Abstract
Metallic materials typically experience significant strength degradation at elevated temperatures. Traditional strengthening methods, which rely on thermally stable particle dispersion, exhibit limited effectiveness owing to the challenges in suppressing thermally activated dislocation motion. This work introduces a strategy for achieving exceptional high-temperature strength through a thermally stable nanoscale eutectic cellular network (ECN) enabled by additive manufacturing. A near-eutectic AlLaScZr alloy is developed for laser powder bed fusion, incorporating an Al-La nanoscale ECN and dense intracellular nanoprecipitates. This alloy demonstrates excellent printability and remarkable high-temperature yield strength above 0.6Tm (~250 MPa at 300 °C), outperforming…
Abstract
Metallic materials typically experience significant strength degradation at elevated temperatures. Traditional strengthening methods, which rely on thermally stable particle dispersion, exhibit limited effectiveness owing to the challenges in suppressing thermally activated dislocation motion. This work introduces a strategy for achieving exceptional high-temperature strength through a thermally stable nanoscale eutectic cellular network (ECN) enabled by additive manufacturing. A near-eutectic AlLaScZr alloy is developed for laser powder bed fusion, incorporating an Al-La nanoscale ECN and dense intracellular nanoprecipitates. This alloy demonstrates excellent printability and remarkable high-temperature yield strength above 0.6Tm (~250 MPa at 300 °C), outperforming conventional aluminium alloys by 2–5 times with minimal degradation after prolonged annealing. Compared with the conventional configuration of particle dispersion, the nanoscale ECN architecture enhances load-bearing capacity and strengthens aluminium by caging dislocation motion within ultrafine cells (~200 nm), effectively mitigating intrinsic high-temperature softening.
Data availability
All data supporting the results and findings of this study are available in the Supplementary Information, Supplementary Data files, and the Source Data file provided with this paper. The dataset on synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD) tensile tests are available at https://doi.org/10.15151/ESRF-ES-1830139531. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China 52304405 (S.M.), 52371034 (Z.C.), and 52204393 (Y.L.). The authors also thank the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) for providing synchrotron radiation facilities under proposal number ma6301 (doi.org/10.15151/ESRF-ES-1830139531). Professional English language editing support provided by AsiaEdit (asiaedit.com).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, PR China
Siming Ma, Zhe Chen, Mingliang Wang, Yuchi Cui, Yang Li, Han Chen & Yi Wu 1.
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, PR China
Siming Ma 1.
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France
Haixing Fang 1.
University of Lille, CNRS, INRA, ENSCL, UMR 8207–UMET–Unité Matériaux et Transformations, Lille, France
Gang Ji 1.
SJTU Paris Elite Institute of Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, PR China
Yang Li & Shengyi Zhong 1.
National Key Laboratory of Neutron Science and Technology, Shanghai, PR China
Yang Li & Shengyi Zhong 1.
Acc Material Technology (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd, Jiangsu, PR China
Ying Zhou & Shixin Nie 1.
Center for Advanced Structural Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, PR China
Jian Lu
Authors
- Siming Ma
- Zhe Chen
- Haixing Fang
- Gang Ji
- Mingliang Wang
- Yuchi Cui
- Yang Li
- Shengyi Zhong
- Han Chen
- Yi Wu
- Ying Zhou
- Shixin Nie
- Jian Lu
Contributions
S.M., Z.C., M.W., and J.L. conceived the idea. S.M., H.F., G.J., Y.C., Y.L., Y.W., and Y.Z. developed the methodologies. S.M., Z.C., Y.C., and H.C. performed the investigations. S.M., H.F., G.J., Y.L., and S.Z. conducted the data visualisation. Z.C., M.W., and S.N. supervised the research. S.M. wrote the original draft of the manuscript. Z.C., G.J., M.W. and J.L. reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors helped critically revise the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Correspondence to Zhe Chen, Mingliang Wang or Yang Li.
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Nature Communications thanks Che Nan Kuo and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
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Ma, S., Chen, Z., Fang, H. et al. High-temperature strength in an additively manufactured Al-based superalloy with stable nanoscale eutectic cellular networks. Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66441-0
Received: 16 January 2025
Accepted: 07 November 2025
Published: 22 November 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66441-0