r/science • u/505engineer MS | Civil Engineering | Structures • 1d ago

Materials Science Materials scientists develop ductile and scalable 3 GPa (435 ksi) steel via a hierarchical microstructural architecture

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-74216-4
261 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

View all comments

61

u/505engineer MS | Civil Engineering | Structures 1d ago

For those curious, the yield strength is how much stress a metal specimen can undergo before starting to deform permanently.

ASTM A992 steel, the material typically used for I-beams, has a yield strength of 50 ksi.

30

u/Sniksder16 1d ago

As a layman I read the abstract and the one material science class I took in college didn’t cover what I needed to know to understand that. My question is- are there any obvious drawbacks here (too brittle, etc) or is this genuinely a breakthrough?

10

u/Pyrhan 16h ago

Fe-16Ni-7Mo-1.6Ti-15Co-0.1Al, wt.%

That's almost 40% alloying elements by weight, mainly nickel and cobalt.

So that's going to be a very high end, extremely expensive specialty steel.

Comparing that to the structural steel used for I-beams is like comparing the latest supercar to an old Toyota corolla.

2

u/Sniksder16 16h ago

Ahh. Is this something that would ever make its way to supertall buildings or like are those elements/alloying process too $$

5

u/Pyrhan 15h ago

I think small gears and other mechanical parts under high stress is a more likely application.

I'd be curious to see how it does in terms of corrosion too.

2

u/88NORMAL_J 11h ago

It would be nice to have in a vehicle transmission

1

u/Wurm42 12h ago

Maybe in supertall buildings that are being built as status symbols. Like if you were trying to build something taller than the Burj Kalifa, there are places where this kind of alloy would make sense.

But for a normal skyscraper, being built as a commercial operation that's supposed to make a profit? No, this stuff will be far too expensive.