A POSTECH research team consisting of Professors Hansoo Kim (GIFT) and Nack J. Kim (GIFT), and Sang-heon Kim (GIFT Ph.D. candidate) developed material that has low specific strength and high intensity by taking advantage of the characteristics of intermetallic compounds. The iron and steel industry has developed as a primary source of automobiles. To decrease weight of the body, alloys, mixtures of aluminum and iron, are used. However, these intermetallic compounds are weakened in the process of mixing.
The research team used this phenomenon inversely. They created an intermetallic compound so small that it cannot be broken, which makes the alloy harder. The main idea is that when impact occurs outside, the intermetallic compound role is to stop movements of electric potential. The intermetallic compound is formed at a relatively low temperature. The team controlled the temperature using nickel, which forms a very small intermetallic compound even with hundreds nanometer-scale . This result was published in Nature.