The joint research team of Professor Kwon Se-kyun (GIFT) and Professor Levente Vitos (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) have succeeded in solving the simultaneous increase in strength and ductility in high-entropy alloy through the theory of metal plasticity. This can be applied directly to the study of various existing metal materials as well as the development of stronger and more flexible steel – ultra high strength steel that is three times stronger than aluminum.

 

 The team noted the phenomenon of twinning, and succeeded in unraveling the secrets of high-entropy alloy. The alloy is not a random mixture of metal elements, but has a grid structure like a checkerboard, and a crystal structure in which atoms are embedded in at points on the grid. At this time, due to external forces, the crystal structure can become distorted. During this process, when the alloy structure is designed, so that the mirror image structure is drawn, the alloy can be both very strong and ductile.

 This study was published  in Nature Communications, and was carried out with support from the Korea-Sweden International Cooperative Research Project .