Extraordinary Radiation Resistance in Metals via Adaptive Martensitic Transformation

A strategy to develop radiation resistant steels with high design flexibility could greatly promote the safe application of nuclear energy. In this work, we discovered a novel radiation induced large-scale AMT mechanism in GNS 304NG with a high density of SFs, Σ3 GBs and LAGBs (prepared by surface nano-crystallization technologies ⁷ which are low cost and possess high design flexibility, see Extended Data Fig. 10). The AMT mechanism keeps effective under irradiation from low doses to extremely high doses, from low temperatures to high temperatures. The introduction of large-scale AMT changes the detrimental martensitic transformation into a beneficial process under irradiation for the first time, which develops a steel with strong radiation resistance. Since radiation induced martensitic transformation might occur in different metals such as austenitic stainless steels and titanium alloys, this work provides a novel way to develop super-metals with high radiation resistance to be used in current and future nuclear facilities.