Professors Wang and Zhang, along with their MSE graduate student Anyu Shang, introduced transition metals cobalt, iron, nickel, and titanium into aluminum via nanoscale, laminated, deformable intermetallics. These metals traditionally have been largely avoided in manufacturing aluminum alloys due to their brittle nature at room temperature. Lightweight, high-strength aluminum alloys are used in aerospace and automobile manufacturing industries but are highly susceptible to hot cracking. By introducing transition metals creates ultrahigh-strength aluminum alloys that also demonstrate high plastic deformability.

 

Wang and Zhang disclosed the innovation to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which has applied for a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to protect the intellectual property. The research has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications. The National Science Foundation and the U.S. Office of Naval Research provided support for this work.