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Chinese team develops world’s first ceramic material that can bend like metal

  • Flexible silicon nitride ceramics could boost performance of aerospace and automobile engines, according to paper
  • The technology could also be used to make better artificial joints and wind turbine components, scientist says

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Flexible ceramic materials could be used to make light, fuel-efficient aerospace engines. Photo: Xinhua
Zhang Tongin Beijing
Chinese scientists have developed the world’s first ceramic material that can bend like metal, a technology that could boost the performance of engines and lead to better artificial joints.

Plasticity and strength were previously considered opposing qualities of ceramics – improvement in one typically meant a decline in the other. But the new material, which has the hardness of ceramic and the flexibility of metal, is the first example of scientists improving both at the same time, according to materials scientist Chen Kexin, who led the research.

“This ceramic can bring technological revolutions to many industries,” said Chen, a professor with the department of engineering and material sciences at the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Chen and colleagues at Tsinghua University published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Science on October 27. The discovery “could lead to materials that are lighter and stronger than even the best metal alloys of today”, Erkka Frankberg of Tampere University in Finland wrote in a perspective article published in the same issue of Science.

“There has been research on plasticity of ceramics around the world since I started my career 30 years ago. It can be said that today we have finally achieved a breakthrough on that topic,” Chen said.

The researchers used silicon nitride to make nanopillars containing two types of crystal structures. When subjected to external force, one type of crystal structure can transform into the other, allowing the material to bend then resume its original shape.

The researchers used silicon nitride to make nanopillars containing two types of crystal structures, shown here in green and orange. Photo: Chen Kexin
The researchers used silicon nitride to make nanopillars containing two types of crystal structures, shown here in green and orange. Photo: Chen Kexin
The material could be especially useful for building aerospace engines. Ceramic materials are strong and light and can tolerate high temperatures. Flexible ceramic engines could operate at much higher temperatures than traditional alloy engines and with much better fuel efficiency.
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