Bulk spinodal-architected compositionally complex alloy with enhanced energy absorption across a wide temperature range.

Abstract

Bulk mechanical energy-absorbing materials are critically needed for various engineering applications. However, existing state-of-the-art materials face significant limitations: architected systems such as 3D-printed nano- and micro-lattices suffer from scalability constraints, while conventional foams often exhibit a strength-ductility trade-off that limits energy absorption. Here, we overcome these challenges by fabricating bulk architected alloys via electrochemical dealloying of a machine learning-identified compositionally complex spinodal alloy. These materials display a hierarchical structural architecture spanning seven orders of magnitude - from atomic-scale lattice distortion, nanoscale precipitates and amorphous oxide layers, microscale ligaments, to macroscale network dimensions. This multi-scale integration enables synergistic deformation mechanisms, yielding energy absorption capacities of ~106 MJ/m³ in bulk and ~ 305 MJ/m³ in micro-samples. Crucially, this enhanced performance is retained from room temperature to 873 K. Our approach provides an effective strategy for designing scalable, high-performance architected materials for demanding condition energy absorption.