Engineering materials: Atomistic models reveal surprising order
Scientists in the United States and China have announced a discovery that they believe could enable the engineering of alloyed materials that are stronger and more ductile and possess superior electrical, magnetic and physical properties.
Writing in Science, the nation’s leading scientific journal, the researchers said they had found a surprising degree of order in the interior grain boundaries—the interfaces between crystalline grains—that determine the properties of polycrystalline materials such as metals and ceramics.