MIT Grad Students Achieve Long-Sought Stable Nanocrystalline Metals
24th August 2012
MIT researchers have designed and made alloys that form extremely tiny grains — called nanocrystals — that are only a few nanometers across. These alloys retain their nanocrystalline structure even in the face of high heat. Such materials hold great promise for high-strength structural materials, among other potential uses.
Why go to the trouble of designing such materials? Because they can have properties that other, more conventional metals and alloys do not, the researchers say. For example, the alloy of tungsten and titanium that the MIT researchers developed and tested in this study is likely exceptionally strong, and could find applications in protection from impacts, guarding industrial or military machinery or for use in vehicular or personal armor. But the researchers stress that this fundamental research could lead to a wide range of potential uses. “This is one case study, but there are potentially hundreds of alloys we could make,” Schuh says.