Hierarchical heterogeneities engineering towards sustainable high-performing alloys

Abstract

High-performing alloys are the backbone of decarbonising innovations in manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, and transportation. There is an increasing demand for superb structural materials to tackle the significant economic, energy-efficient, and environmental issues. However, after decades of exploration, many engineering alloys seem to have approached their performance limits because the fundamental challenges lying in mutual exclusion among material properties, particularly in materials with homogeneous microstructures, are not readily surmounted. It is progressively realised that intentionally deploying structural or chemical heterogeneities into metals can produce noticeably improved global properties that are not attainable in traditional homogeneous materials. In this perspective, we briefly introduce the recent relevant progress and propose an innovative design concept of hierarchical heterogeneity engineering to develop sustainable high-performance alloys. This novel design strategy aims to enable an intelligent modulation and integration of the hierarchical chemical/structural heterogeneities with length scales spanning several orders of magnitude, breaking the existing ceilings of the attainable combinations of exceptional properties. Developing such a “do more, with less, for better and longer” design strategy would allow us to exploit most of the material potency to mitigate environmental burden and improve long-term sustainability.