{
  "abstract": "Cermets combining metastable ceramics and ductile metals promise superior toughness and strength. However, retaining metastability often requires high-temperature sintering that coarsens microstructures and relaxes matrix constraint. Here we introduce an ultrafast high-temperature sintering (UHS) strategy to overcome this trade-off in zirconia-copper cermets. By applying Joule heating at around 100 degrees C per second to 900 degrees C with only a 20 second hold, we obtained cermets containing up to 50 weight percent of metastable austenite in zirconia at room temperature within a fine-grained and homogeneous microstructure. The rapid sintering kinetically favors semi-thermal austenite formation while suppressing copper grain growth and matrix relaxation, thereby stabilizing the high-temperature phase and simultaneously preserving microstructural refinement. This approach offers significant potential for copper-based composites in applications such as transformation toughening, self-healing, and crack detection.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2606.12860",
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Wangshu Zheng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xi Chen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xuyang Feng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Aiji Zou"
    },
    {
      "name": "Andrew Yun Ru Ng"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xiaoqing Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zhili Dong"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qiang Guo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Chee Lip Gan"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/72bfjws9vdb5k.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.12860",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "72bfjws9vdb5k",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.12860",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.mtrl-sci"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.12860",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-06-11",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/72bfjws9vdb5k.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
      "native_id": "2606.12860",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.12860"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.mtrl-sci",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Leveraging rapid sintering to retain metastable zirconia in copper",
  "title_text": "Leveraging rapid sintering to retain metastable zirconia in copper",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/72bfjws9vdb5k",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.1016/j.mtla.2026.102916",
      "pid": null,
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": null,
      "venue": null
    }
  ]
}