Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials

[Lu, K.; Lu, L.] Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China. [Lu, L.; Suresh, S.] MIT, Sch Engn, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA.;Lu, K (reprint author), Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China;lu@imr.ac.cn ssuresh@mit.edu

/pdf/strengthening-materials-by-engineering-coherent-internal-4fkjmv3btq.pdf

Strengthening Materials by Engineering Coherent Internal Boundaries at the Nanoscale

[Lu, L.; Chen, X.; Lu, K.] Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China. [Huang, X.] Tech Univ Denmark, Riso Natl Lab Sustainable Energy, Ctr Fundamental Res Met Struct Four Dimens, Dept Mat Res, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark.;Lu, L (reprint author), Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Met Res, Shenyang Natl Lab Mat Sci, Shenyang 110016, Peoples R China;llu@imr.ac.cn

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/323/5914/607.full.pdf

Revealing the Maximum Strength in Nanotwinned Copper

https://material.karlov.mff.cuni.cz/people/janecek/studenti/FyzMetNano/Estrin_AM61_2013_782.pdf

Extreme grain refinement by severe plastic deformation: A wealth of challenging science

Grain refinement can make conventional metals several times stronger, but this comes at dramatic loss of ductility. Here we report a heterogeneous lamella structure in Ti produced by asymmetric rolling and partial recrystallization that can produce an unprecedented property combination: as strong as ultrafine-grained metal and at the same time as ductile as conventional coarse-grained metal. It also has higher strain hardening than coarse-grained Ti, which was hitherto believed impossible. The heterogeneous lamella structure is characterized with soft micrograined lamellae embedded in hard ultrafine-grained lamella matrix. The unusual high strength is obtained with the assistance of high back stress developed from heterogeneous yielding, whereas the high ductility is attributed to back-stress hardening and dislocation hardening. The process discovered here is amenable to large-scale industrial production at low cost, and might be applicable to other metal systems.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/112/47/14501.full.pdf

Heterogeneous lamella structure unites ultrafine-grain strength with coarse-grain ductility.

Methods used to strengthen metals generally also cause a pronounced decrease in electrical conductivity, so that a tradeoff must be made between conductivity and mechanical strength. We synthesized pure copper samples with a high density of nanoscale growth twins. They showed a tensile strength about 10 times higher than that of conventional coarse-grained copper, while retaining an electrical conductivity comparable to that of pure copper. The ultrahigh strength originates from the effective blockage of dislocation motion by numerous coherent twin boundaries that possess an extremely low electrical resistivity, which is not the case for other types of grain boundaries.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/304/5669/422.full.pdf

Xianhua Chen

Papers

Ultrahigh strength and high electrical conductivity in copper

Simultaneously optimized thermoelectric and mechanical performance of p-type polycrystalline SnSe enabled by CNTs addition

Attaining enhanced thermoelectric performance in p-type (SnSe)1–(SnS2) produced via sintering their solution-synthesized micro/nanostructures