Leveraging rapid sintering to retain metastable zirconia in copper
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.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{zheng2026leveraging,
title = {{Leveraging rapid sintering to retain metastable zirconia in copper}},
author = {Wangshu Zheng and Xi Chen and Xuyang Feng and Aiji Zou and Andrew Yun Ru Ng and Xiaoqing Wang and Zhili Dong and Qiang Guo and Chee Lip Gan},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.12860},
eprint = {2606.12860},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.12860},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Leveraging rapid sintering to retain metastable zirconia in copper
AU - Wangshu Zheng
AU - Xi Chen
AU - Xuyang Feng
AU - Aiji Zou
AU - Andrew Yun Ru Ng
AU - Xiaoqing Wang
AU - Zhili Dong
AU - Qiang Guo
AU - Chee Lip Gan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.12860
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.12860
AB - 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.
ER -