* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Placer County town of Loomis considers entertainment zone for downtown – CBS News

    Loomis Unveils Thrilling New Entertainment Zone to Revitalize Downtown

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

    Bella Thorne Shows Off Her Toned Abs in Crop Top – Yahoo

    Bella Thorne Shows Off Her Toned Abs in a Chic Crop Top

    Bricktown continues to thrive as OKC’s entertainment district – OKC VeloCity

    Bricktown Shines as Oklahoma City’s Premier Entertainment Hotspot

    This Haunting ‘60s Country Song Is Even More Tragic Than You Remember – Yahoo

    This Haunting ’60s Country Song Will Break Your Heart All Over Again

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway – blog.google

    How a Gemma Model Revealed a Breakthrough Pathway for Cancer Treatment

    Italian Technology in Manufacturing: Supporting North American Industries and Keeping Production Local – Thomasnet

    How Italian Technology is Revolutionizing North American Manufacturing and Boosting Local Production

    Guide to Proteomics Project Planning: Sample Preparation Strategies – Technology Networks

    Guide to Proteomics Project Planning: Sample Preparation Strategies – Technology Networks

    DLG−Agrifuture Concept Winners 2025 announced – Visionary Ideas in agricultural technology recognized – TheNewsMarket

    Meet the Visionary Innovators Revolutionizing Agricultural Technology in 2025

    Spanning the Gulf: Global Defence Technology 155 – Army Technology

    Spanning the Gulf: Exploring Cutting-Edge Global Defence Technology

    A Nobel Prize for explaining when technology leads to growth – NPR

    Nobel Prize Awarded for Unraveling How Technology Drives Economic Growth

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Placer County town of Loomis considers entertainment zone for downtown – CBS News

    Loomis Unveils Thrilling New Entertainment Zone to Revitalize Downtown

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    CT Culture Corner: Robert Redford films to watch – CT Insider

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

    Elmira’s New Entertainment Venue ‘Centertown Social’ Adding its Final Touches – WENY News

    Bella Thorne Shows Off Her Toned Abs in Crop Top – Yahoo

    Bella Thorne Shows Off Her Toned Abs in a Chic Crop Top

    Bricktown continues to thrive as OKC’s entertainment district – OKC VeloCity

    Bricktown Shines as Oklahoma City’s Premier Entertainment Hotspot

    This Haunting ‘60s Country Song Is Even More Tragic Than You Remember – Yahoo

    This Haunting ’60s Country Song Will Break Your Heart All Over Again

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway – blog.google

    How a Gemma Model Revealed a Breakthrough Pathway for Cancer Treatment

    Italian Technology in Manufacturing: Supporting North American Industries and Keeping Production Local – Thomasnet

    How Italian Technology is Revolutionizing North American Manufacturing and Boosting Local Production

    Guide to Proteomics Project Planning: Sample Preparation Strategies – Technology Networks

    Guide to Proteomics Project Planning: Sample Preparation Strategies – Technology Networks

    DLG−Agrifuture Concept Winners 2025 announced – Visionary Ideas in agricultural technology recognized – TheNewsMarket

    Meet the Visionary Innovators Revolutionizing Agricultural Technology in 2025

    Spanning the Gulf: Global Defence Technology 155 – Army Technology

    Spanning the Gulf: Exploring Cutting-Edge Global Defence Technology

    A Nobel Prize for explaining when technology leads to growth – NPR

    Nobel Prize Awarded for Unraveling How Technology Drives Economic Growth

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Revolutionizing Ceramics – Scientists Unlock Secret to Incredible Toughness

October 26, 2023
in Science
Revolutionizing Ceramics – Scientists Unlock Secret to Incredible Toughness
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

High Entropy Carbides

Samples of a class of ceramics, known as high-entropy carbides, that have been engineered to withstand more force and stress before breaking. Credit: Liezel Labios/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Scientists have uncovered a method to make ceramics tougher and more resistant to cracking. By building these materials with a mix of metal atoms that have a higher number of electrons in their external shell, a group spearheaded by engineers from the University of California San Diego has unlocked the potential to enable ceramics to handle higher levels of force and stress than before.

Characteristics and Limitations of Ceramics

Ceramics offer many advantages due to their remarkable properties, including their ability to withstand extremely high temperatures, resist corrosion and surface wear, and maintain lightweight profiles. These properties make them suitable for a variety of applications such as aerospace components and protective coatings for engines and cutting tools. However, their weakness has always been their brittleness. They break easily under stress.

But now, researchers have found a solution that could make ceramics harder to break. They published their work recently in Science Advances.

Unlocking Enhanced Toughness

The study, led by UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Kenneth Vecchio, centers on a class of ceramics known as high-entropy carbides. These materials have highly disordered atomic structures, composed of carbon atoms bonded with multiple metal elements from the fourth, fifth, and sixth columns of the periodic table. These metals include titanium, niobium and tungsten, for example. The researchers found that the key to enhancing ceramic toughness lay in the use of metals from the fifth and sixth columns of the periodic table, due to their higher number of valence electrons.

Valence electrons—those residing in an atom’s outermost shell and engaging in bonding with other atoms—proved to be a pivotal factor. By using metals with a higher valence electron count, the researchers successfully improved the material’s resistance to cracking when subjected to mechanical load and stress.

“Those extra electrons are important because they effectively make the ceramic material more ductile, meaning it can undergo more deformation before breaking, similar to a metal,” said Vecchio.

Simulations comparing the responses under applied stress of ceramics with different valence electron concentrations. Credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

To better understand this effect, Vecchio’s group collaborated with Davide Sangiovanni, a professor of theoretical physics at Linköping University, Sweden. Sangiovanni performed the computational simulations, and Vecchio’s team experimentally fabricated and tested the materials.

The team investigated high-entropy carbides featuring various combinations of five metal elements. Each combination yielded a different concentration of valence electrons within the material.

Identifying the Strongest Combinations

They identified two high-entropy carbides that exhibited exceptional resistance to cracking under load or stress, thanks to their high valence electron concentrations. One was composed of the metals vanadium, niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, and tungsten. The other variant substituted niobium with chromium in the mix.

Under mechanical load or stress, these materials were able to deform or stretch, respectively, resembling the behavior of metals rather than the typical brittle response of ceramics. As these materials were punctured or pulled apart, bonds began to break, forming atom-sized openings. The additional valence electrons around the metal atoms then reorganized to bridge these openings, forming new bonds between neighboring metal atoms. This mechanism preserved the material’s structure around the openings, effectively inhibiting them from growing bigger and forming cracks.

“We discovered that there’s this underlying transformation happening at the nanoscale where the bonds are being rearranged to hold the material together,” said study co-author Kevin Kaufmann, a UC San Diego nanoengineering Ph.D. alumnus from Vecchio’s lab. “Instead of just cleaving right across the fracture surface, the material slowly frays like a rope would when it is being pulled. In this way, the material can accommodate this deformation that’s occurring and not fail in a brittle manner.”

Applications and Future Prospects

The challenge now lies in scaling up the production of these tough ceramics for commercial applications. That could help transform technologies that rely on high-performance ceramic materials, from aerospace components to biomedical implants.

The newfound toughness of these ceramics also paves the way for their use in extreme applications, such as leading edges for hypersonic vehicles. Tougher ceramics could serve as frontline defense for these vehicles, shielding vital components from getting impacted by debris and enabling the vehicles to better survive supersonic flights, explained Vecchio.

“By addressing a longstanding limitation of ceramics, we can greatly expand their use and create next-generation materials that hold the potential to revolutionize our society,” said Vecchio.

Reference: “Valence electron concentration as key parameter to control the fracture resistance of refractory high-entropy carbides” by Davide G. Sangiovanni, Kevin Kaufmann and Kenneth Vecchio, 13 September 2023, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi2960

This work was supported by Swedish Research Council (grants VR-2018-05973 and VR-2021-04426), Competence Center Functional Nanoscale Materials (grant 2022-03071), Olle Engkvist Foundation, UC San Diego Department of NanoEngineering’s Materials Research Center, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program, ARCS Foundation (San Diego Chapter) and The Oerlikon Group.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : SciTechDaily – https://scitechdaily.com/revolutionizing-ceramics-scientists-unlock-secret-to-incredible-toughness/

Tags: CeramicsRevolutionizingscience
Previous Post

Turning the Tide on Obesity: Are We on the Brink of a Medical Miracle?

Next Post

Amazon’s Dark Secret: The Soil That Supercharges Tree Growth

Lisa Tertsch, Matthew Hauser become world triathlon champions after winning season finals – ABC News – Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

Lisa Tertsch, Matthew Hauser become world triathlon champions after winning season finals – ABC News – Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

October 19, 2025
Why Trump is giving Argentina a $20 billion lifeline to help its flailing economy – PBS

Why Trump Is Proposing a $20 Billion Lifeline to Save Argentina’s Faltering Economy

October 19, 2025
Placer County town of Loomis considers entertainment zone for downtown – CBS News

Loomis Unveils Thrilling New Entertainment Zone to Revitalize Downtown

October 19, 2025

Miriam Miedzinski-Ballin, trailblazer who made mental health part of first aid, dies at 48 – The Times of Israel

October 19, 2025
Trump Posts Fake Video of Himself Flying a ‘King Trump’ Jet Over Protesters – The New York Times

Trump Posts Fake Video of Himself Flying a ‘King Trump’ Jet Over Protesters – The New York Times

October 19, 2025
Advancing causal inference in ecology: Pathways for biodiversity change detection and attribution – besjournals

Unlocking Nature’s Secrets: Innovative Methods to Detect and Attribute Biodiversity Change

October 19, 2025
Scientists discover concerning phenomenon that could lead to disastrous storms: ‘Exposed to threats’ – Yahoo

Scientists Reveal Shocking Discovery That Could Spark Devastating Storms

October 19, 2025

Oliver Bogler: Tired of Brilliant Science Getting Lost in Confusing Presentations?

October 19, 2025
The Deceptively Simple Soup Gordon Ramsay Once Cooked For Anthony Bourdain – Yahoo

The Surprisingly Simple Soup Gordon Ramsay Created for Anthony Bourdain

October 19, 2025
How a Gemma model helped discover a new potential cancer therapy pathway – blog.google

How a Gemma Model Revealed a Breakthrough Pathway for Cancer Treatment

October 19, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (875)
  • Economy (897)
  • Entertainment (21,768)
  • General (17,685)
  • Health (9,938)
  • Lifestyle (909)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (897)
  • Politics (907)
  • Science (16,107)
  • Sports (21,396)
  • Technology (15,876)
  • World (880)

Recent News

Lisa Tertsch, Matthew Hauser become world triathlon champions after winning season finals – ABC News – Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

Lisa Tertsch, Matthew Hauser become world triathlon champions after winning season finals – ABC News – Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

October 19, 2025
Why Trump is giving Argentina a $20 billion lifeline to help its flailing economy – PBS

Why Trump Is Proposing a $20 Billion Lifeline to Save Argentina’s Faltering Economy

October 19, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version