Related papers: A simple approach to bulk bioinspired tough cerami…
A new flash (ultra-rapid) spark plasma sintering method applicable to various materials systems, regardless of their electrical resistivity, is developed. A number of powders ranging from metals to electrically insulative ceramics have been…
Materials that are lightweight yet exhibit superior mechanical properties are of compelling importance for several technological applications that range from aircrafts to household appliances. Lightweight materials allow energy saving and…
Due to their exceptional mechanical and chemical properties and their natural abundance, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are promising building blocks of sustainable polymer composites. However, the rapid gelation of CNC dispersions has…
Many promising applications of single crystal diamond and its color centers as sensor platform and in photonics require free-standing membranes with a thickness ranging from several micrometers to the few 100 nm range. In this work, we…
Durable interfacing of hard and soft materials is a major design challenge caused by the ensuing stress concentrations. In nature, soft-hard interfaces exhibit remarkable mechanical performance, with failures rarely happening at the…
In this paper, the impact behaviour of composite laminates is investigated, and their potential for ballistic protection assessed, as a function of the reinforcing materials and structures for three representative fibre-reinforced epoxy…
Soft materials capable of large inelastic deformation play an essential role in high-performance nacre-inspired architectured materials with a combination of stiffness, strength and toughness. The rigid "building blocks" made from glass or…
Hot Isostatic Pressing was applied to synthesize bulk samples with diameter up to 30 mm starting with Alfa Aesar magnesium diboride powder. HIPing at 2 kbar, 1000 C with cooling under pressure (DMCUP cycle) resulted in a fully dense (or low…
Additive manufacturing holds more potential to enable the development of ceramic-based components. Ceramics offer high resistance to heat, high fracture toughness, and are extremely corrosion resistant. Thus, ceramics are widely used in…
This work proposes a new efficient approach for calculating the bending stiffness of two-dimensional materials using simple atomistic tests on small periodic unit cells. The tests are designed such that bending deformations are dominating…
New materials aim at exploiting the great control of living organisms over molecular architectures and minerals. Optical biomimetics has been widely developed by microengineering, leading to photonic components with order resembling those…
High hardness and toughness are generally considered mutually exclusive properties for single-crystal ceramics. Combining experiments and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) atomistic simulations at room temperature, we demonstrate that…
When modelling discontinuities (interfaces) using the finite element method, the standard approach is to use a conforming finite-element mesh in which the mesh matches the interfaces. However, this approach can prove cumbersome if the…
Spatial ordering of matter elicits exotic properties sometimes absent from a material's constituents. A few highly mineralised natural materials achieve high toughness through delocalised damage, whereas synthetic particulate composites…
Compositionally complex materials have demonstrated extraordinary promise for structural robustness in extreme environments. Of these, the most commonly thought of are high entropy alloys, where chemical complexity grants uncommon…
Achieving a balance between low density, high strength, and good ductility remains a major challenge in the development of structural materials. Ti-based bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have attracted considerable attention due to their…
Materials that are strong, ultra-light weight and tough are in demand for a range of applications, requiring architectures and components carefully designed from the micrometer down to nanometer scales. Nacre-a structure found in many…
We propose that the machinability of hard ceramics can be improved by reversible electrochemical doping. On the example of TiO2, we show in a combined density functional theory-molecular dynamics computational study that a small amount of…
We propose a novel approach of wet electrospinning to yield fiber-reinforced polymer ceramic composites, where a reactive ceramic precursor gel is used as a collector. We illustrate our approach by generating polyethylene oxide (PEO) fibers…
Architected materials can achieve enhanced properties compared to their plain counterparts. Specific architecting serves as a powerful design lever to achieve targeted behavior without changing the base material. Thus, the connection…