The ARL and Lehigh researchers collaborated with scientists from Arizona State University and Louisiana State University to develop the alloy, which can withstand extreme heat without significant degradation.
This and other innovative alloys will continue to be studied in Lehigh’s newly outfitted high-tech research labs, the Nanoalloy Lab and Nanoceramics Lab, which include high-pressure torsion systems, nanoindentation equipment and specialized high-temperature furnaces.
Combining Copper with a Complexion-Stabilized Nanostructure
The breakthrough comes from the formation of Cu₃Li precipitates, stabilized by a Ta-rich atomic bilayer complexion, a concept pioneered by the Lehigh researchers. Unlike typical grain boundaries that migrate over time at high temperatures, this complexion acts as a structural stabilizer, maintaining the nanocrystalline structure, preventing grain growth and dramatically improving high-temperature performance.
The alloy holds its shape under extreme, long-term thermal exposure and mechanical stress, resisting deformation even near its melting point, noted Patrick Cantwell, a research scientist at Lehigh University and co-author of the study.
By merging the high-temperature resilience of nickel-based superalloys with copper — which is known for exceptional conductivity — the material paves the way for next-generation applications, including heat exchangers, advanced propulsion systems and thermal management solutions for cutting-edge missile and hypersonic technologies.
A New Class of High-Performance Materials
This new Cu-Ta-Li alloy offers a balance of properties not found in existing materials:
- Nickel-based superalloys (used in j
11 Comments
dcl
Rearden metal…?
mjevans
Backup link https://web.archive.org/web/20250415035227/https://news.lehi…
"""
Unlike typical grain boundaries that migrate over time at high temperatures, this complexion acts as a structural stabilizer, maintaining the nanocrystalline structure, preventing grain growth and dramatically improving high-temperature performance.
The alloy holds its shape under extreme, long-term thermal exposure and mechanical stress, resisting deformation even near its melting point, noted Patrick Cantwell, a research scientist at Lehigh University and co-author of the study.
"""
This sounds exotic, but possibly better performing in some use cases?
WrongOnInternet
I'm tired of articles with titles like "X makes Y bigger/faster/stronger," then never giving an answer to the obvious question: "How much?"
This article is happy to tell you it costs $25M to develop , how many hours the annealed the metal, the patent numbers, the years the researchers got their degrees, but never once gives a single number related to the materials performance. Maybe its 0.1% better, maybe its 1000% better. I guess its not important.
A_D_E_P_T
Okay, this is cool.
It's a copper-tantalum-lithium alloy: 96.5% Cu, 3% Ta, 0.5% Li.
Tantalum isn't soluble in copper and doesn't form any intermetallic compounds, so under normal circumstances you'd get something like a metal matrix composite — pure tantalum particles dispersed in a copper matrix. Add lithium, though, and the intermetallic Cu3Li forms, and tantalum is apparently very attracted to this stuff, so you end up with Cu3Li particles with Ta shells in that copper matrix.
Yield Strength = ~1000MPa, so it's genuinely on par with high-temp nickel superalloys, though somewhat weaker than the cobalt-base ones, and far weaker than the best steels.
Interestingly, it's actually a little bit weaker than the copper-beryllium alloy C17200. (YS: ~1200-1300 MPa.) But CuBe is very expensive, not very ductile, and potentially hazardous. Tantalum, though expensive, is still 10x cheaper than beryllium.
Depending on its thermal and electrical properties, and on its ease of manufacture, this could be a very versatile material, and may replace nickel/cobalt alloys in certain applications.
wpollock
Could this material be a cost-effective replacement for stainless steel? I'm thinking of applications where the antimicrobial properties of copper would be beneficial.
lutusp
Legitimate content aside, this article is a perfect example of modern public relations writing, of flash over substance. Each paragraph is larded with PR buzzwords like "breakthrough," "cutting-edge," "groundbreaking," etc. to the degree that the topic is nearly lost in the lexical shrubbery.
And it's clear the article's author doesn't understand scientific writing. Each participant is identified as having a PhD (when true), contrary to accepted academic practice. Imagine a scientific article by Albert Einstein, tagged with "PhD" — except that in 1905, any relevance aside, Einstein didn't have one. My point is that the participants' academic degrees are irrelevant to the science. As Richard Feynman said, "Science is the organized skepticism in the reliability of expert opinion". Oh — wait — did I mention that Feynman had a PhD?
My favorite phrase from an article that tries to raise empty PR prose to an art form: "… Lehigh is the only university in the Lehigh Valley to have this designation …" Noted. But this is like saying, "We're tops in our ZIP code!"
kragen
Rearden metal heat exchangers, eh?
fnord77
will it make a good bicycle frame?
pfdietz
This could be useful in heat exchangers and rocket engine thrust chambers. I imagine this has very high thermal conductivity compared to steels. The thermal conductivity of copper is about 20x that of stainless steel. So, you can make the walls of the passages an order of magnitude thicker, increasing their strength proportionally.
jbay808
This might be a great alternative to beryllium copper for the spring contact element in high-current electrical connectors.
xyst
Besides space and ~~efficient killing/murdering~~ military industries, where would this “superalloy-like” strength be useful in?
Nuclear plants?
Maybe useful in supercomputing/quantum computing?