An isotropic zero thermal expansion alloy with super-high toughness

Chengyi Yu; Kun Lin; Qinghua Zhang; Huihui Zhu; Ke An; Yan Chen; Dunji Yu; Tianyi Li; Xiaoqian Fu; Qian Yu; Li You; Xiaojun Kuang; Yili Cao; Qiang Li; Jinxia Deng; Xianran Xing

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-46613-0

An isotropic zero thermal expansion alloy with super-high toughness

Nat Commun. 2024 Mar 13;15(1):2252. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46613-0.

Authors

Chengyi Yu¹, Kun Lin¹, Qinghua Zhang², Huihui Zhu¹, Ke An³, Yan Chen³, Dunji Yu³, Tianyi Li⁴, Xiaoqian Fu⁵, Qian Yu⁵, Li You¹, Xiaojun Kuang⁶, Yili Cao¹, Qiang Li¹, Jinxia Deng¹, Xianran Xing⁷

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, and Institute of Solid State Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China.
² Institution of Physics, Chinese Academic of Science, No.8, 3rd South Street, Zhongguancun Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
³ Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
⁴ X-Ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA.
⁵ Center of Electron Microscopy and State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁶ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical and Magnetochemical Functional Materials, College of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, P. R. China.
⁷ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, and Institute of Solid State Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China. xing@ustb.edu.cn.

Abstract

Zero thermal expansion (ZTE) alloys with high mechanical response are crucial for their practical usage. Yet, unifying the ZTE behavior and mechanical response in one material is a grand obstacle, especially in multicomponent ZTE alloys. Herein, we report a near isotropic zero thermal expansion (α_l = 1.10 × 10^-6K^-1, 260-310 K) in the natural heterogeneous LaFe₅₄Co_3.5Si_3.35 alloy, which exhibits a super-high toughness of 277.8 ± 14.7 J cm^-3. Chemical partition, in the dual-phase structure, assumes the role of not only modulating thermal expansion through magnetic interaction but also enhancing mechanical properties via interface bonding. The comprehensive analysis reveals that the hierarchically synergistic enhancement among lattice, phase interface, and heterogeneous structure is significant for strong toughness. Our findings pave the way to tailor thermal expansion and obtain prominent mechanical properties in multicomponent alloys, which is essential to ultra-stable functional materials.