Authors
Qianyong Zhu, Yin Zhang, Ran Li, Cheng Zhang, Dechang Zhang, Ruhao Zhou, Bo Sun, Hongliang Dong, Zhiwei Zhang, Hanqi Wang, Xichen Zhou, Xiao Liang, Chang Lu, Nithin Balaji V I, Ruixiao Zheng, Zhijian Wang, Xinqing Zhao, Yu Deng, Marc A Meyers, Robert O Ritchie, Shiteng Zhao, Hongbo Guo
Published in
Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 35. Pages eaee6666. Aug 28, 2026. Epub Aug 26, 2026.
Abstract
The concurrent achievement of high strength, ductility, and superelasticity in metals remains a grand challenge. Conventional TiNi alloys, although superelastic, suffer from low strength and modest superelasticity. Here, we report a bulk nanostructuring strategy that not only overcomes these limitations but also enables programmable mechanical response. By combining moderate cryogenic deformation to create a bulk amorphous precursor with pulsed electric current-driven nanocrystallization, we produce a Ti49Ni51 alloy that exhibits an exceptional combination of properties: a tensile strength over 2 gigapascals (GPa), ductility up to 12%, and a giant recoverable strain of 9%. The enhanced functionality stems from a nanoscale martensitic transformation that proceeds sequentially across nanograins of varying sizes, rather than simultaneously as in coarse-grained materials. This mechanism allows the superelastic response to be tunable, offering tailored stress-strain curves with adjustable transformation stresses and shapes ranging from plateau-like to linear. Our amorphization-templated nanocrystallization method is potentially scalable and bridges the gap between ultrastrong structural materials and advanced functional applications.
PMID:
42647642
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 27 Aug 2026.
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