We propose here a new method to make ceramics insensitive to thermal shock up to their melting temperature. In this method the surface of ceramics was biomimetically roughened into nanofinned surface that creates a thin air layer enveloping the surface of the ceramics during quenching. This air layer increases the heat transfer resistance of the surface of the ceramics by about 10 000 times so that the strong thermal gradient and stresses produced by the steep temperature difference in thermal shock did not occur both on the actual surface and in the interior of the ceramics. This method effectively extends the applications of existing ceramics in the extreme thermal environments.
This paper was published as:
Song F, Meng SH, Xu XH, Shao YF. Enhanced Thermal Shock Resistance of Ceramics through Biomimetically Inspired Nanofins. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 104(12):125502(2010)