Evading strength and ductility trade-off in an inverse nacre structured magnesium matrix nanocomposite

Luo, Xi; Zhao, Ke; He, Xu; Bai, Yuanli; De Andrade, Vincent; Zaiser, Michael; An, Linan; Liu, Jinling

doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2022.117730

Evading strength and ductility trade-off in an inverse nacre structured magnesium matrix nanocomposite

Journal Article · Mon Feb 07 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Acta Materialia

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2022.117730· OSTI ID:1894465

Luo, Xi ^[1]; Zhao, Ke ^[1]; He, Xu ^[1]; Bai, Yuanli ^[2]; De Andrade, Vincent ^[3]; Zaiser, Michael ^[4]; An, Linan ^[5]; ^[1]

Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, Sichuan (China)
Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Fürth (Germany)
Dongguan University of Technology, Guangdong (China)

Mimicking nacre structure is an often-used strategy for developing materials which combine high strength and high toughness. Here, a novel strategy, named inverse nacre structure, is proposed where elongated and curled soft constituents are embedded in a matrix of hard constituent to form an ordered brick-and-mortar arrangement. This strategy is demonstrated in a particle reinforced metal matrix composite, using pure Mg as the soft phase and SiC nanoparticle reinforced Mg as the hard phase. In this work, the resulting nanocomposite yields high strength, and especially high tensile elongation which is five times that of the homogeneous counterpart. The superior comprehensive strengthening-toughening effect originates from the tailored inverse nacre structure which enables a stable microcrack-multiplication process by sufficiently promoting strain hardening so as to avoid any significant decrease in post-ultimate tensile strength. This strategy, while demonstrated here for the specific case of particle reinforced Mg, is not restricted to any particular material system but constitutes a generic pathway for the development of high-performance materials for engineering applications.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)

Sponsoring Organization:: Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1894465

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1845912

Journal Information:: Acta Materialia, Journal Name: Acta Materialia Vol. 228; ISSN 1359-6454

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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