Tungsten & Titanium Alloys From Nanocrystal Materials To Promise High-Strength Structures

When it comes to materials, the 'smaller the stronger' seems to be an emerging trend. Yesterday, we wrote about #-Link-Snipped-#, and now we have another team of engineers from MIT succeed in creating alloys from nanocrystals. Engineers Tongjai Chookajorn and Heather Murdoch tried to address the problem of materials becoming unstable when subjected to stress or heat. They succeeded in synthesising a new class of Tungsten alloys that have stable nanocrystalline structures.


Tongjai Chookajorn, left, and Heather Murdoch

The researchers say that the new alloys will have features and characteristics that the regular metals and alloys do not have.  The Tungsten and Titanium alloys developed by the duo exhibit exceptional strengths that would be ideal in industrial and military applications. The study can lead to potentially hundreds of new alloys with newer characteristics being developed in future.

The Tungsten-Titanium alloy that Chookajorn synthesised could  withstand 1,100 degrees Celsius for over a week. Its grains are just 120 nm wide. The research is funded by the US Army Research Office.

Via: #-Link-Snipped-#