Green Multicomponent Alloys with Excellent Multifunctional and Mechanical Properties

Abstract

The global production and consumption of metals and alloys each year bring in an immense amount of metallic waste, placing a tremendous burden on resources and environments. Despite efforts made to recycle the waste materials by secondary synthesis, the synthesized materials are limited by downgrade use due to the lower properties compared to that of the primary ones. Herein, a sustainable strategy for developing strong and multifunctional green multicomponent alloys (MCAs) using cheap scrap materials without the targeted functions is introduced. Assisted by thermodynamic calculations, the green MCAs with thermally stable ordered multicomponent B2 nanoparticles embedded in disordered multicomponent body-centered cubic matrix with high interfacial coherency have been designed and synthesized using scrapped aluminum alloys and stainless steels as the feedstocks. The multicomponent disordered–ordered structures enable a joint regulation of dislocation behavior, scattering of conduction electrons, and motion of magnetic domain walls, leading to high strength and deformability, high and stable resistivity below 923 K, low coercivities, and moderate saturation induction. These properties render the low-cost and green MCAs to be promising candidate materials in future sustainable high-precision electronic instruments and high-frequency magnetic components, even under harsh mechanical loads.