Putting Atoms Where they are Needed: Segregation for Property Control in Structural Alloys

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From cars to integrated circuits, engineers locate different materials to best exploit their unique properties. It may seem odd then, that the production of structural alloys rarely employs this same optimized strategy. Despite the strong chemistry dependence of many material properties, alloys are typically designed by correlating properties to average chemistry. Recognizing this as an opportunity, our group is at the leading edge of a movement whose aim is to develop emerging processing techniques aided by advanced characterization and simulation tools to ‘put atoms where they are needed’ in engineering alloys. This is providing breakthroughs in new product development by, for example, using the natural tendency of strengthening atoms to migrate to ‘weak’ points in a material. Beyond the potential for new freedom in property design, such a chemically site-specific strategy offers a more efficient use of expensive and/or difficult to source alloying elements at a time where resource availability is an increasingly important consideration.