Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials (MPI-SusMat) researchers have transformed dealloying—traditionally seen as a corrosive, destructive process—into a groundbreaking method for creating lightweight, high-strength alloys. By combining dealloying with alloying in a single step, the team developed nano-porous martensitic alloys using reactive gases like ammonia, which simultaneously remove oxygen and introduce nitrogen into the material’s structure.