Abstract
The natural brittleness of oxide ceramics heavily inhibits their more extensive applications. In present research, a highly flexible Al2O3/Al/Al2O3hybrid composite was fabricated by employing plasma electrolysis oxidation toin situgrow alumina layers on Al foil, in which an outside layer of nanostructured polycrystalline oxide ceramic was composed of nanosized grains with the size of around 17 nm. Due to shear band formation, nanosized circle bubbles prolonging the crack path, grain rotation, and deformation, the fabricated Al2O3/Al/Al2O3hybrid composite contains no observable cracks even after being bent on a cylindrical bar with a curvature of 1.5 mm. The composite exhibits alumina stiffness at the elastic stage and aluminum ductility during plastic deformation, which provides high flexibility with the well-integrated properties of the components. In a synergistic interaction, the alumina on the outside exhibited a strain of 0.33% at room temperature, which was higher than optimum value of 0.25% presented by reported most flexible oxide ceramics. With the unique characteristics and properties, the Al2O3/Al/Al2O3composite demonstrates a great potential for various engineering applications.
Highlights
The excellent properties of oxide ceramics, such as chemical and thermal stability, high strength, and wear resistance, make it attractive for engineering applications [1, 2]
The cross section Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image shows that the sandwich-like Al2O3/Al/Al2O3 composite sheet had a coating of alumina ceramic with a thickness of around 4.5 μm
The mean crystallite sizes of α-Al2O3 and γ-Al2O3 within the simple calculated using Scherrer’s formula [11, 12] were 16.8 nm and 17.6 nm, respectively, which was in agreement with that observed from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image
Summary
The excellent properties of oxide ceramics, such as chemical and thermal stability, high strength, and wear resistance, make it attractive for engineering applications [1, 2]. Many natural materials like bone, tooth, and nacre, consisting of ceramic building blocks and organic biopolymer, have sophisticated structures with complex hierarchical designs of which properties exceed what could be expected from a simple mixture of their components. Inspired by such materials, some man-made hybrid composites with exceptional fracture resistance and structural capabilities have been developed by combining brittle minerals and ductile organic materials [5,6,7,8]. Highly flexible Al2O3/Al/Al2O3 hybrid composites, composed of brittle ceramic/ductile metal, were fabricated by plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO). The results of mechanical testing reveal that the hierarchical structure of the Al2O3/Al/Al2O3 hybrid composites provides excellent tensile property and flexibility
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