Stainless steels, invented more than 100 years ago, enable many sustainable applications:
1) they are among the most corrosion-resistant commodity alloys (corrosion being one of the biggest sustainability problems, destroying annually about 3.4% of the GDP (2.5 trillion Euros )).
2) they have with about 75% one of the highest end-of-life recycling rates of all mass-produced materials is use, averaged over all stainless steel grades.
However, there are 2 drawbacks: (a) high and expensive alloying content. (b) high weight.
We tackled both challenges: In a team effort we developed a new family of low-density stainless steels with ultra-high strength (> 1 GPa) and high ductility (> 35%).
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