Dual-phase nano-glass-hydrides overcome the strength-ductility trade-off and magnetocaloric bottlenecks of rare earth based amorphous alloys

Liliang Shao; Qiang Luo; Mingjie Zhang; Lin Xue; Jingxian Cui; Qianzi Yang; Haibo Ke; Yao Zhang; Baolong Shen; Weihua Wang

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-48531-7

Dual-phase nano-glass-hydrides overcome the strength-ductility trade-off and magnetocaloric bottlenecks of rare earth based amorphous alloys

Nat Commun. 2024 May 16;15(1):4159. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48531-7.

Authors

Liliang Shao^{1

2

3}, Qiang Luo⁴, Mingjie Zhang¹, Lin Xue⁵, Jingxian Cui¹, Qianzi Yang¹, Haibo Ke⁶, Yao Zhang¹, Baolong Shen⁷, Weihua Wang^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China.
² Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, 523808, China.
³ Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China. q.luo@seu.edu.cn.
⁵ College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China.
⁶ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, 523808, China. kehaibo@sslab.org.cn.
⁷ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallic Materials, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China. blshen@seu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Metal-hydrogen systems have attracted intense interest for diverse energy-related applications. However, metals usually reduce their ductility after hydrogenation. Here, we show that hydrogen can take the form of nano-sized ordered hydrides (NOH) homogeneously dispersed in a stable glassy shell, leading to remarkable enhancement in both strength and ductility. The yield strength is enhanced by 44% and the plastic strain is substantially improved from almost zero to over 70%, which is attributed to the created NOH and their interplay with the glassy shell. Moreover, the hydride-glass composite GdCoAlH possesses a giant magnetic entropy change (-ΔS_M) of 18.7 J kg^-1K^-1 under a field change of 5 T, which is 105.5% larger than the hydrogen-free sample and is the largest value among amorphous alloys and related composites. The prominent ΔS_M-ductility combination overcomes the bottlenecks of amorphous alloys as magnetic refrigerants. These results provide a promising strategy for property breakthrough of structural-functional alloys.

Abstract

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