Ferroelastic oligocrystalline microwire with unprecedented high-temperature superelastic and shape memory effects

A compelling demand exists for high-performance high-temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs) that can be applied as intelligent components in the rapidly developing aerospace, robotics, manufacturing, and energy exploration industries. However, existing HTSMAs are handicapped by their high cost and unsatisfactory functional properties, which impede their practical application. Here, by using the strategy of creating an oligocrystalline structure, we have developed a high-performance, cost-effective high-temperature shape memory microwire exhibiting an exceptional combination of superb superelasticity with a large recoverable strain of up to 15%, an outstanding one-way shape memory effect with a maximum recoverable strain as high as 13% and a remarkable two-way shape memory effect with a large recoverable strain of 6.3%. These unparalleled comprehensive properties provide this microwire with a high potential for use in high-temperature actuation, sensing, and energy conversion applications, especially in miniature intelligent devices, such as high-temperature microelectromechanical systems. The present strategy may be universally applicable to other brittle phase-transforming alloys for achieving outstanding functional properties at high temperatures.