First 3D-Printed High-Performance Nanostructured Alloy That’s Both Ultrastrong and Ductile



High-Performance Nanostructured Alloy Made for 3D Printing

A dual-phase, nanostructured high-entropy alloy that is effectively 3D printed by researchers offers more strength and ductility than other cutting-edge additively made materials. Image source: UMass Amherst

Applications for components might be in the aerospace, medical, energy, and automobile fields.

Scientists have developed a dual-phase, nanostructured high-entropy alloy that is 3D printed and has more strength and ductility than other cutting-edge additively created materials. Higher-performance components for use in aerospace, health, energy, and transportation sectors might result from this discovery. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Georgia Institute of Technology carried out the research. Wen Chen, an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UMass, and Ting Zhu, a professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, conducted the study, which will be released in the journal Nature today, August 3, 2022.

Over the past 15 years, high entropy alloys (HEAs) have grown in acceptance as a fresh approach to materials research. They allow for the creation of a nearly limitless number of different alloy designs since they include five or more elements in almost equal amounts. A main element is joined with one or more trace elements to form traditional alloys, including bronze, carbon steel, stainless steel, brass, and stainless steel.

Wen Chen Wen Chen, an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is shown standing in front of images of 3D-printed high-entropy alloy components (a heatsink fan and an octect lattice, on the left), as well as a cross-sectional electron backscatter diffraction inverse-pole figure map displaying a randomly oriented nanolamella microstructure (right). Image source: UMass Amherst

Additive manufacturing, sometimes referred to as 3D printing, has lately gained prominence as a potent strategy for material creation. Large temperature gradients and rapid cooling rates that are difficult to reach using traditional methods may be produced via laser-based 3D printing. To achieve unique features, however, "the possibility of exploiting the combined benefits of additive manufacturing and HEAs remains largely untapped," claims Zhu.

Jie Ren, a Ph.D. candidate at UMass Amherst, holds a micro heatsink fan, one of the Wen Chen's lab's 3D-printed high-entropy alloy parts. According to study by UMass Amherst and Georgia Tech, the atomic rearrangement of the microstructure results in ultrahigh strength and improved ductility. Image source: UMass Amherst

An HEA was coupled with a cutting-edge 3D printing method called laser powder bed fusion by Chen and his colleagues at the UMass Multiscale Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory to create novel materials with unheard-of qualities. In contrast to conventional metallurgy, the procedure causes materials to melt and solidify much more quickly, thus the components produced have a radically different microstructure that is out of balance, according to Chen. The face-centered cubic (FCC) and body-centered cubic (BCC) nanolamellar layers of this microstructure, which resembles a net, alternate with one another and are embedded in microscale eutectic colonies with unpredictable orientations. Cooperative deformation of the two phases is made possible by the hierarchical nanostructured HEA.

Because typically strong materials have a tendency to be brittle, Chen explains that the atomic rearrangement in this peculiar microstructure results in ultrahigh strength as well as increased ductility. He claims that in comparison to traditional metal casting, "we achieved almost quadruple the strength and not only didn't lose ductility, but rather enhanced it simultaneously." Strength and ductility work well together in many applications. For both materials science and engineering, our discoveries are novel and intriguing.

The first author of the paper and Jie Ren's Ph.D. student, says that the ability to produce strong and ductile HEAs makes these 3D printed materials more robust in resisting applied deformation, which is important for lightweight structural design for improved mechanical efficiency and energy savings.

Computing modeling for the study was overseen by Zhu's group at Georgia Tech. He created computational models for dual-phase crystal plasticity to comprehend the mechanistic functions of both the FCC and BCC nanolamellae and how they cooperate to increase the material's strength and ductility.

The BCC nanolamellae are essential for creating the exceptional strength-ductility synergy of our alloy, as shown by our modeling findings, which also reveal their remarkably high strength and strong hardening reactions. The future development of 3D printed HEAs with excellent mechanical characteristics will be guided by this mechanistic insight, according to Zhu.

Additionally, 3D printing provides a potent tool for producing components that are personalized and have complicated geometries. Future potential for the direct manufacturing of end-use components for biomedical and aeronautical applications are many when utilizing 3D printing technology and the enormous alloy design space of HEAs.

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