Oxygen nanoclustering evades inverse Hall-Petch softening

Xiaolong Yu, Xilei Bian (), Chang Liu (), Qing Wang (), Daniel Şopu, Daniel Kiener, Yifeng Li, Ge Wu, Yuan Wu, Yong Yang, Jürgen Eckert and Gang Wang ()
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Xiaolong Yu: Shanghai University, State Key Laboratory of Materials for Advanced Nuclear Energy
Xilei Bian: Shanghai University, State Key Laboratory of Materials for Advanced Nuclear Energy
Chang Liu: Xi’an Jiaotong University, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials
Qing Wang: Shanghai University, State Key Laboratory of Materials for Advanced Nuclear Energy
Daniel Şopu: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science
Daniel Kiener: Montanuniversität Leoben, Department Materials Science
Yifeng Li: Shanghai University, Laboratory for Microstructures
Ge Wu: Xi’an Jiaotong University, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials
Yuan Wu: University of Science and Technology Beijing, State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials
Yong Yang: City University of Hong Kong, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
Jürgen Eckert: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science
Gang Wang: Shanghai University, State Key Laboratory of Materials for Advanced Nuclear Energy

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Grain refinement can drastically increase the strength of metals. However, this approach tends to become less effective or even inverses once grain sizes are reduced to very small scales, generally below 10 ~ 20 nanometers. This softening effect emerges from grain boundary instability and the limited ability of dislocations to form and move within such nanosized grains. However, grain boundary stability can be tuned by solute decoration or grain boundary relaxation. In this context, we present a strategy to achieve superior strength and plasticity in nanograined metals simultaneously. The formation of oxygen (O)-rich clusters at grain boundaries can significantly improve grain boundary stability, even at the 3 nm grain size model (CoCrNi)87O13 (at.%) alloy investigated in this study. Furthermore, the presence of O-rich clusters in grain interiors promotes the accumulation and multiplication of dislocations, which facilitates strain hardening during deformation. Consequently, despite being situated in the inverse Hall-Petch regime, this (CoCrNi)87O13 alloy exhibits a remarkable yield strength of ~3.6 GPa and retains a uniform plastic strain of over 50% under micropillar compression. These findings therefore provide a universal design strategy for nanograined metals aimed at utilizing O clusters to achieve the highly desired combination of high strength and large deformability.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66181-1

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