An alloy that can bend and return to its original shape at least 10 million times could prove useful in applications including medical devices and refrigeration.
Bending a 'shape-memory alloy' changes its crystal structure from one phase to another, whereas applying heat reverses that transition. But structural damage causes these materials to lose their shape memory within a few thousand cycles. A team led by Eckhard Quandt at the University of Kiel, Germany, and Manfred Wuttig at the University of Maryland, College Park, has now created a titanium–nickel–copper alloy (Ti54Ni34Cu12) that averts this memory loss. Layers of Ti2Cu in the material act as templates that guide the complete transition between the two crystal phases.
This template approach could offer a way of creating better shape-memory alloys.
Science 348, 1004–1007 (2015)<http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1261164>
Feed: Nature - Issue - nature.com science feeds
Posted on: Wednesday, 3 June 2015 10:00 AM
Author: Nature Publishing Group
Subject: Materials: Memory metal sets flex record
Materials: Memory metal sets flex record
Nature 522, 7554 (2015). doi:10.1038/522008c<http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/522008c>
An alloy that can bend and return to its original shape at least 10 million times could prove useful in applications including medical devices and refrigeration.Bending a 'shape-memory alloy' changes its crystal structure from one phase to another, whereas applying heat reverses that transition.
View article...<http://feeds.nature.com/~r/nature/rss/current/~3/0E9UDvjZSsQ/522008c>
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