Innovations & technologies

Super Steel Defies Everything We Know About the Alloy

Researchers say they’ve made a new “super steel” that challenges conventional wisdom about new steel alloys. Instead of the usual fine-tuned balance of tradeoffs, scientists at the University of Hong Kong and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs say their super steel mitigates the catch-22s in many previous alloys. The secret is in how the molecular structure of the steel works to absorb and nullify stress damage.

These researchers have introduced delamination toughening into their steel. Let’s break down a complex idea piece by piece—or layer by layer, more appropriately.

Many kinds of steel (and materials in general!) are laminated, in the sense of the word invoked by layered flaky pastries like croissants or baklava. Even the mechanisms are surprisingly similar: Steel can be milled by heating and then rolling it to desired thickness, and those layers accumulate by rolling or folding.