Alloys involved in
these themes have undergone relatively small volume changes
during cycling, which is helpful to achieve good cycling performance
and fully utilize the great advantage of high capacity
of alloy materials. Nano-scale alloys and active/inactive composite
alloys are especially highlighted for two reasons [6].
Firstly, their crack and pulverization can be alleviated in the
case of nano-scale alloy particles thanks to their small absolute
volume variation and superplasticity. Secondly, the volume variation
of active elements could be buffered by inactive elements
when active elements are dispersed uniformly in situ into the
matrix of inactive components at nano-scale, as in the cases of
active/inactive composite alloys.