Four approaches to improve the tensile ductility of high-strength nanocrystalline metals

Until recently, the reported tensile ductility of high-strength nanocrystalline metals was disappointingly low. This article presents a brief overview of the latest encouraging progress in developing nanocrystalline metals that offer not only gigapascal strength but also decent ductility. Four different approaches have been identified in recent studies, including some of the author's experiments. These efforts are interesting extensions of previous/parallel success in optimizing the tensile properties of bulk nanostructured/ultrafine-grained metals.