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Dual-scale chemical ordering in CoNiV-based alloys improves the synergy of strength and ductility at cryogenic temperatures, providing an approach for obtaining high-performance metallic materials for cryogenic applications.

Research in new alloy compositions and treatments may allow the increased strength of mass-produced, intricately shaped parts. Here authors introduce a superplastic medium manganese steel which has an inexpensive lean chemical composition and which is suited for conventional manufacturing processes.

Understanding the underlying mechanisms during corrosion is one of the grand key missions to improve the sustainability of the material world. Here, the authors combine atomic scale imaging and calculations to show how solute atoms react during aqueous corrosion of a multicomponent Al alloy.

Weld integrity and performance determine lifetime and safety of structures. Here, the authors report advances in weld quality of ultrahigh strength steels resulting from fine interlocking weld microstructures with film-like retained austenite by utilizing Nb and Cr instead of Ni.

Production defects prevent many industrially important materials from being adopted by metal additive manufacturing. Here, the authors propose a universal thermodynamics-guided alloy design approach to assist the discovery of crack-free materials.

Atom-scale analysis of hydrogen and other elements at the grain boundaries of a 7xxx aluminium alloy shows that co-segregation of elements favours grain boundary decohesion, and that hydrogen embrittlement is prevented by strong partitioning into the second-phase particles.

Mechanical twinning is difficult to trigger in face centered cubic alloys with high stacking fault energies (SFEs) under standard tensile loading. Here, the authors report high stress twinning in a bulk compositionally complex steel of very high SFE, enhancing the material’s mechanical performance.

Typically undesired chemically heterogeneous microstructures are shown to enhance the resistance of high-strength steel against hydrogen embrittlement, with no loss in strength or ductility.

Hydrogen contamination in metals during sample preparation for high-resolution microscopy remains a challenge, especially when hydrogen itself is being investigated. Here, the authors show that using cryogenic milling significantly reduces hydrogen pick-up during sample preparation of titanium and titanium alloys.

High-entropy materials leverage phase stabilization through mixing several elements and are primarily known for their mechanical strength and high toughness. This Review explores their use as a platform for multifunctional material design, in which several, even conflicting, properties can be reconciled because of the compositional tolerance inherent in the high-entropy concept, including electronic, magnetic, mechanical, catalytic, thermal expansion and hydrogen storage properties.

A method of producing superstrong yet ductile steels using cheaper and lighter alloying elements is described, based on minimization of the lattice misfit to achieve a maximal dispersion of nanoprecipitates, leading to ultimate precipitation strengthening.