Ultrastrong, elastic, and fatigue‐resistant SiC nanowires network

Abstract

AbstractLight, strong, and elastic ceramics are of great interest for widespread engineering applications but it is always been a challenge to design and fabricate such materials for the conflict that lightweight structure usually requires high porosity while high porosity often leads to low strength. Here, we report a lightweight (90.9% porosity) and ultra‐strong SiC nanowires network (SiC NN) constructed by highly inter‐bonded nanowires in a layered distribution through a facile way. The resulting lamellar SiC NN (L‐SiC NN) exhibits a nearly complete compressive resilience from 20% strain while showing significantly high compressive stress (5.7 MPa). In particular, the L‐SiC NN shows high storage modulus (12.3 MPa), small damping ratio (0.046), frequency invariant from 20 to 100 Hz, and fatigue resistance up to 100 000 compression‐release cycles. In addition, the L‐SiC NN possesses high‐temperature stability up to 1100°C in air and low thermal conductivity of 0.121 W m‐1 k‐1. These integrated features make the L‐SiC NN an attractive substitute for thermal insulators and mechanical energy storage in a harsh environment.