The new alloy that will make tanks indestructible

It is without a doubt one of the most important laboratories on the planet. There, 16 new chemical elements were discovered, the antiproton, and it is the “home” of 15 Nobel Prize winners in physics and chemistry. From Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories and now, according to the latest Study published in Science magazineExperts from this institution They would develop a virtually indestructible alloy..

The authors, led by Robert Ritchie, have unveiled a special alloy that could be a game changer with its combination of temperature tolerance, corrosion resistance, and fracture toughness that has never been seen before. How do you make an alloy that has it all? The secret is A feature called a mesh band, where the material naturally forms in a certain way when heated and processed..

Many metals are soft in their pure form, or at least softer than we would like them to be in applications such as manufacturing and heavy machinery. Long ago, humans realized that they could combine two metals into an alloy (such as bronze) and get Results that were harder, maintained better, and lasted longer..

But what makes alloys so powerful? While the world of elements is like a Lego game, where each one fits perfectly into its counterpart, in alloys it’s a little different, and more like a Jenga game: Different blocks make the collapse of the structure very complicated. Only by pressing them. In this case, the disorder of the structure plays into the hands of its rigidity.

In this new study, Ritchie’s team developed a new ultra-high-temperature thermoplastic alloy by combining niobium, tantalum, titanium and hafnium. These items have Some of the highest melting points in the known periodic table.They also have a very high hardness among pure metals. This means that when mixed in a certain way, these metals can become more resistant to heat and corrosion.

There are just a few problems. The same toughness and hardness that define heat-resistant alloys often means they are extremely difficult to work with, with low ductility and a high likelihood of fracture. In other words, if you try When working with metal, which is a heat-resistant alloy in any kind of shape, it will break rather than bend.The authors needed to find a compromise whereby a very tough refractory alloy could be subjected to a blow and deformed in the desired manner rather than fracture. Thus emerged this alloy, which shows signs of twisting, but not fractures under shocks and extreme thermal changes.

“Our work shows that, contrary to conventional understanding, Complex concentrated refractory alloys can have exceptional fracture toughness. “In extreme temperature ranges, even in a cryogenic system,” the scientists conclude.