Ultrafine Grained Materials and Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is about “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Accordingly, the crystallized blueprint for action is known as creating a better balance between the economy, society, and the environment. Numerous studies have highlighted that the potential problems for the future are built in the way we live at present. In one hand, materials are part of these problems. They are drawn from finite deposits and ore bodies. Refining the latter consumes energy, releases greenhouse gases and creates toxic wastes on a huge scale. Mining has been described as a massive exercise in waste management. On the other hand, however, materials are also part of the solution. Renewable energy, carbon-free transport, resource-efficient cities, and environmentally benign agriculture are impossible without the functionality that advanced materials provide. Ultrafine-grained materials are a class of advanced materials that have grain sizes below 1 μm. These materials exhibit extraordinary properties that make them very interesting for prospective structural or functional engineering applications. The concept of this material has been discussed with respect to the grain size and grain boundary behavior toward the low and high-temperature processing. The utilization of ultrafine-grained materials in the scheme of sustainable development is a critical issue which requires the use of materials that are both strong and lightweight. Ultrafine-grained materials can be used to achieve this goal. They can be used in a variety of industries, including aerospace, automotive, and construction. Prioritizing the production, processing, characterization and application of these advanced materials to achieve the purposes of sustainable development along with putting them in the cycles of circular economy are the subjects of the present article.