Using a technique that creates a new nanoscale architecture, researchers have created an aluminum alloy just as strong as steel but with reasonable plasticity to stretch and not break under stress.
Importantly, the technique of creating these nanostructures can be used on many different types of metals and the team plans to work on strengthening magnesium, a metal that is even lighter than aluminum that could be used to make strong, lightweight body armor for soldiers.
Dr. Yuntian Zhu, a professor of materials science at North Carolina State University worked on the project to create the super strong aluminum alloy along with colleagues from the University of Sydney in Australia; theUniversity of California, Davis; and Ufa State Aviation Technical Universityin Russia. He says the aluminum alloys have unique structural elements that, when combined to form a hierarchical structure at several nanoscale levels, make them super-strong and ductile.