At The Ceramic Engineering Blog, we've decided to continue our run of cold-themed posts (what with the heat wave and all it just seemed appropriate) by taking a look at a story that fell through the cracks for us this year. Back in March, NewScientist Magazine ran an article regarding a new technology developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their colleagues which allows ceramics which endure extreme temperature changes to resist fracturing when moved from a high temperature environment to a low temperature, the scientists able to get the material to maintain its strength even when cooling from near-melting point temperatures of around 3,210 degrees Celsius. The article by NewScientist explains the process:
"They did this by roughening the surface with plasma etching and concentrated nitric and hydrofluoric acids. The surface ended up covered in nanoscale fin shapes, similar to the nanoscale patterning of a lotus leaf. Like those leaves, the roughened ceramic is strongly hydrophobic, or water repellant. This is what makes the material resistant to heat shock. It traps pockets of air at its roughened surface, so when cooled suddenly by dunking in water, or if the surrounding air temperature changes, the air pockets act as an insulating layer, buffering the bulk of the ceramic from the rapid change in temperature."
This new technology could potentially lead to a change in the types of materials used for applications which require thermally resistant, high-strength materials. Processes which usually use expensive metal alloys, such as those found within car engines, could be soon replaced by for efficient and less expensive ceramic materials. This could be an exciting prospect for the ceramics manufacturing industry, and is certainly something that those of us in the industry should keep an eye on.
To read the article from NewScientist Magazine:
To learn more about thermally resistant ceramics materials, check out Refractron:
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