Transforming Grain‐Boundary Brittle Precipitates to Ductility Pathways in Complex Concentrated Alloy

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Authors: Z. C. Li, Xiao‐Tong Li, Zhaoqi Chen, Yushan Geng, Hao Gong, Sijia Hu, Wenli Song, Wanshun Xia, Chuanzheng Li, Linfa Peng, Yue Fan, Guan Pz
+3 more Bo Zhang, Weihua Wang, Yong Yang
Cited by: 2
References: 36

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that hard grain-boundary (GB) precipitates embrittle structural alloys by acting as crack initiation sites. In this work, we overturn this paradigm through atomic-scale interfacial engineering, transforming brittle GB phases into ductility pathways in a machine-learning identified model complex concentrated alloy. By precisely tailoring thermomechanical processing, we fabricated compositionally and structurally graded interfaces (GIs) that enable sequential plasticity activation and coordinated deformation across GBs. This interfacial architecture converts an intrinsically brittle multi-phase alloy into a ductile material, achieving an exceptional yield strength of ∼1.2 GPa with a total elongation of ∼20%. The achieved strength-ductility synergy, realized via interfacial plasticity programming, establishes a generalizable materials design strategy to overcome the persistent challenge of GB embrittlement in precipitation-strengthened alloys.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Microstructure and mechanical properties Machine Learning in Materials Science Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Steels

Publication details

Journal / source
Advanced Science
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
13
Issue
19
Pages
e18465–e18465
Publication date
10 February 2026
Language
EN