Supervariate Ceramics: Gelatinous and Monolithic Ceramics Fabricated under Ambient Conditions

Ceramics are normally fabricated by firing compacted raw powders at high temperatures. Herein, a general mechanism for directly fabricating ceramic objects at the centimeter scale from ceramic gels at room temperature and ambient pressure is disclosed-all by simply mixing precursor solutions of multiple metal salts/ionic compounds to afford a supervariate system. Upon drying, the supervariate ceramic gels convert into monolithic ceramic materials to deliver excellent mechanical properties, e.g., a hardness/reduced elastic modulus (H/E (r)) of 1.2/26 GPa. Furthermore, the room temperature-dried ceramics are tolerant to high-temperature annealing at 1500 C-o, staying intact and achieving further enhanced H/E (r) (e.g., 11.7/132 GPa). By utilizing the supervariate strategy, ceramics can be casted or molded like metals or polymers under mild conditions, offering great convenience to achieve desirable mechanical performances and functionalities.