Ceramics made plastically deformable at room temperature

Plasticity or plastic deformability is a material’s ability to be deformed by compression, tension or shear into a specific shape or geometry without breaking. Typically, ceramic materials exhibit very limited plastic deformability under room temperature.

Now, Haiyan Wang and Xinghang Zhang from Purdue University’s College of Engineering have lead a team whose method is said to improve ceramic room-temperature plastic deformability by first introducing high-density defects in brittle ceramics under high temperatures. The research has been published in Science Advances.

“Such a strategy can prominently improve the room-temperature plastic deformability of ceramics, and holds the promise to inject ductility, or the ability to be drawn into near net shape, of ceramics in the near future,” Zhang said in a statement. 

Ceramic materials are used as structural materials in aerospace, transportation, power plants and manufacturing; and in applications such as bearings in engines and machines, capacitors, electrical insulating materials, electrodes in batteries and fuel cells, and thermal barrier coatings in high-temperature machines.