A cobalt aluminum nanolaminate has shattered the usual tradeoff between strength and flexibility, emerging up to 10 times stronger than structural steel without becoming dangerously brittle. “Bulk CoAl intermetallics are a high-strength compound,” said corresponding author Xinghang Zhang, a professor in Purdue’s School of Materials Engineering. Stronger Than Structural SteelThe resulting nanolaminate reached a yield strength of 6 GPa (gigapascal, a stress measurement), roughly six to 10 times that of high-strength structural steel. Unlike conventional casting, which solidifies molten metal, sputtering allows a material to form directly from alloy vapor. “This nonequilibrium fabrication approach enables us to fabricate materials from alloy vapor to a solid, introducing a significant number of dislocations in CoAl,” Zhang said.