Bioinspired nacre-like alumina with a bulk-metallic glass-forming alloy as a compliant phase

Amy Wat; Je In Lee; Chae Woo Ryu; Bernd Gludovatz; Jinyeon Kim; Antoni P Tomsia; Takehiko Ishikawa; Julianna Schmitz; Andreas Meyer; Markus Alfreider; Daniel Kiener; Eun Soo Park; Robert O Ritchie

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08753-6

Bioinspired nacre-like alumina with a bulk-metallic glass-forming alloy as a compliant phase

Nat Commun. 2019 Feb 27;10(1):961. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08753-6.

Authors

Amy Wat^{1

2}, Je In Lee^{3

4}, Chae Woo Ryu³, Bernd Gludovatz⁵, Jinyeon Kim^{3

6}, Antoni P Tomsia², Takehiko Ishikawa⁷, Julianna Schmitz⁸, Andreas Meyer⁸, Markus Alfreider⁹, Daniel Kiener⁹, Eun Soo Park¹⁰, Robert O Ritchie^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
² Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
³ Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
⁴ International Center for Young Scientists, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0047, Japan.
⁵ School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
⁶ Advanced Analysis Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, 02455, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Japan Aerospace Explanation Agency, 2-1-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8505, Japan.
⁸ Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, DLR, Köln, 51170, Germany.
⁹ Department of Materials Science, Montanuniversität Leoben, Leoben, 8700, Austria.
¹⁰ Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea. espark@snu.ac.kr.
¹¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. roritchie@lbl.gov.
¹² Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. roritchie@lbl.gov.

Abstract

Bioinspired ceramics with micron-scale ceramic "bricks" bonded by a metallic "mortar" are projected to result in higher strength and toughness ceramics, but their processing is challenging as metals do not typically wet ceramics. To resolve this issue, we made alumina structures using rapid pressureless infiltration of a zirconium-based bulk-metallic glass mortar that reactively wets the surface of freeze-cast alumina preforms. The mechanical properties of the resulting Al₂O₃ with a glass-forming compliant-phase change with infiltration temperature and ceramic content, leading to a trade-off between flexural strength (varying from 89 to 800 MPa) and fracture toughness (varying from 4 to more than 9 MPa·m^½). The high toughness levels are attributed to brick pull-out and crack deflection along the ceramic/metal interfaces. Since these mechanisms are enabled by interfacial failure rather than failure within the metallic mortar, the potential for optimizing these bioinspired materials for damage tolerance has still not been fully realized.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.