据国外媒体报道，目前，美国加州大学洛杉矶分校研究小组最新研制出一种超高强度，非常轻的金属材料，他们使用一种新方法分散和稳定纳米微粒进入熔化状态的镁金属。
长期以来，科研人员认为陶瓷颗粒能够潜在地使金属硬度更高，然而微观等级陶瓷颗粒在灌输过程中会损失可塑性。相比之下，纳米等级微粒能够显著提高强度或者提高金属可塑性，但是纳米陶瓷颗粒倾向于凝聚在一起，而不是均匀分散，这是由于小型微粒倾向于彼此吸引。为了消除这一问题，研究人员将纳米微粒分散在熔化的镁锌合金中，它们依赖粒子运动的动能彼此分散开来，这将稳定纳米微粒的均匀分散，避免凝聚在一起，从而显著提高了金属的强度、刚度、可塑性和高温下的持久度。
结构金属是一种承载金属，它用于建筑业和汽车制造。镁仅是铝密度的三分之二，是最轻的结构金属。碳化硅是一种超硬陶瓷材料，通常用于制造工业刀片。该研究项目负责人李晓春(音译)和美国加州大学洛杉矶分校制造工程系雷声·查尔(Raytheon Chair)指出，纳米微粒能够在不损坏其可塑性的前提下，真实提高金属强度，尤其是像镁这样的轻重量金属，但是迄今为止没有研究小组能够将陶瓷纳米微粒分散在熔化金属中。基于灌输物理属性和材料加工过程，最终我们通过灌输密集纳米微粒提高金属属性，证实了一种新的方法增强金属性能。同时，他们还研制了一种可扩展性制造方法，用于制造更高效性能的轻重量金属。为了更进一步增强这种新金属材料强度，研究人员使用一种叫做高压扭转技术进行压缩。目前，这种新型金属材料14%是碳化硅纳米微粒，86%是镁锌合金。目前，这项最新研究报告发表在近期出版的《自然》杂志上。
这种新型金属材料是加入密集分散型纳米碳化硅微粒的镁金属，它可用于制造轻型飞机、太空飞船和汽车，有助于提高燃料效率，同时还可用于手机电子和生物医学设备制造领域。（悠悠/编译）以上内容转载来源环球网科技频道。仅供参考学习。
小编补充参考文献：Processing and properties of magnesium containing a dense uniform dispersion of nanoparticles，Lian-Yi Chen, Jia-Quan Xu, Hongseok Choi, Marta Pozuelo, Xiaolong Ma, Sanjit Bhowmick, Jenn-Ming Yang, Suveen Mathaudhu & Xiao-Chun Li，Nature 528, 539–543 (24 December 2015) doi:10.1038/nature16445
摘要：Magnesium is a light metal, with a density two-thirds that of aluminium, is abundant on Earth and is biocompatible; it thus has the potential to improve energy efficiency and system performance in aerospace, automobile, defence, mobile electronics and biomedical applications1, 2, 3, 4, 5. However, conventional synthesis and processing methods (alloying and thermomechanical processing) have reached certain limits in further improving the properties of magnesium and other metals6. Ceramic particles have been introduced into metal matrices to improve the strength of the metals7, but unfortunately, ceramic microparticles severely degrade the plasticity and machinability of metals7, and nanoparticles, although they have the potential to improve strength while maintaining or even improving the plasticity of metals8, 9, are difficult to disperse uniformly in metal matrices10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Here we show that a dense uniform dispersion of silicon carbide nanoparticles (14 per cent by volume) in magnesium can be achieved through a nanoparticle self-stabilization mechanism in molten metal. An enhancement of strength, stiffness, plasticity and high-temperature stability is simultaneously achieved, delivering a higher specific yield strength and higher specific modulus than almost all structural metals.