Developing metallic materials that simultaneously achieve high strength and ductility remains a critical challenge in advanced engineering applications. Conventional alloys often exhibit a trade-off between these two properties, limiting the design of materials that excel in both. In this study, we propose a novel high entropy alloy design strategy to achieve distinctive high yield strength and excellent ductility through the construction of multiscale heterogeneous structures spanning micrometer to nanometer dimensions. The resulting annealed sample exhibits an exceptional combination of similar to 1.9 GPa yield strength and similar to 10 % fracture elongation, surpassing the mechanical properties of most previously reported HEAs. The outstanding strength primarily stems from precipitation hardening, while deformation is governed by dislocations, stacking faults, Lomer-Cottrell locks, and deformation twins. These microstructural features effectively enhance strain hardening and enable high ductility even at ultrahigh strength levels. Notably, by exploiting the size effect in these multiscale heterogeneous structures, similar to 470 MPa increase in yield strength with only a 3 % reduction in plasticity is achieved. This demonstrates an effective strategy to overcome the traditional strength-ductility trade-off. These insights provide a new pathway for designing precipitation-hardened HEAs with ultrahigh strength and improved ductility. (c) 2026 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are promising for high-energy–density electrochemical storage, yet their industrial deployment is severely hindered by Li dendrite growth and unstable electrode–electrolyte interfaces caused by inhomogeneous ion flux and sluggish interfacial kinetics. Herein, a green, scalable PP@Me-PVDF/mSiO2 composite separator was fabricated via non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS), an industrially compatible process, using earth-abundant mesoporous silica (mSiO2) to replace high-cost rare fillers for spatiotemporal Li⁺ transport regulation. Spatially, mSiO2 immobilizes PF6− anions and modulates the local electric field to homogenize Li⁺ flux. Temporally, its hierarchical porous structure optimizes Li⁺ desolvation and diffusion kinetics, shifting Li⁺ nucleation from uncontrolled 3D instantaneous to controllable progressive mode, inducing a dense LiF-rich solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), and effectively suppressing dendrite growth. Electrochemical tests confirm superior engineering performance: Li||Li symmetric cells cycle stably for over 1300 h at 0.2 mA cm−2 and 1000 h at 2 mA cm−2. LiFePO4||Li full cells deliver excellent rate capability (87.1 mAh g−1 at 7C) and long-term cycling stability (93.7% capacity retention after 1200 cycles at 5C). In-situ/ex-situ characterizations validate the dendrite inhibition and stable SEI formation mechanisms. Notably, a facile low-energy regeneration strategy (cosolvent cleaning + vacuum drying) enables closed-loop utilization of spent separators, realizing material circularity for industrial battery systems. This work provides a sustainable engineering strategy for high-performance LMB separators and offers valuable insights for interfacial engineering of other high-energy battery systems toward eco-friendly industrial development.

CoNi-based alloys are critical structural materials for aerospace and gas turbine applications due to their outstanding oxidation and corrosion resistance. However, their relatively low strength at high temperature limits broad applications. Therefore, gamma '-strengthened CoNi-based alloys have attracted considerable interest, which requires a fundamental understanding of their intrinsic properties and mechanical behaviors. In this study, a single crystal (SX) CoNiCr-based alloy with the composition Co-30Ni-10Cr-9Al-5Mo-2Ta-0.03B (at.%) without W, which is generally required for gamma ' stabilization in CoNi-based alloys, is successfully grown by using Bridgman method. After solution and aging treatments, the alloy exhibits a typical gamma/gamma ' two-phase microstructure with spherical gamma ' precipitates (similar to 50 vol%, similar to 110 nm in diameter) uniformly distributed in the gamma matrix. Intrinsic properties, such as density, melting point, elastic constants, Debye temperature, etc., are determined. Furthermore, the mechanical properties and deformation behavior are examined with the aid of advanced microscopy. The strength of the W-free SX alloy is comparable to that of typical Co-Al-W SX alloys. In the temperature range from room temperature to 1000 degrees C, the SX CoNiCr-based alloy exhibits excellent ductility with the elongation to fracture consistently exceeding 33 %. The deformation mechanisms resemble those of Ni-based SX superalloys, which are dominated by dislocation pairs below 800 degrees C and single dislocations above 900 degrees C.

The pursuit of high-performance multi-principal element alloys has long been constrained by the strengthductility trade-off. Here, we propose a novel microstructural design strategy that achieves an exceptional balance by architecting a multi-scale, multi-phase heterogeneous microstructure in a CoCrNi-based multi-principal element alloy. This is realized through the synergistic incorporation of three distinct precipitates: coherent L12, incoherent sigma, and Cr-rich body-centered cubic phases. These phases differ markedly in crystal structure, coherency, and chemical composition, enabling concurrent activation of multiple strengthening and deformation mechanisms at different scales, including Orowan strengthening, dislocation slip, heterogeneous deformation induced hardening, Lomer-Cottrell locks, stacking fault networks, and deformation twinning. The designed alloy achieves an excellent combination of mechanical properties with a yield strength of 1216 MPa, an ultimate tensile strength of 1528 MPa, and an elongation of 23 %. This work demonstrates that the deliberate integration of complementary precipitate architectures can effectively break classical mechanical property trade-offs, providing a generalizable microstructural design pathway for designing high-performance advanced structural materials.

Additive manufacture (AM) of Ti-6Al-4V (TC4) alloys with good strength-ductility synergy and at low cost remains a challenge. By introducing low-cost Fe and Ti alloying elements into TC4, this paper reports direct energy deposition (DED) fabrication of TC4-based alloys with high densification and good mechanical properties. Alloying of Fe can effectively stabilize the beta phase and refine both the prior-beta grain and alpha phase, resulting in a fine alpha+beta dual-phase structure; while, Ti promotes the orientation variation of alpha phase, along with the effective decomposition of brittle alpha ' phase. Both aspects contribute to the enhanced dislocation activities in phase interior and more uniform plastic distribution across different phases, contributing to a synergic enhancement of strength and ductility. As a result, an ultra-high ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of similar to 1507 MPa is achieved in the DED-ed TC4+3Fe alloy, and a good synergy of UTS (similar to 1256 MPa) and ductility (similar to 13%) is obtained in the TC4+3Fe+5Ti alloy. More intriguingly, these alloys possess a good combination of relative cost and specific strength, in contrast to the AM-fabricated TC4-based alloys reported in literatures. This cost-effective strategy endows our alloy a desired synergistically enhance of strength and ductility which has broad industrial application prospects, and provides a new way in microstructural design for ultra-strong-yet-ductile structural materials.

The precipitation of topologically close-packed (TCP) phases significantly degrade the creep resistance of superalloys. While prior research predominantly focused on TCP formation under aging conditions, this study is the first to investigate into how creep-induced gamma ' rafting and defects control TCP phase evolution. Compared to aged situations, creep-induced rafting led to delays and a lower volume fraction of mu precipitates, demonstrating for the first time the inhibitory effect of rafting on mu phase formation. Creep-induced gamma ' rafting reduces the gamma ' phase volume fraction, thereby decreasing solute availability in the gamma matrix, which thermodynamically suppresses mu phase precipitation. Simultaneously, dislocation networks forming at gamma/gamma ' interfaces play a dual role. They deplete solute reservoirs to indirectly suppress TCP phases and trap Re element to create localized chemical gradients. These gradients not only promote P phase nucleation but also drive the mu -> P phase transformation. These creep-specific phenomena elucidate novel mechanisms controlling TCP phase evolution and offer pivotal design insights for superalloys subjected to creep dominated service environments.

Ni-based single crystal superalloys for turbine blades experience multimodal creep. Current microstructural design lacks tailored γ-γ′ microstructures for specific conditions. Five initial microstructures with similar morphology and varying γ′ size were creep tested under 980°C/250 MPa and 1100°C/137 MPa. Both conditions showed single-peak creep life evolution, but the creep life peak shifted toward smaller γ′ sizes under the higher temperature. This shift arises from coupled effects of γ′ size on dislocation motion, lattice misfit on interfacial dislocation density and extra damage from TCP phase, offering insights for optimizing microstructures under complex service conditions.

As critical microelectronic components are scaled down to the sub-10 nm level, they experience extreme current densities that inevitably trigger defect formation and evolution. Understanding dislocation dynamics and electro-induced damage at this particular scale is therefore crucial, as it governs the reliability of next-generation nanodevices. Herein, we investigate the dislocation evolution in Mo and Pt microcrystals upon pulse stimulation. By tracking dislocation generation, motion, and annihilation pulse-by-pulse, we reveal that enhanced electron-lattice interactions induce dislocation nucleation from sites of structural heterogeneity, in the form of dislocation loops. These dislocations experience frequent interaction and annihilation in the subsequent electropulsing process, inducing a periodic variation of dislocation density and contributing to the structural disordering. These findings not only provide insights into the structural degradation of metallic nano-interconnects during service but also have important implications for understanding the electroplasticity in bulk materials.

MnO x –CeO 2 catalysts achieve high-performance low-temperature NO x removal through synergy between fast-SCR at MnO x cluster centers and standard-SCR at the interface.

Designing metallic alloys of high strength-ductility synergy has remained an unremitting pursuit for many engineers and scientists. Recent advance in designing multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) offers an ample and unprecedented space for advanced microstructure design to address this need. In this work, we investigated a strategy to push the strength-ductility trade-off envelop by utilizing multiscale local chemical inhomogeneity created on the principle of negative mixing enthalpy alloying. This is achieved in an FCC CoCrNi MPEA added with Al, Ti and V as negative mixing enthalpy elements to the host elements. This promoted the alloy to form complex structural variations at multiple scales, including short-, medium- and long-range chemical orders; at the nanoscale, L12 nanodomains with varying morphologies and planar fault energies within the FCC matrix; and at the microscale, a bimodal grain size distribution. Such microstructure frustrates and disunifies dislocation resistance, promoting cascading activation of various lattice deformation and hardening mechanisms, such as stacking faults, deformation twins, and L12 nanodomain shearing, during the deformation process. This design yields an exceptional combination of mechanical properties, with a yield strength of ∼1.3 GPa, an ultimate tensile strength of ∼1.92 GPa, and a uniform elongation of ∼28% at ambient temperature. Our findings may provide potential reference for designing various degrees of local chemical ordering in alloys to manipulate the movement of dislocations for achieving high strength and ductility synergy.

This study proposes a novel rejuvenation heat treatment (RHT) strategy designed to preserve grain-boundary M23C6 carbides, aiming to regenerate the creep performance of long-term serviced directionally solidified turbine blades. Microstructural characterization reveals section-dependent degradation mechanisms: while the root section mainly exhibits dislocation networks, the airfoil suffers from severe secondary gamma ' coarsening, stacking fault shearing, and MC carbide decomposition into brittle eta phase. The applied RHT successfully eliminates the deleterious eta phase, dissolves coarsened gamma ', and refines the strengthening precipitates from 1 mu m to 0.35 mu m, thereby restoring the alloy's ability to form regular interfacial rafts under stress. Consequently, post-recovery heat treatment yields about 100 % increase in creep life at both blade airfoil and root sections. However, it is found that irreversible Cr-enrichment at airfoil grain boundaries induces spheroidal M23C6 carbides, which accelerates failure. These findings elucidate the microstructural limits of rejuvenation and offer a pathway for optimizing life-extension strategies for critical turbine components.

We report a self-propagating growth mechanism for sigma phase in Ni-based superalloys, mediated by autonomous stacking fault generation at phase tips. The misfit stress between the topologically close-packed phase (TCP phase) and the gamma ' phase caused the formation of stacking faults along the elongation direction of the TCP particle, creating dual function that provide elemental diffusion highways and enhance TCP/gamma ' structural compatibility. Pre-strained samples containing stacking faults (SFs) exhibited faster sigma phase growth than defect-free controls, attributed to anisotropic propagation along SF planes. Our work revealed a novel defect-assisted growth paradigm for TCP phases in single crystal superalloys, offering critical insights for microstructural stability regulation.

Triple junctions (TJs), as essential components connecting adjoining grain boundaries (GBs), govern the coordinated evolution of the entire GB network in polycrystalline materials under thermomechanical stimuli. Despite decades of research, a comprehensive understanding of TJ kinetics and their contributions to coordinated GB network evolution remains largely elusive, especially in experiments at the atomic scale. Using state-of-the-art in situ nanofabrication-nanomechanical testing with atomic resolution, we present direct evidence that multiple modes of TJ kinetics occur through conservative/non-conservative disconnection activities across neighboring GBs in Au and Pt polycrystals. TJ kinetics can transform mutually between conservative and non-conservative modes, holding significance for enhancing the deformation flexibility and sustaining plasticity of the overall GB network. A unified framework of TJ kinetics is further established by considering the coupling between GB plasticity, intragranular plasticity, and TJ excess volume. These findings are applicable to general TJs with non-coaxial GBs, providing a missing cornerstone for understanding the plasticity of polycrystalline materials. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.

The development of high-energy-density solid-state batteries is hindered by the instability of the cathodeelectrolyte interphase, particularly when using high-voltage nickel-rich cathodes. Oxygen release from the cathode bulk initiates a cascade of degradation events, leading to rapid failure. Here, we demonstrate that a tailored Li-Al-O interface, formed by an ultrathin alumina coating followed by annealing on single-crystal LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2, effectively suppresses oxygen release. This interfacial structure stabilizes the cathode lattice and promotes the formation of a highly ion-conductive interphase composed of LiF and Li3N, while preventing the accumulation of resistive Li2CO3. As a result, the solid-state battery incorporating a PVDF-based composite polymer electrolyte achieves a capacity retention of 86.3% after 100 cycles at 0.5 C-a marked improvement over the 30.1% retention of the unmodified battery. By addressing the root cause of degradation rather than its symptoms, this interfacial engineering strategy offers a generalizable pathway toward durable polymer-based solid-state batteries.

This study explores a novel heat treatment process to encourage gamma/gamma(y) interface chemical segregation in a Ni-based single crystal superalloy and investigates the influence of such segregation on the creep life of the alloy. It was found that the specially designed heat treatment process is able to induce Co, Cr and Re segregation at the gamma/gamma(y) interface without affecting the cuboidal morphology of the gamma(y) phase. As a result, the alloy demonstrates much improved creep resistance, with a creep life improvement by 238 % when tested at 760 degrees C/800 MPa. The segregation is also found to reduce dislocation mobility and to slows the gamma(y) phase coarsening rate. With temperature rising, the formation of rafted structures may attenuate these benefits, leading to smaller incremental gains. These findings provide new insights for advancing heat treatment optimization in superalloys.

Topologically close-packed (TCP) phases are known to initiate cracks under extreme service conditions, degrading the mechanical properties of Ni-based single-crystal superalloys (Ni-SXs). The associated local plastic deformation and cracking mechanisms, however, remain incompletely understood. Here, we utilized in situ thermal-nanomechanical testing to investigate deformation of sub-micrometer Ni-SXs specimens containing plate-like sigma phases under [001] loading at 900 degrees C. Under cyclic loading, shear fracture of the specimen was ultimately caused by localized dislocation slip within the matrix, accompanied by concurrent shear sliding at the sigma/matrix interface. This interfacial sliding, amplified under uniaxial tension and compression, is shown to originate from localized slip in the adjacent matrix, rather than strictly along the interface itself. These findings identify the matrix region adjoining the TCP phase as the preferential site for strain localization and shearinduced fracture at the microscale, providing new insights into alleviating TCP-related damage in Ni-SXs.

Nickel-based single crystal superalloys (hereafter referred to as Ni-SXs), with their superior high-temperature strength, are widely applied in turbine blades for aero-engines. However, repeated high-frequency stresses during service may lead to high cycle fatigue (HCF) failure. Fractographic observations indicate that cracks typically initiate at the surface or internal defects, linking HCF performance closely to surface integrity and microstructure. Moreover, the combined effects of elevated temperature and stress amplitude under service conditions strongly influence fatigue behavior. This review summarizes recent progress on the influence of surface integrity, microstructure, and experimental parameters on the HCF performance of Ni-SXs. The underlying mechanisms of fatigue crack initiation and propagation are discussed, with emphasis on dislocation activity, defect interactions, and environmental effects. The review aims to establish a link between HCF performance, surface integrity and microstructure from the macroscopic view to the microscopic view, providing some perspectives for future research.

Polycrystalline materials typically exhibit a marked intermediate-temperature low-plasticity (ITLP) region in the temperature range of 500-1000 degrees C, which significantly limits their engineering applications. Especially for nickel-based wrought superalloys, the operating temperature range (650-760 degrees C) falls within the ITLP zone, presenting a substantial challenge to the material's performance and reliability. Although a comprehensive theory to fully explain the occurrence of ITLP is still lacking, it is widely accepted that ITLP is closely related to the temperature-dependent variation of grain boundary strength. At low temperatures, the grain boundary strength exceeds the intragranular strength, but both strengths decrease with increasing temperature, with the grain boundary strength decreasing more rapidly. When the temperature reaches a certain value (referred to as the equal-cohesive temperature, ECT), the strengths of the grain and grain boundary become equal. This study establishes a direct relationship between ITLP and ECT through ex-situ and in-situ tensile testing, demonstrating that the ITLP zone can be shifted or even eliminated through targeted microstructure design. Moreover, grain refinement proves to be an effective method for enhancing both the strength and plasticity of the alloy at intermediate temperatures.

Nanocrystal phase thermostability is critical for their applications, yet fundamentally governed by complex thermodynamic and kinetic variables. Understanding the stabilizing mechanisms and dominant factors requires atomic-level insights into dynamic evolution across surface and bulk regions under extreme conditions. Herein, we present a comprehensive in-situ investigation of individual single-crystalline anatase TiO2 nanorods using spherical aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. By simultaneously acquiring environmental secondary electron images for surface topography and high-angle annular dark-field images for bulk atomic structures, we reveal the extraordinary phase stability of individual anatase nanorods governed by surface effects, distinct from aggregated nanorods. Anatase TiO2 nanorods undergo morphology reshaping and surface atomic reconstruction above 600 °C, involving transformation from high-index surfaces to (101) facets and the formation of (1 × 4)-reconstructed (001) surfaces. Remarkably, individual anatase TiO2 nanorods maintain the anatase structure even up to 1250 °C without transforming into the rutile phase. The restructuring lowers the total energy of the system, and acts as a kinetic "surface-locking" effect preventing rutile nucleation. Beyond elucidating the restructuring mechanisms and intrinsic thermostability of TiO2 nanocrystals, this work also establishes an effective pathway for simultaneously probing the complex structural evolution of nanomaterials across both surface and bulk regions.

The development of a new precipitation-strengthened Ni-based superalloy relies on a seemingly contradictory yet crucial trade-off between 'easy-to-deform' and 'high strength'. Commercial Haynes 282 (Ni-20Cr-10Co-8.5Mo-2.1Ti-1.5Al) has a good balance of mechanical properties and formability, but it still faces growing concerns regarding material cost and applicability due to the high concentration of Co (similar to 10 wt%). Therefore, it is necessary to develop Co-free, easy-to-deform and low-cost alloys with thermomechanical processing capabilities and mechanical properties comparable to those of Haynes 282. Both Ni and Fe are selected to replace Co, because the atomic sizes of Fe, Ni and Co are almost identical (similar to 0.125 nm). Moreover, the moduli of Co and Fe are all 82 GPa, which is only 7% higher than that of Ni (76 GPa). The effects of Co substitution by Ni/Fe on the alloy microstructures and mechanical properties are investigated. Substitution of Co with Ni/Fe does not change the size and volume fraction of the gamma ' phase, nor does it change the partitioning behavior of elements between the gamma matrix and gamma ' phase. The substitution of Co with Ni/Fe only slightly changes the type of precipitates on grain boundaries (GBs). The newly developed 'Co-free 282' low-cost alloys are not susceptible to stress-accelerated GB oxidation and exhibit great mechanical properties (tensile and creep), which are comparable to the 282 alloy. Current findings not only broaden the alloy selection for applications in extreme environments, but also represent an important trend in the field of precipitation-strengthened superalloys and high/medium entropy alloys to reduce the dependence on strategic high-cost metal Co.