Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

Synergistic work hardening by rapid multiplication of dislocations in a multi-principal-element alloy

In a multi-principal-element VCoNi alloy, premature necking during Lüders banding has been harnessed to produce rapid dislocation multiplication, leading to both forest hardening and hardening induced by regions of local chemical order. The result is ductility of 20% and a yield strength of 2 GPa, during room-temperature and cryogenic deformation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Lüders band instability and rapid dislocation multiplication.

References

  1. Valiev, R. Z., Alexandrov, I. V., Zhu, Y. T. & Lowe, T. C. Paradox of strength and ductility in metals processed by severe plastic deformation. J. Mater. Res. 17, 5–8 (2002). This paper reports the yield strength–ductility paradox in ultrafine-grained metals.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen, X. F. et al. Direct observation of chemical short-range order in a medium-entropy alloy. Nature 592, 712–716 (2021). This paper reports the local chemical orders in the VCoNi alloy.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. He, B. B. et al. High dislocation density-induced large ductility in deformed and partitioned steels. Science 357, 1029–1032 (2017). This paper reports the Lüders banding in an ultrahigh-strength steel.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhu, Y. T. & Wu, X. L. Heterostructured materials. Prog. Mater. Sci. 131, 101019 (2023). A review article that presents extra work hardening in heterostructured metals and alloys.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Xu, B. et al. Harnessing instability for work hardening in multi-principal element alloys. Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01871-7 (2024).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Synergistic work hardening by rapid multiplication of dislocations in a multi-principal-element alloy. Nat. Mater. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01891-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01891-3

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing