toughness by traditional precipitation strengthening mechanism. Here, the authors demonstrate a new strategy involving deformable precipitates and their dynamic phase transformation resulting in a twofold enhancement of strength and ductility.
Unlike diffusion-mediated chemical short-range orders (SROs) in multi-principal element alloys, diffusionless SROs and their impact on alloys have been elusive. Here, the authors show the formation of strain-induced SROs by crystalline lattice defects, upon external loading at 77 K.
Dislocations in high-entropy alloys encounter pinning during glide resulting in jerky motion. Here the authors demonstrate that the density of high local Peierls force is proportional to the critical stress required for their glide and mobility.
The ever most widely used eutectic alloys often suffer from limited ductility. Here the authors propose a distinctive concept of phase-selective recrystallization to significantly improve their ductility and strength and pave the way for new applications of the widespread eutectic alloys.
Mechanical twinning is difficult to trigger in face centered cubic alloys with high stacking fault energies (SFEs) under standard tensile loading. Here, the authors report high stress twinning in a bulk compositionally complex steel of very high SFE, enhancing the material’s mechanical performance.
Compositional heterogeneity in high-entropy alloys (HEAs) has gained lots of attention, but its relation with the properties remains vague. Here the authors report an anomalous size effect on strength by the compositional heterogeneity, which provides new insights in its connection to properties.
Interstitials can substantially strengthen metals. Here the authors show a massive interstitial solid solution (MISS) approach enabling a model multicomponent alloy to achieve near-theoretical strength together with large deformability.
The existence of chemical medium-range order (CMRO) in high- and medium- entropy alloys remains conjectural. Here the authors show evidences of CMRO by electron diffraction spots of lattice periodicity, observable entities, occupancy of preferential species, and stable sizes upon deformation.
The strength in BCC high-entropy alloys is associated with the type of mobile dislocations. Here the authors demonstrate by means of an ample array of experimental techniques that edge dislocations can control the strength of BCC high-entropy alloys.
The strength-ductility trade-off has been a long-standing problem for alloy development. Here the authors present a route for designing high-entropy alloys to overcome this trade-off via short-range ordering shown by combined Monte Carlo, molecular dynamic, and density-functional theory simulations.
Precipitation hardening, used as an effective strengthening strategy in various alloy systems, has been usually achieved by coherent precipitates. Here, the authors develop ultrastrong ductile alloys employing structurally dissimilar semicoherent precipitates by shear band-driven precipitation.
A fundamental understanding of fatigue-failure mechanisms is key to develop robust structural materials. Here the authors report a high entropy alloy with enhanced fatigue life by ductile transformable multicomponent B2 precipitates, as revealed by combined experimental and simulation methods.
Strong and ductile materials with resistance to both corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement remain rare and yet are essential for hydrogen-propelled industries. Here, the authors show that a CoNiV medium-entropy alloy with face-centered cubic structure fulfils all the above criteria.
Superplasticity at high strain rates is challenging to achieve in high strength materials. Here, the authors show superplastic elongation in excess of 2000% in a high entropy alloy nanostructured by high-pressure torsion.
Chemical short-range order (SRO) NiCoCr has been proposed to account for its positive stacking fault energy and good mechanical properties. Here, a combination of theory and experiment shows that SRO is of negligible importance in NiCoCr processed by standard methods.
Improving both strength and ductility simultaneously in structural metals and alloys remains a challenge. Here, the authors design a heterogeneous structure in a Co-Cr-Ni alloy that results in ultrahigh strength and significant uniform elongation.
In dual-phase Cantor-like high entropy alloys, how local chemistry affects enhanced deformation mechanisms remains unclear. Here, the authors image 3D stacking fault networks formation and show they both impede dislocations and facilitate phase transformations via local chemical composition variations.
Multi-principal-element alloys have been assumed to have the configurational entropy of an ideal solution. Here, the authors use atomistic simulations to show that instead NiCoCr exhibits local chemical order, raising the activation barriers of dislocation activities to elevate mechanical strength.
The identification of high entropy alloys is challenging given the vastness of the compositional space associated with these systems. Here the authors propose a supervised learning strategy for the efficient screening of high entropy alloys, whose hardness predictions are validated by experiments.
Designing complex concentrated alloys with targeted properties for high performance remains challenging because of their complex local atomic environments. Here, the authors show how to engineer atomic-level pressure to customize complexity-induced properties such as solid-solution strengthening.
Additive manufacturing of high entropy alloys is still an emerging field that usually relies on expensive pre-alloyed powders. Here, the authors develop a method to 3D ink-print a CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy using inexpensive blended oxide nanopowders, hydrogen reduction, and sintering.
Medium entropy alloy CoCrNi has better mechanical properties than high entropy alloys such as CrMnFeCoNi, but why that is remains unclear. Here, the authors show that a nanostructured phase at lattice defects in CoCrNi causes its extraordinary properties, while it is magnetically frustrated and suppressed in CrMnFeCoNi.
In metallic liquids, the fragility is difficult to predict and measure. Here, the authors present the film inflation method, which reveals large fragility variations across Mg–Cu–Y, and introduce the crystallization complexity as additional contribution to glass forming ability.
Glass-to-glass transitions can help understanding the glass nature, but it remains difficult to tune metallic glasses into significantly different glass states. Here the authors demonstrate the high-entropy effects in glass-to-glass transitions of high-entropy metallic glasses.
Materials with controlled structural gradient have gained attention due to their unique combinations of properties. Here the authors report strategies to design controllable gradients in bulk metallic glasses, demonstrating extra plasticity and suppression of shear localization.
There is limited understanding of the Invar effect at atomic scale. Here the authors show that the Invar effect is not only a macroscopic effect, but also has a clear atomistic equivalent in the average distance of Fe–Fe pair as well as higher-order atomic shells composed of multiple atom species.
Common wisdom to improve ductility of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) is to introduce local loose packing regions at the expense of strength. Here the authors enhance structural fluctuations of BMGs by introducing dense local packing regions, resulting in simultaneous increase of ductility and strength.
Here the authors study thermodynamic and dynamic glass transition of high entropy metallic glasses. Results show retarded α-relaxation and distinct crystallization resistance attributed to their sluggish diffusion and high-entropy mixing that is different from the traditional metallic glasses.
The competition between the formation of different phases and their kinetics need to be clearly understood to make materials with on-demand and multifaceted properties. Here, the authors reveal, by a combination of complementary in situ techniques, the mechanism of a Cu-Zr-Al metallic glass’s high propensity for metastable phase formation, which is partially through a kinetic mechanism of Al partitioning.
While metallic glasses are expected to have tunable structures, these have rarely been demonstrated. Here, the authors combine temperature and pressure to show a two-way structural tuning in rare earth-based metallic glasses beyond the nearest-neighbor atomic shells.
The coarsening of amorphous metallic nanoparticles remains poorly understood. Here, the authors combine high resolution microscopy and atomistic simulations to show the disordered structure of amorphous nanoparticles makes them coarsen faster than crystalline ones.
Thermal annealing of metallic glasses is known to cause a universal increase of the relaxation time with sample age. Here, however, the authors show how a mechanical stress disrupts this universal response, leading to highly non-monotonous structural dynamics with time.
Quantifying the complexity of glass formation is difficult because it usually requires cooling at enormous speeds. Here, the authors use fast differential scanning calorimetry to classify metallic glasses into two types, one with quenched-in nuclei and one without.
Producing nacre-like ceramics with a tough, non-polymeric matrix remains a challenge. Here, the authors use the reactive wetting of a zirconium-based bulk metallic glass to successfully infiltrate a porous alumina and create a composite with improved flexural strength and fracture toughness.
Conventional crystal growth models assume crystals grow into a structure-less liquid, even though liquid metals have shown evidence of structural ordering. Here, the authors show crystal growth can be influenced by the presence of thermodynamically unstable local structural order in the liquid.
Producing ultrastable metallic glasses has always been associated with substrates heated close to the glass transition temperature. Here, the authors show that reducing the deposition rate of the metallic glass on a cold substrate produces ultrastable metallic glasses with remarkably improved stability.
Iron-based bulk metallic glasses are remarkably plastic, but the origin of their plasticity remains challenging to isolate. Here, the authors use high resolution microscopy to show that nanocrystals are dispersed within the glass and form hard and soft zones that are responsible for enhancing ductility.
Understanding the fracture toughness of metallic glasses remains challenging. Here, the authors show that a fictive temperature controls an abrupt mechanical toughening transition in metallic glasses, and can explain the scatter in previously reported fracture toughness data.
Solidification grain boundary migration (SGBM) occurs in metals and alloys manufactured by casting, welding, or 3D printing, and it affects material properties, but its mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, the authors show how SGBM can be predicted in various alloys under different conditions.
Strengthening of metals by grain refinement is limited by the inverse Hall-Petch effect. Here, the authors show nanograined metals can be strengthened by exhausting lattice dislocations via triggering of phase transformation at grain boundaries, instead of further grain refinement.
The effect of aliovalent doping on grain boundary is not yet fully understood at the atomic level. Here, the authors report grain boundary structural transformation in α-Al2O3 is induced by co-segregation of multiple dopants using atomic-resolution electron microscopy and theoretical calculations.
Dislocation climb is crucial to plasticity and creep of materials. Here, the authors report real-time atomic-scale observations of grain boundary dislocation climb in nanostructured Au at room temperature. The dislocation climb occurs by reconstruction of two atomic columns in the dislocation core.
The phase behavior of grain boundaries can influence the interfacial properties. Here the authors demonstrate nanoscale patterning of a grain boundary by two alternating phases in Cu that exhibit a congruent, diffusionless transition between the two phases.
It is challenging to study how topologically close-packed phases (TCPs) transform between one phase to another. Here the authors use atomic-resolved tools to look at the transformation between μ and P phases, revealing an intrinsic link between seemingly unrelated TCP configurations.
Understanding deformation of Mg along the c-axis is important for wrought processing of Mg. Here the authors report deformation graining in submicron single crystal Mg where the initial single crystal evolves into ultrafine grains that rejuvenates dislocation activities, enabling large plasticity.
Synthetic routes of stabilizing crystal structures can discover atomic pickings with desired properties. Here the authors demonstrate inter-element miscibility of In can act as a stabilizer to create Z3-based ordered alloy without significantly changing the original density of state of Z3-FePd3.
The origins of deformation twins in Mg have remained unclear in the past. Here the authors, by combining in situ experimental observations and atomistic simulations, capture the rapid twinning phenomena in Mg crystals and show that twinning occurs through pure atomic shuffle.
Grain boundary can change its structure upon deformation. Here, the authors show that during this process, grain boundary mobility can be tuned dynamically via a self-stimulated twinning process.
The local variation of grain boundary atomic structure and chemistry caused by segregation of impurities influences the macroscopic properties of polycrystalline materials. Here, the effect of co-segregation of carbon and boron on the depletion of aluminum in a α − Fe grain boundary is shown.
The effect of point defects on mechanical behaviour of materials is generally considered at high temperatures. This work reports a reversible stress-induced migration of point defects during anelastic deformation in CuO nanowires at room temperature resulting from heterogeneous strain distribution.
Electric fields and currents can alter microstructures of materials in unexpected ways. Here the authors report how electrochemical reduction can cause a grain boundary disorder-to-order transition and show the electric field effects on microstructural stability and evolution.
Improving the reversible plastic deformability and damage tolerance of nanosized metals remains challenging. Here, the authors custom-design low angle grain boundaries in metallic bicrystals to achieve controllable plastic reversibility via fully conservative grain boundary migration.
Body-centred cubic metals rarely show twinning during deformation. Here, the authors use high resolution transmission electron microscopy to show tungsten, a body-centred cubic metal, spontaneously undergoes detwinning when unloaded.
Aspects of twinning in hexagonal-close-packed crystals remain elusive. Here, the authors directly image twinning in rhenium nanocrystals and show the process is mediated by disconnections on Prismatic│Basal interfaces as the twin initially deviates from its ideal orientation before it is corrected.
Grain boundaries can improve the radiation resistance of a material by annihilating point defects formed under irradiation, however the atomistic mechanism is still unclear. Here the authors demonstrate grain boundaries absorb point defects through the climb motion of disconnections.
Exactly how seemingly simple solid-state precipitation occurs in alloys remains elusive. Here, the authors show that excess vacancies introduced into a nanoscale, irradiated or deformed aluminium-copper alloy enable template-directed nucleation of the known strengthening phase θʹ.
The deformation mechanisms of micron-sized twinned metals are well-understood, but it is not so for twinned nanocrystalline metals. Here, the authors use high resolution microscopy to image the deformation of nanocrystalline twinned platinum and show that grain boundary behaviors dominate plasticity below 6 nm.
The microstructural evolution during the sliding of two surfaces against each other is complex and remains poorly understood. Here, the authors use electron microscopy to elucidate the different deformation mechanisms occurring at the beginning of sliding.
In metals, dendrite orientation during crystal growth has been hypothesized to be affected by compositional additions. Here, the authors combine molecular dynamics and experiments in the aluminium-samarium system to prove solute atoms can affect dendrite orientation via interfacial energy changes.
Additively manufactured materials contain different types of volumetric defects. Here, the authors utilize the most distinguishing morphological features among different defect types to propose a defect classification methodology.
Fusion welding of 7000 series aluminum alloy is plagued by cracking from a fine equiaxed zone (FQZ). Here, the authors quantify key softening mechanisms, show the damage accumulation sequence, and propose a hybrid laser/arc welding strategy to mitigate the FQZ and increase weld strength and toughness.
Engineering metals often suffer from a small elastic deformation with a linear stress-strain relationship obeying Hooke’s law. Here the authors observe a large nonlinear tensile elastic deformation with a strain of >4.3% in a bulk Cu alloy that offers potential for elastic strain engineering.
High-strength nanocrystalline materials come at the expense of tensile ductility, thermal stability, and electrical conductivity. Here the authors report a nanodispersion-in-nanograins strategy where ultra-nano-carbon was used to concurrently achieve above four mutually exclusive properties.
By trapping hydrogen, nanoprecipitates can mitigate the hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steels. Here, the authors report direct evidences on the structural and chemical features underlying distinct hydrogen-trapping behaviors at the incoherent interfaces of precipitates and steel matrix.
Complexities of laser-material interactions pose a challenge to minimize defects in additively manufactured metal parts. Here the authors visualize all phases of matter simultaneously to expand understanding of the interactions and show atmospheric information can characterize process stability.
Recent demands to design alloys in a more sustainable way have discouraged the use of critical elements that are rare. Here the authors demonstrate a segregation-based strategy to produce a sustainable steel, Fe18Mn3Ti, without critical elements while achieving ultrahigh-strength.
Engineering applications of nanostructured metals are limited by their complex manufacturing technology and poor microstructural stability. Here the authors report a facile technology that enables a mass production of nanostructured Ti6Al4V5Cu alloys with high microstructural stability.
Understanding the keyhole porosity formation is important in laser powder bed fusion. Here the authors reveal the dynamics of keyhole fluctuation, and collapse that induces bubble formation with three main stages of evolution; growth, shrinkage, and being captured by the solidification front.
Defects induced by process instabilities in metal additive manufacturing limit its applications. Here, the authors report controlling laser-powder bed interaction instabilities by nanoparticles leads to defect lean metal additive manufacturing.
Traditional electrorefining process is limited by deposition potential of the metal itself. Here, the authors explore an in-situ anodic precipitation process based on different solubility of target metal chlorides that can efficiently separate components of aluminum alloys.
Wear-resistant metals have long been a pursuit of reducing wear-related energy and material loss. Here the authors present the ‘reactive wear protection’ strategy via friction-induced in situ formation of strong and deformable oxide nanocomposites on a surface.
Aggregation and coarsening of the second-phase oxide particles at grain boundaries have been a bottleneck for improving mechanical properties of oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) alloys. Here the authors employ core-shell nanopowder precursors to achieve uniform dispersion of oxides in ODS alloys.
Conventional ultrafine grains can generate high-strength Mg alloys, but non-equilibrium grain boundaries deteriorates their corrosion resistance. Here, the authors present ultrafine grained Mg alloys with dense twins that display high strength and reduced corrosion rate by one order of magnitude.
Identifying scaling laws in metal 3D printing is key to process optimization and materials development. Here the authors report scaling laws to quantify correlation between process parameters, keyhole stability and pore formation by high-speed synchrotron X-ray imaging and multiphysics modeling.
Prismatic dislocation loops (PDLs) form during the elastic-to-plastic transition of a dislocation-free volume under nanoindentation. Here the authors observe the initial plasticity and burst-like emission of PDLs in Au nanowires by in-situ transmission electron microscopy, elucidating fundamental aspects of the formation process.
3D printing can allow for the efficient manufacturing of elaborate structures difficult to realise conventionally without waste, such as the hollow geometries of nickel-based superalloy aeronautic components. To fully exploit this method, we must move towards new alloys and processes.
Plate-lattices are predicted to reach the upper bounds of strength and stiffness compared to traditional beam-lattices, but they are difficult to manufacture. Here, the authors use two-photon polymerization 3D-printing and pyrolysis to make carbon plate-nanolattices which reach those theoretical bounds, making them up to 639% stronger than beam-nanolattices.
Understanding metal component microstructure during 3D printing remains a challenge. Here, the authors use local thermal parameters and the solidification microstructure to better understand how the printed microstructure varies with the laser scan strategy.
Adding minute amounts of rhenium to Ni-based single crystal superalloys extends their high temperature performance in engines, but the reasons behind that are still unclear. Here, the authors combine high resolution imaging and modelling to show that rhenium enriches and slows down partial dislocations to improve creep performance.
3D printing of metals produces elongated columnar grains which are usually detrimental to component performance. Here, the authors combine ultrasound and 3D printing to promote equiaxed and refined microstructures in a titanium alloy and a nickel-based superalloy resulting in improved mechanical properties.
Strengthening a metallic alloy without sacrificing ductility remains challenging. Here, the authors develop a hierarchical nanostructured aluminium alloy composed of nanograins surrounding by metallic glass shells that has both ultrahigh strength and good ductility.
Understanding the interactions between solute atoms and crystalline defects is essential for determining alloy properties. Here the authors use a linear regression model to propose a quantitative correlation between local electronic structure descriptors and the solute-defect interaction energies in bcc refractory alloys.
The impact of grain-scale residual stresses on the mechanical behaviour of 3D-printed metals and alloys remains unexplored. Here, the authors combine in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and computer simulations to link residual stresses in steel to its tensile behaviour.