A research team at Purdue University has developed a new cobalt-aluminium (CoAl) alloy that has the potential to solve one of the major limitations of intermetallic materials, their tendency to break under stress.<\/p>\n
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The newly developed material showed a strength of up to 10 times that of steel with the ability to deform without breaking.<\/p>\n
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This research, published in Science Advances, could help the development of next-generation turbine engines in which materials are required to withstand extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n
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Solving the brittleness problem<\/p>\n
Intermetallic compounds have long attracted interest for their high strength, excellent heat resistance and ability to withstand long-term mechanical stress. These properties make them suitable for components used in aircraft engines, gas turbines, automotive systems and energy applications.<\/p>\n
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Yet their commercial use has remained limited because they are generally brittle at room temperature. Rather than bending under load, many crack before they can absorb significant\u00a0stress.<\/p>\n
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The Purdue researchers focused on cobalt-aluminium (CoAl), an intermetallic already recognised for its strength but considered difficult to manufacture into demanding engineering components because of its lack of ductility.<\/p>\n
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Instead of changing the alloy’s composition, the team modified its internal structure by introducing a large number of microscopic crystal defects, known as dislocations, together with flexible amorphous interfaces that help the material accommodate stress.<\/p>\n
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High strength without sacrificing plasticity<\/p>\n
Tests showed the redesigned alloy reached a yield strength of 6 gigapascals (GPa), around six to 10 times stronger than high-strength structural steel. Unlike conventional CoAl, it also withstood 15 per cent plastic strain under compression at room temperature before permanent deformation occurred.<\/p>\n
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The material was produced using magnetron sputtering deposition, a process that forms the alloy from vapour rather than molten metal. This manufacturing route enabled the researchers to introduce a high density of dislocations while creating the flexible aluminium-cobalt interfaces responsible for the improved mechanical behaviour.<\/p>\n
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Microscopy experiments and computer simulations showed these interfaces actively generated additional dislocations as the material was compressed, allowing it to absorb stress more effectively instead of fracturing.<\/p>\n
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Potential for next-generation engineering materials<\/p>\n
The current material has only been demonstrated as a nanoscale layered system, but the researchers plan to apply the same concept to larger cobalt-aluminium nanocomposites suitable for industrial production.<\/p>\n
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They also intend to investigate whether the approach can improve the ductility of other intermetallic alloys, opening opportunities for stronger lightweight materials in aerospace, energy and defence sectors.<\/p>\n
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Note:\u00a0This\u00a0article\u00a0is\u00a0published\u00a0in\u00a0accordance\u00a0with\u00a0an\u00a0article\u00a0exchange\u00a0agreement\u00a0between\u00a0Mysteel\u00a0and\u00a0AL\u00a0Circle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A research team at Purdue University has developed a new cobalt-aluminium (CoAl) alloy that has the potential to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-538408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}