The development of materials with dual properties of high strength and high ductility has been a constant challenge since the foundation of the materials science discipline. The rapid progress of nanotechnology in recent decades has further brought this challenge to a new era. This Research News highlights a few newly developed strategies to optimize advanced nanomaterials and metallic glasses with exceptional dual mechanical properties of high strength and high ductility. A general concept of strain non-localization is presented to describe the role of multiscale (i.e., macroscale, microscale, nanoscale, and atomic scale) heterogeneities in the ductility enhancement of materials reputed to be intrinsically brittle, such as nanostructured metallic materials and bulk metallic glasses. These nanomaterials clearly form a new group of materials that display an extraordinary relationship between yield strength and the uniform elongation with the same chemical composition. Several other examples of nanomaterials such as those reinforced by nanoprecipitates will also be described.
Articles you may be interested inTwin boundary spacing effects on shock response and spall behaviors of hierarchically nanotwinned fcc metals J. Appl. Phys. 115, 063509 (2014); 10.1063/1.4865738
Size effects of primary/secondary twins on the atomistic deformation mechanisms in hierarchically nanotwinned metalsComparative studies of yield strength and elastic compressibility between nanocrystalline and bulk cobalt
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