Nanotech metallurgy
Nanotech metallurgy (also called nanotechnology enabled metallurgy, or nanometallurgy) is an emerging interdisciplinary domain of materials science and engineering (especially metallurgy), manufacturing, and nanoscience and engineering to study how nanophases (both ex situ and in situ) can be applied to significantly improve the processing/manufacturing, micro/nano-structures, and physical/chemical/mechanical behaviors of metals and alloys. This definition was first proposed by Xiaochun Li at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2018. High performance metals and alloys offer potential to improve energy efficiency and system performance. While conventional metallurgical methods have reached certain limits, nanotech metallurgy has the potential to break the traditional barriers in the metals processing and manufacturing technologies. It has a wider scientific and technological reach beyond the concept of metal matrix nanocomposites (MMNCs), as the study of MMNCs normally focuses on how nanoparticles (generally of high volume fractions) are used to tune material properties only. With the development of more scalable methods of nanophase synthesis, incorporation, and dispersion for mass manufacturing, the metals and alloys produced by nanotech metallurgy are becoming more and more economical. Recently the discovery of a nanoparticle self-dispersion and stabilization mechanism in molten metals gives a scientific and technical foundation for scalable manufacturing in nanotech