Achieving room temperature plasticity in brittle ceramics through elevated temperature preloading

Ceramic materials with high strength and chemical inertness are widely used as engineering materials. However, the brittle nature limits their applications as fracture occurs before the onset of plastic yielding. There has been limited success despite extensive efforts to enhance the deformability of ceramics. Here we report a method for enhancing the room temperature plastic deformability of ceramics by artificially introducing abundant defects into the materials via preloading at elevated temperatures. After the preloading treatment, single crystal (SC) TiO₂ exhibited a substantial increase in deformability, achieving 10% strain at room temperature. SC α-Al₂O₃ also showed plastic deformability, 6 to 7.5% strain, by using the preloading strategy. These preinjected defects enabled the plastic deformation process of the ceramics at room temperature. These findings suggest a great potential for defect engineering in achieving plasticity in ceramics at room temperature.