Strengthening gold with dispersed nanovoids

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Jia-Ji; Xie, Hui; Liu, Ling-Zhi; Guan, Huai; You, Zesheng; Zou, Lijie; Jin, Hai-Jun
• 署名单位: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Institute of Metal Research, CAS; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Science & Technology of China, CAS; Liaoning Academy Materials; Nanjing University of Science & Technology
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-13830
• DOI: 10.1126/science.abo7579
• 发表日期: 2024-08-09
• 页码: 629-633
• 关键词: mechanical-properties; powder-metallurgy; generation; EVOLUTION; ductility; density; MODEL; scale; steel

摘要

Materials often fail prematurely or catastrophically under load while containing voids, posing a challenge to materials manufacturing. We found that a metal (gold) containing spherical voids with a fraction of up to 10% does not fracture prematurely in tension when the voids are shrunk to the submicron or nanometer scale. Instead, the dispersed nanovoids increase the strength and ductility of the material while simultaneously reducing its weight. Apart from the suppressed stress or strain concentration, such structure provides enormous surface area and promotes surface-dislocation interactions, which enable strengthening and additional strain hardening and thus toughening. Transforming voids from crack-like detrimental defects into a beneficial ingredient provides an inexpensive and environmentally friendly approach for the development of a new class of lightweight, high-performance materials.