Rapid sintering of ultrafine-grained refractory metals under mild conditions

Nature Materials (2026)Cite this article Refractory metals are promising for aerospace and nuclear applications because of their high melting points and stability. However, the processing procedure still encounters challenges due to the high melting point and strong bond strength resulting from the high delocalized electron density of refractory metals. Here we show that liquid metals can dilute this electron density and weaken bond strength, enabling the efficient extraction, dissolution and recombination of refractory metal atoms. This strategy allows the fabrication of bulk refractory materials at notably lower temperatures (<1,000 °C) in a very short time (~2 min). Using this liquid metal-assisted sintering mechanism, we successfully sintered various refractory metal bulks (including W, Re, Ta, Nb, Mo, V, Cr and Ti), achieving equiaxed ultrafine-grained microstructures with excellent yield strength. This mild preparation condition also offers high flexibility for producing alloys, gradient structures and dispersion-strengthened materials, representing an important milestone in developing high-performance refractory structural materials.This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any timeSubscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access $259.00 per yearonly $21.58 per issueBuy this articleUSD 39.95Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkoutSource data are provided with this paper.Custom codes that were used for DFT simulation, GPUMD simulation and machine learning within this article are available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911937 (ref. 43).Lu, Y. et al. Nanoscale ductile fracture and associated atomistic mechanisms in a body-centered cubic refractory metal. 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The numerical calculations in this Article were performed on the supercomputing system in the Supercomputing Center of Wuhan University. The research was supported by the Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China (grant number JYB2025XDXM409, L.F.) and the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 22025303, L.F.).These authors contributed equally: Erli Ni, Junlin Liu, Mingjun Sun, Jingrui Luo.College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, ChinaErli Ni, Junlin Liu, Jingrui Luo, Like Yao, Limeng Zi, Zhujun Kuang, Yu Ding, Mengqi Zeng & Lei FuSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, ChinaJunlin Liu & Lei FuInstitute of Technology for Carbon Neutrality, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, ChinaMingjun SunSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, ChinaXiaopeng LiangState Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, ChinaBin Liu & Yong LiuResearch Division of Advanced Materials, Suzhou Laboratory, Suzhou, ChinaFeng DingSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarL.F. conceived the research concept. L.F. and M.Q.Z. supervised the research. E.L.N., J.L.L. and J.R.L. carried out the main experiments. M.J.S. and F.D. constructed the machine learning force field and performed the DFT calculations and MD simulations. L.F., M.Q.Z. and E.L.N. wrote and edited the paper. All the authors contributed to data analysis and scientific discussion.Correspondence to Lei Fu.Anhui University has filed a Chinese patent application (number 202610214203.3), listing L.F. as the inventor. The other authors declare no competing interests.Nature Materials thanks Daniel Scheiber and Yuanbo Tang for their contribution to the peer review of this work.Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Supplementary Figs. 1–34 and Tables 1 and 2.Statistical source data for Fig. 1e,g,i,k,m,o.Statistical source data for Fig. 2a,d,e,g,h.Statistical source data for Fig. 3b,d,e.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Reprints and permissionsNi, E., Liu, J., Sun, M. et al. Rapid sintering of ultrafine-grained refractory metals under mild conditions. Nat. Mater. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02587-6Download citationReceived: 08 April 2025Accepted: 16 March 2026Published: 15 April 2026Version of record: 15 April 2026DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02587-6Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative