While examining a slice of a new aluminum alloy under an electron microscope, Andrew Iams noticed something striking. At the atomic level, the structure looked unfamiliar—unlike the orderly, repeating patterns of conventional crystals. That’s when he realized he might be looking at something extraordinary.
“I started to get excited because I thought I might be seeing a quasicrystal,” said Iams, a materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Not only did Iams and his colleagues confirm the presence of quasicrystals, but they also discovered that these rare structures contributed to the alloy’s remarkable strength. Their findings were published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds.
This unique alloy was formed using 3D metal printing—specifically, a method known as powder bed fusion. It’s a cutting-edge manufacturing technique that builds metal parts layer by layer using lasers to fuse powdered metal. This process creates complex shapes that would be nearly impossible to achieve with traditional methods, opening new possibilities for aerospace components, automotive frames, and heat exchangers.
Quasicrystals, unlike traditional crystals, do not follow any of the 230 known repeating atomic patterns. Instead, they form ordered yet non-repeating structures, which allow them to fill space in ways conventional crystals cannot. This rare atomic arrangement was first discovered in the 1980s by Dan Shechtman, who was working at NIST at the time. His groundbreaking work reshaped the understanding of crystallography and earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2011.
Now, decades later and in the same research facility, Iams has found a new kind of quasicrystal—this time formed not by accident but through the intense heat and rapid cooling involved in 3D printing aluminum.
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The printing method itself plays a major role. In powder bed fusion, a fine layer of metal powder is spread out, then selectively melted by a high-powered laser. Once a layer solidifies, the process is repeated to build up the object layer by layer. This technique was famously used by GE in 2015 to produce next-generation fuel nozzles for jet engines—parts that previously required complex assembly from dozens of pieces.
Despite these advances, high-strength aluminum alloys have remained a challenge for 3D printing. Aluminum's low melting point (around 700°C) and extremely high boiling point (2,470°C) make it difficult to control in the printing process, often resulting in cracks that compromise strength.
In 2017, researchers at HRL Laboratories and UC Santa Barbara developed a breakthrough aluminum alloy that could be 3D-printed successfully. The key was adding zirconium to the mix, which helped prevent cracking and made the alloy viable for commercial use.
The NIST team set out to explore this alloy’s atomic structure to understand exactly why it worked so well. “If we’re going to use this alloy in high-stakes applications like military aircraft, we need to know exactly how the atoms are arranged,” said Fan Zhang, a physicist at NIST and co-author of the study.
Their investigation revealed that part of the alloy’s strength comes from the unexpected formation of quasicrystals. These structures, created under the extreme conditions of 3D printing, offer a new pathway to developing stronger, more reliable materials for advanced engineering applications.
The discovery not only deepens the understanding of 3D-printed aluminum but also opens the door to designing entirely new alloys that harness the unique properties of quasicrystals for enhanced performance.
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