A polymer-like ultrahigh-strength metal alloy

Abstract

Futuristic technologies such as morphing aircrafts and super-strong artificial muscles depend on metal alloys being as strong as ultrahigh-strength steel yet as flexible as a polymer^1,2,3. However, achieving such ‘strong yet flexible’ alloys has proven challenging^4,5,6,7,8,9 because of the inevitable trade-off between strength and flexibility^5,8,10. Here we report a Ti–50.8 at.% Ni strain glass alloy showing a combination of ultrahigh yield strength of σ_y ≈ 1.8 GPa and polymer-like ultralow elastic modulus of E ≈ 10.5 GPa, together with super-large rubber-like elastic strain of approximately 8%. As a result, it possesses a high flexibility figure of merit of σ_y/E ≈ 0.17 compared with existing structural materials. In addition, it can maintain such properties over a wide temperature range of −80 °C to +80 °C and demonstrates excellent fatigue resistance at high strain. The alloy was fabricated by a simple three-step thermomechanical treatment that is scalable to industrial lines, which leads not only to ultrahigh strength because of deformation strengthening, but also to ultralow modulus by the formation of a unique ‘dual-seed strain glass’ microstructure, composed of a strain glass matrix embedded with a small number of aligned R and B19′ martensite ‘seeds’. In situ X-ray diffractometry shows that the polymer-like deformation behaviour of the alloy originates from a nucleation-free reversible transition between strain glass and R and B19′ martensite during loading and unloading. This exotic alloy with the potential for mass producibility may open a new horizon for many futuristic technologies, such as morphing aerospace vehicles, superman-type artificial muscles and artificial organs.