Nanomaterials by severe plastic deformation: review of historical developments and recent advances

International audienceSevere plastic deformation (SPD) is effective in producing bulk ultrafine-grained and nanostructured materials with large densities of lattice defects. This field, also known as NanoSPD, experienced a significant progress within the past two decades. Beside classic SPD methods such as high-pressure torsion, equal-channel angular pressing, accumulative roll-bonding, twist extrusion, and multi-directional forging, various continuous techniques were introduced to produce upscaled samples. Moreover, numerous alloys, glasses, semiconductors, ceramics, polymers, and their composites were processed. The SPD methods were used to synthesize new materials or to stabilize metastable phases with advanced mechanical and functional properties. High strength combined with high ductility, low/room-temperature superplasticity, creep resistance, hydrogen storage, photocatalytic hydrogen production, photocatalytic CO2 conversion, superconductivity, thermoelectric performance, radiation resistance, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility are some highlighted properties of SPD-processed materials. This article reviews recent advances in the NanoSPD field and provides a brief history regarding its progress from the ancient times to modernity

Producing bulk ultrafine-grained materials by severe plastic deformation: ten years later

It is now well established that the processing of bulk solids through the application of severe plastic deformation (SPD) leads to exceptional grain refinement to the submicrometer or nanometer level. Extensive research over the last decade has demonstrated that SPD processing also produces unusual phase transformations and leads to the introduction of a range of nanostructural features, including nonequilibrium grain boundaries, deformation twins, dislocation substructures, vacancy agglomerates, and solute segregation and clustering. These many structural changes provide new opportunities for fine tuning the characteristics of SPD metals to attain major improvements in their physical, mechanical, chemical, and functional properties. This review provides a summary of some of these recent developments. Special emphasis is placed on the use of SPD processing in achieving increased electrical conductivity, superconductivity, and thermoelectricity, an improved hydrogen storage capability, materials for use in biomedical applications, and the fabrication of high-strength metal-matrix nanocomposites

Surface Analysis of Biodegradable Mg-Alloys after Immersion in Simulated Body Fluid

Two binary biodegradable Mg-alloys and one ternary biodegradable Mg-alloy (Mg-0.3Ca, Mg-5Zn and Mg-5Zn-0.3Ca, all in wt%) were investigated. Surface-sensitive X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses (XPS) of the alloy surfaces before and after immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF) were performed. The XPS analysis of the samples before the immersion in SBF revealed that the top layer of the alloy might have a non-homogeneous composition relative to the bulk. Degradation during the SBF immersion testing was monitored by measuring the evolution of H2. It was possible to evaluate the thickness of the sample degradation layers after the SBF immersion based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the tilted sample. The thickness was in the order of 10-100 µm. The typical bio-corrosion products of all of the investigated alloys consisted of Mg, Ca, P and O, which suggests the formation of apatite (calcium phosphate hydroxide), magnesium hydrogen phosphate hydrate and magnesium hydroxide. The bioapplicability of the analyzed alloys with regard to surface composition and degradation kinetics is discussed

Producing bulk ultrafine-grained materials by severe plastic deformation

This overview highlights very recent achievements and new trends in one of the most active and developing fields in modern materials science: the production of bulk ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials using severe plastic deformation (SPD). The article also summarizes the chronology of early work in SPD processing and presents clear and definitive descriptions of the terminology currently in use in this research area. Special attention is given to the principles of the various SPD processing techniques as well as the major structural features and unique properties of bulk UFG materials that underlie their prospects for widespread practical utilization

Mechanism of nanostructure formation in ball-milled Cu and Cu-3wt% Zn studied by X-ray diffraction line profile analysis

The mechanism of nanostructure formation during cryogenic and room-temperature milling of Cu and Cu–3wt%Zn was investigated using X-ray diffraction line profile analysis. For that, the whole powder pattern modeling approach (WPPM) was used to analyze the evolution of microstructural features including coherently scattering domain size, dislocation density, and density of planar faults. It was found that for all sets of experiments, structural decomposition is the dominant mechanism of nanostructure formation during cryomilling. During subsequent RT-milling, grain refinement still occurs by structural decomposition for pure copper. On the other hand, discontinuous dynamic recrystallization is responsible for nanostructure formation during RT-milling of Cu–3wt%Zn. This is attributed to lower stacking-fault energy of Cu–3wt%Zn compared to pure copper. Finally, room temperature milling reveals the occurrence of a detwinning phenomenon

The effects of severe plastic deformation and/or thermal treatment on the mechanical properties of biodegradable mg-alloys

In this study, five MgZnCa alloys with low alloy content and high biocorrosion resistance were investigated during thermomechanical processing. As documented by microhardness and tensile tests, high pressure torsion (HPT)-processing and subsequent heat treatments led to strength increases of up to 250%; as much as about 1/3 of this increase was due to the heat treatment. Microstructural analyses by electron microscopy revealed a significant density of precipitates, but estimates of the Orowan strength exhibited values much smaller than the strength increases observed. Calculations using Kirchner’s model of vacancy hardening, however, showed that vacancy concentrations of 10−⁵ could have accounted for the extensive hardening observed, at least when they formed vacancy agglomerates with sizes around 50‒100 nm. While such an effect has been suggested for a selected Mg-alloy already in a previous paper of the authors, in this study the effect was substantiated by combined quantitative evaluations from differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray line profile analysis. Those exhibited vacancy concentrations of up to about 10−3 with a marked percentage being part of vacancy agglomerates, which has been confirmed by evaluations of defect specific activation migration enthalpies. The variations of Young’s modulus during HPT-processing and during the subsequent thermal treatments were small. Additionally, the corrosion rate did not markedly change compared to that of the homogenized state