High-pressure strengthening in ultrafine-grained metals

Zhou, Xiaoling; Feng, Zongqiang; Zhu, Linli; Xu, Jianing; Miyagi, Lowell; Dong, Hongliang; Sheng, Hongwei; Wang, Yanju; Li, Quan; Ma, Yanming; Zhang, Hengzhong; Yan, Jinyuan; Tamura, Nobumichi; Kunz, Martin; Lutker, Katie; Huang, Tianlin; Hughes, Darcy A.; Huang, Xiaoxu; Chen, Bin

doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2036-z

High-pressure strengthening in ultrafine-grained metals

Journal Article · Mon Feb 24 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Nature (London)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2036-z· OSTI ID:1785992

Zhou, Xiaoling ^[1]; Feng, Zongqiang ^[2]; Zhu, Linli ^[3]; Xu, Jianing ^[4]; Miyagi, Lowell ^[5]; Dong, Hongliang ^[6]; Sheng, Hongwei ^[6]; Wang, Yanju ^[6]; Li, Quan ^[7]; Ma, Yanming ^[7]; Zhang, Hengzhong ^[6]; Yan, Jinyuan ^[8]; Tamura, Nobumichi ^[8]; Kunz, Martin ^[8]; Lutker, Katie ^[9]; Huang, Tianlin ^[2]; Hughes, Darcy A. ^[10]; Huang, Xiaoxu ^[2]; Chen, Bin ^[6]

Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai (China); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States); University of Illinois at Chicago
Chongqing Univ. (China)
Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China)
Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai (China); Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)
Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai (China)
Jilin Univ., Changchun (China)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Unaffiliated, Fremont, CA (United States)

The Hall–Petch relationship, according to which the strength of a metal increases as the grain size decreases, has been reported to break down at a critical grain size of around 10 to 15 nanometres. As the grain size decreases beyond this point, the dominant mechanism of deformation switches from a dislocation-mediated process to grain boundary sliding, leading to material softening. In one previous approach, stabilization of grain boundaries through relaxation and molybdenum segregation was used to prevent this softening effect in nickel–molybdenum alloys with grain sizes below 10 nanometres. Here we track in situ the yield stress and deformation texturing of pure nickel samples of various average grain sizes using a diamond anvil cell coupled with radial X-ray diffraction. Our high-pressure experiments reveal continuous strengthening in samples with grain sizes from 200 nanometres down to 3 nanometres, with the strengthening enhanced (rather than reduced) at grain sizes smaller than 20 nanometres. Here, we achieve a yield strength of approximately 4.2 gigapascals in our 3-nanometre-grain-size samples, ten times stronger than that of a commercial nickel material. A maximum flow stress of 10.2 gigapascals is obtained in nickel of grain size 3 nanometres for the pressure range studied here. We see similar patterns of compression strengthening in gold and palladium samples down to the smallest grain sizes. Simulations and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the high strength observed in nickel of grain size 3 nanometres is caused by the superposition of strengthening mechanisms: both partial and full dislocation hardening plus suppression of grain boundary plasticity. These insights contribute the ongoing search for ultrastrong metals via materials engineering.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Programs (DP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; NA0003975

OSTI ID:: 1785992

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1820119

Journal Information:: Nature (London), Journal Name: Nature (London) Journal Issue: 7797 Vol. 579; ISSN 0028-0836

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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