Strong, tough and stiff bioinspired ceramics from brittle constituents

High strength and high toughness are usually mutually exclusive in engineering materials. In ceramics, improving toughness usually relies on the introduction of a metallic or polymeric ductile phase, but this decreases the material's strength and stiffness as well as its high-temperature stabil...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials 2014-05, Vol.13 (5), p.508-514
Main Authors: Bouville, Florian, Maire, Eric, Meille, Sylvain, Van de Moortèle, Bertrand, Stevenson, Adam J, Deville, Sylvain
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biocompatible Materials - chemistry
Biomechanical Phenomena
Ceramics
Ceramics - chemistry
Chemical Sciences
Constituents
High strength
Hot Temperature
Material chemistry
Materials science
Materials Testing
Mechanical properties
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Stability
Stiffness
Toughness
Transportation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:High strength and high toughness are usually mutually exclusive in engineering materials. In ceramics, improving toughness usually relies on the introduction of a metallic or polymeric ductile phase, but this decreases the material's strength and stiffness as well as its high-temperature stability. Although natural materials that are both strong and tough rely on a combination of mechanisms operating at different length scales, the relevant structures have been extremely difficult to replicate. Here, we report a bioinspired approach based on widespread ceramic processing techniques for the fabrication of bulk ceramics without a ductile phase and with a unique combination of high strength (470 MPa), high toughness (22 MPa m(1/2)), and high stiffness (290 GPa). Because only mineral constituents are needed, these ceramics retain their mechanical properties at high temperatures (600 °C). Our bioinspired, material-independent approach should find uses in the design and processing of materials for structural, transportation and energy-related applications.
ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/nmat3915