Synthesis of alumina ceramic meta-fibers with tensile super-plasticity.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42350402.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-74849-5.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Ceramics are prized for exceptional strength, but their inherent brittleness has long been a fundamental bottleneck. Here, we report tensile plastic Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> meta-fibers that achieve a combination of high tensile strength (1.94 GPa) and large plastic strain (10.01%), with micro-strain reaching 194%. This is enabled via a phase-regulation strategy that constructs high-purity unsaturated [AlO<sub>5</sub>] coordination with disordered oxygen lattices in Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> fibers. The metastable [AlO<sub>5</sub>] fundamentally alters the deformation mechanics by reducing the energy barrier for bond breaking and reformation, while the disordered oxygen lattice facilitates extensive atomic displacement, collectively enabling intrinsic plastic behavior. This local plasticity accumulates in high-purity networks, ultimately achieving macroscopic tensile plasticity of fibers, challenging conventional understanding of ceramic deformation. These plastic fibers can be twisted and woven into high-strength, stretchable refractory ceramic fabrics. Our work establishes metastable phase customization as a universal paradigm, opening a promising pathway for designing superplastic ceramics.