Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52127808, 52471185, 52271155, etc.), the research team led by Professor Limin Wang and Professor Riping Liu from Yanshan University has achieved a major breakthrough in the field of metallic glasses. Their findings were published in Nature on April 22, 2026, under the title “Ceramic-like strength and metallic toughness in a bulk metallic glass”. Article link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10430-w.

Amorphous materials exhibit unique physical and chemical properties often unattainable by crystalline materials, owing to their unique long-range disordered atomic structures. However, traditional compositional design of amorphous materials relies heavily on multi-component confusion principle and empirical deep-eutectic rules. This lack of theoretical guidance makes it difficult to overcome the current trial-and-error design paradigm. Breaking these traditional empirical boundaries to achieve the targeted design of metallic glass compositions remains a central scientific challenge.

This study proposes a thermodynamics-driven design model guided by melting entropy. Leveraging the principle of structural heredity from low-melting-entropy phases, this model integrates mixing thermodynamics with the intrinsic electronic properties of the constituent elements to selectively stabilize rigid short-range order (SRO) motifs. Guided by this theoretical framework, a novel class of Re-Co-Ta-B bulk metallic glass was successfully designed and fabricated. The material achieves a ceramic-level fracture strength of approximately 6.43 GPa while retaining a metallic-level fracture toughness of around 30 MPa·m^1/2. Furthermore, the metallic glass demonstrates exceptional high-temperature stability and environmental adaptability: it maintains a high strength of about 4.4 GPa at 900 K and exhibits robust performance stability in both oxidative and corrosive environments, highlighting its outstanding potential for extreme-environment applications.

This work successfully realizes the design and preparation of a rhenium-based bulk metallic glass that simultaneously possesses ultra-high strength, remarkable toughness, and exceptional thermal stability, effectively breaking the traditional strength-toughness boundary separating metallic materials and structural ceramics. This research provides new perspectives and a novel material system for developing structural materials for extreme environments, offering significant application potential in strategic engineering sectors such as aerospace and high-end equipment manufacturing.

Fig. Ashby plot of material strength versus fracture toughness.

Fig. Development of high-temperature-resistant Re-based bulk metallic glasses combining ceramic-like strength and metallic toughness driven by melting entropy.