Exploding and weeping ceramics

The systematic tuning of crystal lattice parameters to achieve improved kinematic compatibility between different phases is a broadly effective strategy for improving the reversibility, and lowering the hysteresis, of solid–solid phase transformations^1–11. (Kinematic compatibility refers to the fitting together of the phases.) Here we present an apparently paradoxical example in which tuning to near perfect kinematic compatibility results in an unusually high degree of irreversibility. Specifically, when cooling the kinematically compatible ceramic (Zr/Hf)O₂(YNb)O₄ through its tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation, the polycrystal slowly and steadily falls apart at its grain boundaries (a process we term weeping) or even explosively disintegrates. If instead we tune the lattice parameters to satisfy a stronger ‘equidistance’ condition (which additionally takes into account sample shape), the resulting material exhibits reversible behaviour with low hysteresis. These results show that a diversity of behaviours—from reversible at one extreme to explosive at the other—is possible in a chemically homogeneous ceramic system by manipulating conditions of compatibility in unexpected ways. These concepts could prove critical in the current search for a shape-memory oxide ceramic^9–12.