A specific iron alloy can turn into a flowing liquid while its temperature remains far below its melting point.
April 26, 2026
Original Paper
Explosive Crystallisation and Viscoplastic Flow in Amorphous Fe83B17
SSRN · 6643697
The Takeaway
Amorphous metals are usually hard and glass-like, but rapid heating can trigger a self-propagating wave of crystallization. This wave causes the metal to drop its viscosity so much that it begins to flow like a supercooled liquid. This explosive transition allows the material to be molded or shaped plastically even though the bulk of the metal is still technically solid. It creates a paradoxical state where the material is solidifying and flowing at the exact same time. This discovery could allow for the precision manufacturing of metal parts at much lower temperatures than currently possible. It fundamentally changes how we think about the transition between liquid and solid states.
From the abstract
Explosive crystallisation (EC) was investigated in the eutectic amorphous alloy Fe83B17 under rapid Joule heating. Plastic deformation was measured during EC. Above a threshold heating rate of α ≈ 10 °C/s, the crystallisation front self-propagates along the ribbon and is accompanied by large strains (1.3–20%) under applied stresses up to 24 MPa. Plastic deformation occurs immediately after the onset of crystallization at the amorphous-crystalline interface. This suggests that the plastic strain