Overcoming strength-ductility tradeoff with high pressure thermal treatment

Yao Tang; Haikuo Wang; Xiaoping Ouyang; Chao Wang; Qishan Huang; Qingkun Zhao; Xiaochun Liu; Qi Zhu; Zhiqiang Hou; Jiakun Wu; Zhicai Zhang; Hao Li; Yikan Yang; Wei Yang; Huajian Gao; Haofei Zhou

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-48435-6

Overcoming strength-ductility tradeoff with high pressure thermal treatment

Nat Commun. 2024 May 10;15(1):3932. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48435-6.

Authors

Yao Tang^{1

2}, Haikuo Wang³, Xiaoping Ouyang^{4

5}, Chao Wang¹, Qishan Huang², Qingkun Zhao², Xiaochun Liu⁶, Qi Zhu⁷, Zhiqiang Hou¹, Jiakun Wu¹, Zhicai Zhang¹, Hao Li¹, Yikan Yang¹, Wei Yang², Huajian Gao^{8

9

10}, Haofei Zhou¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Center for High Pressure Science and Technology, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Center for X-Mechanics, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
³ Center for High Pressure Science and Technology, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. haikuo.wang@zju.edu.cn.
⁴ Center for High Pressure Science and Technology, College of Energy Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. oyxp2003@aliyun.com.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, China. oyxp2003@aliyun.com.
⁶ Institute of Metals, College of Material Science and Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China.
⁷ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
⁸ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore. gao.huajian@tsinghua.edu.cn.
⁹ Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore, 138632, Singapore. gao.huajian@tsinghua.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Mechano-X Institute, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China. gao.huajian@tsinghua.edu.cn.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Center for X-Mechanics, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. haofei_zhou@zju.edu.cn.

Abstract

Conventional material processing approaches often achieve strengthening of materials at the cost of reduced ductility. Here, we show that high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) treatment can help overcome the strength-ductility trade-off in structural materials. We report an initially strong-yet-brittle eutectic high entropy alloy simultaneously doubling its strength to 1150 MPa and its tensile ductility to 36% after the HPHT treatment. Such strength-ductility synergy is attributed to the HPHT-induced formation of a hierarchically patterned microstructure with coherent interfaces, which promotes multiple deformation mechanisms, including dislocations, stacking faults, microbands and deformation twins, at multiple length scales. More importantly, the HPHT-induced microstructure helps relieve stress concentration at the interfaces, thereby arresting interfacial cracking commonly observed in traditional eutectic high entropy alloys. These findings suggest a new direction of research in employing HPHT techniques to help develop next generation structural materials.

Abstract

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