High-entropy induced a glass-to-glass transition in a metallic glass

Glass-to-glass transitions are useful for us to understand the glass nature, but it remains difficult to tune the metallic glass into significantly different glass states. Here, we have demonstrated that the high-entropy can enhance the degree of disorder in an equiatomic high-entropy metallic glass NbNiZrTiCo and elevate it to a high-energy glass state. An unusual glass-to-glass phase transition is discovered during heating with an enormous heat release even larger than that of the following crystallization at higher temperatures. Dramatic atomic rearrangement with a short- and medium-range ordering is revealed by in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction analyses. This glass-to-glass transition leads to a significant improvement in the modulus, hardness, and thermal stability, all of which could promote their applications. Based on the proposed high-entropy effect, two high-entropy metallic glasses are developed and they show similar glass-to-glass transitions. These findings uncover a high-entropy effect in metallic glasses and create a pathway for tuning the glass states and properties.

Glass-to-glass transitions can help understanding the glass nature, but it remains difficult to tune metallic glasses into significantly different glass states. Here the authors demonstrate the high-entropy effects in glass-to-glass transitions of high-entropy metallic glasses.

Ultrahigh-strength and ductile superlattice alloys with nanoscale disordered interfaces

Alloys that have high strengths at high temperatures are crucial for a variety of important industries including aerospace. Alloys with ordered superlattice structures are attractive for this purpose but generally suffer from poor ductility and rapid grain coarsening. We discovered that nanoscale disordered interfaces can effectively overcome these problems. Interfacial disordering is driven by multielement cosegregation that creates a distinctive nanolayer between adjacent micrometer-scale superlattice grains. This nanolayer acts as a sustainable ductilizing source, which prevents brittle intergranular fractures by enhancing dislocation mobilities. Our superlattice materials have ultrahigh strengths of 1.6 gigapascals with tensile ductilities of 25% at ambient temperature. Simultaneously, we achieved negligible grain coarsening with exceptional softening resistance at elevated temperatures. Designing similar nanolayers may open a pathway for further optimization of alloy properties.