Achieving High Tensile Strength and Ductility in Refractory Alloys by Tuning Electronic Structure

Achieving High Tensile Strength and Ductility in Refractory Alloys by Tuning Electronic Structure | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Physical Sciences - Article Achieving High Tensile Strength and Ductility in Refractory Alloys by Tuning Electronic Structure Nicolas Argibay, Hailong Huang, Prashant Singh, Duane Johnson, and 19 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6422281/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 26 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Materials → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Energy efficiency of heat engines (gas and steam turbines) for electricity production and propulsion scale with operating temperature following the Carnot cycle. Commercial Ni- and Co-based superalloys melt near 1500°C and rapidly lose mechanical strength beyond 1000°C. Refractory metals melt well above 2000°C but have inherent manufacturability challenges, like high ductile-to-brittle transition temperatures, that are significant barriers to adoption. Using density-functional theory guided design, we demonstrate tailored local lattice distortions that promote phase-stable, non-equiatomic refractory concentrated solid-solutions with both high ductility and strength. We exemplify this for single-phase, body-centered cubic Nb4Ta4V3Ti that exhibits castability, excellent room-temperature tensile yield strength (>1 GPa) and ductility (>20% uniform elongation), and exceptional high-temperature tensile strength (500 MPa at 1000°C). These findings illustrate a path for designing materials that hold great potential for advancing next-generation technologies like Gen-IV fission reactors, first-generation fusion-plasma reactors, and more efficient gas turbines for electricity generation and propulsion. Physical sciences/Materials science/Structural materials/Metals and alloys Physical sciences/Materials science/Theory and computation/Electronic structure DFT refractory MPEA tensile strength tensile ductility SRO Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files supplemental.pdf supplemental information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 26 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Materials → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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