Unbreakable Steel:
How “Super Steel” Invention is Changing the Game
This feature story is part of the ongoing series that highlights the outstanding achievements of the winners of the HKU Excellence Awards 2022.
Professor Huang Mingxin is the recipient of the Outstanding Researcher Award and HKU Innovator Award.
In the world of science and technology, breakthroughs are often elusive. However, every now and then, a new discovery emerges that has the potential to revolutionize entire industries. Such is the case with Professor Huang Mingxin and his “Super Steel” invention.
Professor Huang Mingxin joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong in 2010 as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016 and Full Professor in 2019. He has been awarded the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship (2022) and Xplorer Prize (2021).
For years, Professor Huang has been working on developing a new type of steel that is stronger, more durable, and more resistant to wear and tear than any other type of steel on the market. After 13 years of painstaking research, he and his research team finally succeeded.
“My passion for high-performance steels first started with a desire to make passenger cars lighter but stronger and more crash-resistant. I joined the University of Hong Kong in 2010 and was determined to build one of the top research teams in the field,” said Professor Huang. “Where there is a will, there is a way. Our 2017 super steel invention was the strongest in the world in terms of yield strength and uniform elongation. Today, we are still the record holder.
Super steel has created two world records in terms of strength, ductility and toughness and has been published twice in the world’s leading journal, Science. The material is aimed to go beyond the lab as it has a low material cost and can be produced in existing industrial facilities, which allows for large-scale applications, including in automobiles, bulletproof vests, or even aerospace.
The secret to super steel is its unique fracture feature. The material has a fracture feature in which multiple micro-cracks are formed below the main fracture surface through a novel “high-strength induced multi-delamination” toughening mechanism. These micro-cracks can effectively absorb energy from externally applied forces, resulting in the steel’s much higher toughness resistance compared to existing steel materials. This makes super steel an ideal material for use in construction, manufacturing, and other applications where strength and durability are essential.
Already, numerous businesses and organisations from around the world are showing significant interest in Professor Huang’s concept. Many are eager to incorporate this new material into their products and projects, in the hopes of improving their strength, durability, and longevity.
In an effort to realise the groundbreaking invention to its full potential, Professor Huang co-founded a start-up company that raised more than 150 million RMB in investment from venture capitals to invent and commercialise a group of ultra-high strength automotive steels. These new materials, put into use in cars since 2022 by major car makers such as Great Wall Motor, have provided the automotive industry in Mainland China with very promising lightweighting and safety improvement solutions without cost penalty. Foreseeing a global market of about 9 million tons per year, Professor Huang looks forward to the huge impact it will bring to the industry and eventually to the economy.
Developing high-performance alloys is Professor Huang’s main research area. He and his research team did not stop at super steel. In 2020, Professor Huang and his team developed the world’s first anti-COVID-19 stainless steel. This innovation can inactivate SARS-Cov-2 on stainless steel surfaces and could be used to replace some frequently touched stainless steel products, such as lift buttons and doorknobs, to fight the transmission of COVID-19 via surface touching. The patent has been licensed to industry.
As a scientist and engineer, Professor Huang believes that curiosity-driven research is just as important as industry-driven research.
I am excited to see where this invention will take us, and I am committed to continuing to explore its many possibilities. I believe that engineering research should be both fundamental and translational and will continue to work closely with my group members and students, learning from each other and growing together to create high-performance alloys that contribute to human society.Professor Huang Mingxin
