{"id":15565,"date":"2013-09-26T16:18:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T20:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=15565"},"modified":"2013-09-26T16:18:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T20:18:54","slug":"small-scale-ceramics-materials-engineered-for-flexibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=15565","title":{"rendered":"Small-Scale Ceramics Materials Engineered for Flexibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Christopher<\/a>
Christopher Schuh (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Materials scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technolog<\/a>y and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore created a new type of ceramics material with the ability to bend like metal, but retaining its strength. The team from the lab of MIT’s Christopher Schuh<\/a> published its findings today in the journal Science<\/em><\/a> (paid subscription required).<\/p>\n

The MIT-Singapore researchers developed a process for giving tiny pieces of zirconia<\/a> the ability to bend, but also to return to their original shape when heated. This shape-memory property is seen in metals and some polymers, says Schuh in an MIT statement, but not previously in ceramics known for their brittleness and tendency to crack under stress.<\/p>\n

The researchers were able to give zirconia these properties by keeping the objects exceedingly small. They created in the lab filaments only about one micron — 1 millionth of a meter — in diameter. In general, the smaller the object, the more resistant it is to cracking. In addition, the team kept the objects they created within a single crystalline grain, removing the opportunity to crack along granular boundaries, where cracking is most likely to occur.<\/p>\n

As graduate student and first author Alan Lai notes, the samples prepared by the researchers were able to deform as much as 7 to 8 percent of their size. adding that normal ceramics cannot bend even 1 percent without cracking. And while the samples were confined to very small sizes, they would considered sufficiently large for nanoscale applications.<\/p>\n

For example, says Lai, ” these materials could be important tools for those developing micro- and nanodevices, such as for biomedical applications,” including “microactuators to trigger actions within such devices — such as the release of drugs from tiny implants.” In addition, the researchers say, the techniques employed with their zirconia samples could be applied to other ceramic materials.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n