In this research work intercritical thermal cycling is adopted on a cost‐effective material (AISI 1010 steel) so as to attain a hierarchical structure at multiple length scales, from nanometer scale onwards. As a consequence, a considerably high strength (UTS = 1 GPa) along with a significant ductility (% Elongation = 15) is achieved. This is attributed to a novel microstructure that consists of nano‐sized cementite particle dispersed α‐ferrite islands in a matrix of nano‐sized cementite particle dispersed highly sub‐structured martensite (containing both “lath” and “plate” morphology). The substructure appears in the form of dislocations in lath martensite and nanoscale twins in plate martensite. The α‐ferrite islands provide intrinsic ductilization through microvoid coalescence; while extrinsic ductilization is attributed to crack arrest at dimples and crack deflection at hard plate martensite matrix. Such a high strength is obtained by virtue of martensitic strengthening (through generation of highly substructured martensite) and nano‐dispersion strengthening (due to presence of dispersed nano‐sized cementite particles).
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