The Ministry of Education and Science's press office reported that scientists from the National University of Science and Technology and other scientific institutions have created a ceramic compound that is highly durable and has great resistance to cracking.
University Rector Alevtina Chernikova stated that a team of researchers, led by young scientist Dmitry Moskovskikh, has developed a ceramic composite capable of withstanding extreme loads in harsh environments. She added that the material's key advantage lies in its combination of high durability and improved crack resistance, noting its promising applications in the fields of aerospace, mining, mechanical engineering, and energy.
To enhance the ceramic's durability, the researchers used a novel technique to produce a high-entropy biphasic carbide-boride ceramic. This technique allows for the creation of a composite material in which two distinct solid phases are uniformly distributed at the microscopic level.
The resulting samples showed increased density and structural homogeneity, along with improved stiffness (22 GPa) and impact resistance (5.6 MPa). For comparison, the high-entropy single-phase composite material has a stiffness of 18.8 GPa and an impact resistance of 4.2 MPa.
Sergei Volodko, chief expert of the university's Center for Structural Ceramic Nanomaterials Research, explained that the method used reduces time and cost by combining the manufacturing stages into a single cycle, in addition to using a self-diffusion reaction that reduces external energy consumption.
The study was published in the journal Materials Science and Engineering: A.
