Jet engines demand materials that can survive tremendous heat and force without bending, cracking, or slowly losing their shape. The strongest candidates, however, often come with a major weakness: they are too brittle to deform safely.
Purdue University engineers have now found a way to overcome that tradeoff in cobalt aluminum (CoAl), an intermetallic compound with potential uses in high-performance turbines. By redesigning the material at the nanoscale, the researchers created a form of CoAl that is exceptionally strong but can still undergo substantial deformation at room temperature.
The advance, reported in Science Advances, could point toward a broader strategy for making notoriously brittle intermetallic compounds more practical for aerospace, energy, and defense technologies.
Why Intermetallics Fracture
Intermetallics contain two or more metallic elements arranged in a highly ordered crystal structure. That atomic order can give them remarkable strength, high melting temperatures, and resistance to creep, the slow deformation that occurs when a material remains under stress for long periods.
These qualities are valuable in jet engines, gas turbines, energy storage systems, and automotive components. Yet the same ordered structures that make intermetallics strong can also prevent them from deforming easily. Instead of bending under force, many fracture, particularly at room temperature.
Source: SciTechDaily
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