MIT Researchers Create Stable Nanocrystalline Alloys

Researchers from MIT, namely Heather Murdoch and Tongjai Chookajorn have devised a method to create stable nanocrystalline alloys under supervision of Christopher Schuh (head of the material science and engineering department). Nonocrystal is a minimized crystal size, where the small size improves mechanical properties of the material. The structure  is hard to obtain due to instability, which enables them to grow larger in heat/pressure conditions. MIT researchers have found a solution to the problem, which involves alloying certain materials to overcome the instability problem by the technique called - grain boundary strengthening. The created nanostructure adopts heterogeneous chemical distribution which can be studied by the framework presented by MIT researchers.

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Microscopic view of tungsten-titanium alloy exposed to 1100 degrees celsius for a week.

A test has been conducted with tungsten and titanium alloy which turned out to be unusually strong and remained stable for an entire week at 1100 degrees Celsius. The theoretical framework by the researchers allows to figure out all the alloys that would do good as nanocrystals.

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