Structural materials articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    Diamond crystals and polycrystalline diamond films can be grown using liquid metal at standard pressure and high temperature instead of conventional high pressure and high temperature.

    • Yan Gong
    • , Da Luo
    •  & Rodney S. Ruoff

  • Article |

    We successfully rebuild an approximate void-free additive manufacturing microstructure in Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy by the development of a void-free additive manufacturing processing technique through an understanding of the asynchronism of phase transformation and grain growth.

    • Zhan Qu
    • , Zhenjun Zhang
    •  & Zhefeng Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A bulk ceramic composed of interlocked boron nitride nanoplates with a laminated structure of twist-stacked nanoslices is created using hot-pressing and spark plasma sintering, which exhibits large elastic and plastic deformability and high strength at room temperature.

    • Yingju Wu
    • , Yang Zhang
    •  & Yongjun Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Red mud is shown to yield green steel through fossil-free hydrogen-plasma-based reduction, a simple and fast method involving rapid liquid-state reduction, chemical partitioning, and density-driven and viscosity-driven separation.

    • Matic Jovičević-Klug
    • , Isnaldi R. Souza Filho
    •  & Dierk Raabe

  • Article |

    A HfNbTiVAl10 alloy shows tensile ductility and ultrahigh yield strength from the addition of aluminium to a HfNbTiV alloy, resulting in a negative mixing enthalpy solid solution, which promotes strength and favours formation of hierarchical chemical fluctuations.

    • Zibing An
    • , Ang Li
    •  & Xiaodong Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DEED captures the balance between entropy gains and costs, allowing the correct classification of functional synthesizability of multicomponent ceramics, regardless of chemistry and structure, and provides an array of potential new candidates, ripe for experimental discoveries.

    • Simon Divilov
    • , Hagen Eckert
    •  & Stefano Curtarolo

  • Article |

    We report atomic observations of six incoherent twin boundary configurations and structural transitions in diamond at room temperature, showing a dislocation-mediated mechanism different from metallic systems and shedding new light on grain boundary behaviour.

    • Ke Tong
    • , Xiang Zhang
    •  & Yongjun Tian

  • Article |

    A plasma set-up consisting of a pair of carbon-fibre-tip-enhanced electrodes enables the generation of a uniform, ultra-high temperature and stable plasma (up to 8,000  K) at atmospheric pressure using a combination of vertically oriented long and short carbon fibres.

    • Hua Xie
    • , Ning Liu
    •  & Liangbing Hu

  • Article |

    A high-throughput, non-contact framework is described that uses the laser-induced vibrational signatures of metamaterials to non-destructively quantify their omnidirectional elastic information, dynamic linear properties, damping properties and defects.

    • Yun Kai
    • , Somayajulu Dhulipala
    •  & Carlos M. Portela

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We have developed an automated and high-throughput, three-dimensional, vision-controlled inkjet deposition process that enables the high-resolution, contactless printing of a range of materials with varying elastic moduli to create complex structures and robots.

    • Thomas J. K. Buchner
    • , Simon Rogler
    •  & Robert K. Katzschmann

  • Article |

    To demonstrate the power of multistability, a specific class of groovy metasheets is introduced as a new shape-morphing platform that allows repeated switching from the flat state to multiple, precisely selected and stable three-dimensional shapes.

    • A. S. Meeussen
    •  & M. van Hecke

  • Article |

    We report that fatigue cracks in pure metals can undergo intrinsic self-healing; they were observed to heal by crack flank cold welding induced by local stress state and grain boundary migration.

    • Christopher M. Barr
    • , Ta Duong
    •  & Brad L. Boyce

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Combining alloy design with additive manufacturing process design creates α–β titanium–oxygen–iron alloys that are both strong and ductile, with the potential to revitalize off-grade sponge titanium and thereby reduce the carbon footprint of the titanium industry.

    • Tingting Song
    • , Zibin Chen
    •  & Ma Qian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors develop a new oxide-dispersion-strengthened NiCoCr-based alloy using a model-driven alloy design approach and laser-based additive manufacturing, showing how such designs can provide superior compositions using far fewer resources than previous methods.

    • Timothy M. Smith
    • , Christopher A. Kantzos
    •  & John W. Lawson

  • Article |

    An additive manufacturing technique that infuses 3D printed hydrogels with metallic precursors leads to metallic micromaterials, providing new opportunities for the fabrication of energy materials, micro-electromechanical systems and biomedical devices.

    • Max A. Saccone
    • , Rebecca A. Gallivan
    •  & Julia R. Greer

  • Article |

    Observations by transmission electron microscopy of deforming niobium and tungsten at low temperature shows that anomalous slip in body-centred cubic metals arises from the unusually high mobility of multi-junctions, which is a source of softening.

    • Daniel Caillard
    • , Baptiste Bienvenu
    •  & Emmanuel Clouet

  • Article |

    An additive manufacturing method using a team of autonomous aerial robots allows for scalable and adaptable three-dimensional printing, and is used to deposit building materials during flight.

    • Ketao Zhang
    • , Pisak Chermprayong
    •  & Mirko Kovac

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The discovery of graphite–diamond hybrid carbon, Gradia, which consists of graphite and diamond nanodomains interlocked through coherent interfaces, clarifies the long-standing mystery of how graphite turns into diamond.

    • Kun Luo
    • , Bing Liu
    •  & Yongjun Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atom-scale analysis of hydrogen and other elements at the grain boundaries of a 7xxx aluminium alloy shows that co-segregation of elements favours grain boundary decohesion, and that hydrogen embrittlement is prevented by strong partitioning into the second-phase particles.

    • Huan Zhao
    • , Poulami Chakraborty
    •  & Dierk Raabe

  • Article |

    A chemically complex alloy that exhibits a high elastic strain limit and low internal friction is described; it also has an Elinvar effect (invariant elastic modulus) over a large temperature range, up to 627 °C.

    • Q. F. He
    • , J. G. Wang
    •  & Y. Yang

  • Article |

    A framework for selective sulfidation is proposed for the practical separation and enrichment of numerous metallic elements, to enable environmentally and economically sustainable metal processing.

    • Caspar Stinn
    •  & Antoine Allanore

  • Article |

    Preparing amorphous phases of carbon with mostly sp3 bonding in bulk is challenging, but macroscopic samples that are nearly pure sp3 are synthesized here by heating fullerenes at high pressure.

    • Yuchen Shang
    • , Zhaodong Liu
    •  & Bingbing Liu

  • Article |

    A study demonstrates that a range of different behaviours—from reversible, through weeping, to explosive—can be exhibited by a chemically homogeneous ceramic system by manipulating conditions of compatibility in unusual ways.

    • Hanlin Gu
    • , Jascha Rohmer
    •  & Richard D. James

  • Perspective |

    Computing approaches based on mechanical mechanisms are discussed, with a view towards a framework in which adaptable materials and structures act as a distributed information processing network.

    • Hiromi Yasuda
    • , Philip R. Buskohl
    •  & Jordan R. Raney

  • Article |

    A structured fabric constructed of linked hollow polyhedral particles (resembling chain mail) can be simply and reversibly tuned between flexible and rigid states; when it is compressed, its linked particles become jammed.

    • Yifan Wang
    • , Liuchi Li
    •  & Chiara Daraio

  • Article |

    High-performance hydrodynamic simulations show that the skeletal structure of the deep-sea sponge Euplectella aspergillum reduces the hydrodynamic stresses on it, while possibly being beneficial for feeding and reproduction.

    • Giacomo Falcucci
    • , Giorgio Amati
    •  & Sauro Succi

  • Article |

    Cellular fluidics provides a platform of unit-cell-based, three-dimensional structures for the deterministic control of multiphase flow, transport and reaction processes.

    • Nikola A. Dudukovic
    • , Erika J. Fong
    •  & Eric B. Duoss

  • Perspective |

    Inanimate matter is beginning to show some signs of basic intelligence—the ability to sense, actuate and use memory, as controlled by an internal communication network in functional materials.

    • C. Kaspar
    • , B. J. Ravoo
    •  & W. H. P. Pernice

  • Article |

    Origami-inspired multistable structures that can be inflated from flat to three dimensions have been designed; a library of foldable shapes is created and then combined to build metre-scale functional structures.

    • David Melancon
    • , Benjamin Gorissen
    •  & Katia Bertoldi

  • Article |

    A two-tiered dynamic design strategy achieves topological transformations of two-dimensional polymeric cellular microstructures in a reversible and temporally controllable manner through exposure to different liquids.

    • Shucong Li
    • , Bolei Deng
    •  & Joanna Aizenberg

  • Article |

    A free-swimming soft robot inspired by deep-sea creatures, with artificial muscle, power and control electronics spread across a polymer matrix, successfully adapts to high pressure and operates in the deep ocean.

    • Guorui Li
    • , Xiangping Chen
    •  & Wei Yang

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