High Toughness Combined with High Strength in Oxide Ceramic Nanofibers

Traditional oxide ceramics are inherently brittle and highly sensitive to defects, making them vulnerable to failure under external stress. As such, endowing these materials with high strength and high toughness simultaneously is crucial to improve their performance in most safety-critical applications. Fibrillation of the ceramic materials and further refinement of the fiber diameter, as realized by electrospinning, are expected to achieve the transformation from brittleness to flexibility owing to the structural uniqueness. Currently, the synthesis of electrospun oxide ceramic nanofibers must rely on an organic polymer template to regulate the spinnability of the inorganic sol, whose thermal decomposition during ceramization will inevitably lead to pore defects, and seriously weaken the mechanical properties of the final nanofibers. Here, a self-templated electrospinning strategy is proposed for the formation of oxide ceramic nanofibers without adding any organic polymer template. An example is given to show that individual silica nanofibers have an ideally homogeneous, dense, and defect-free structure, with tensile strength as high as 1.41 GPa and toughness up to 34.29 MJ m(-3), both of which are far superior to the counterparts prepared by polymer-templated electrospinning. This work provides a new strategy to develop oxide ceramic materials that are strong and tough.

Automated summary

Traditional oxide ceramics are brittle and sensitive to defects, which makes them prone to failure under stress. Electrospinning technology has been used to transform these ceramics from brittle to flexible by fibrillation and refinement of fiber diameter. A self-templated electrospinning strategy is proposed to synthesize oxide ceramic nanofibers without organic polymer template, resulting in nanofibers with high strength and toughness. This work provides a new strategy to develop strong and tough oxide ceramic materials.