Achieving antimicrobial and superior mechanical properties in a scalable and cost-effective heterostructured stainless steel

摘要

Heterostructured materials (HSMs) can alleviate the strength-ductility trade-off of conventional materials. Microstructure modulation by low-cost and large-scalable thermo-mechanical treatments is a feasible route to produce HSMs. Using these thermo-mechanical treatments, we have developed new heterostructured and anti-microbial stainless steels (HS&ASSs) to reduce the infection rate of multiple diseases while increasing their service life. The HS&ASSs were designed to combine several known strengthening mechanisms, which signifi-cantly improved the yield strength compared to their homogeneous counterparts while retaining good ductility. Effective antibacterial property is also observed in the HS&ASSs. The microstructural evolution and processing-microstructure-properties relationship are thoroughly explained. This work demonstrates that the improved mechanical properties of HSMs can be successfully combined with multifunctional properties, thus opening a new window for this fast-emerging field.

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