Publishing their work in the peer-reviewed journal Science, the team said they successfully converted the medium-manganese steel into a 2-gigapascal steel with 20% elongation using their new method. 

“High-strength steels with good ductility are attractive for a number of applications, but these alloys often require the use of expensive elements or complex processing methods. (The team) found that a high-strength steel composed of iron, manganese, silicon, carbon and vanadium can be made with a different processing strategy,” the journal noted. 

The South China Morning Post reported that the process involves melting raw alloyed material at 1,200° to 1,470°F and then letting it air cool, before cooling further with liquid nitrogen. The steel is then heat treated at 572°F.