The cold sintering process (CSP) is an advanced low-temperature sintering technology whose effectiveness is closely related to the selection of transient liquid phases (TLPs). While water serves as an ideal TLP for water-soluble ceramics, most water-insoluble materials necessitate acids, bases, or specialized solvents instead. This limitation has severely restricted the application of CSP, as many water-insoluble ceramics cannot be densified due to the lack of suitable TLPs. This study demonstrates a breakthrough approach that exploits nanoscale effects to enable water to act as an effective TLP for the densification of water-insoluble Li₂TiO₃ ceramics. A comparison of nano (19.71 nm) and microscale Li₂TiO₃ powders under identical sintering conditions revealed that despite the exceptionally low aqueous solubility of Li₂TiO₃, the nanopowders achieved 94.33% relative density at only 300 °C and 700 MPa, whereas the micropowders attained only 78% density. Further analysis revealed a distinctive densification mechanism that integrates dislocation-mediated plastic deformation with localized dissolution phenomena at nanoparticle interfaces. Compared with conventional sintering (1000 °C), the resulting nanoceramics exhibited superior Vickers hardness (905 HV) and enhanced electrical conductivity while maintaining a refined nanoscale grain structure (26.42 nm). This study established an effective strategy for the cold sintering of water-insoluble ceramics with layered structures using water as a TLP, significantly expanding the applicability of CSP technology and offering new pathways for the energy-efficient fabrication of advanced functional ceramics.

Investigating the dynamic mechanical behavior of single-crystal aluminum oxynitride (AlON) is fascinating and crucial for understanding material performance in relevant applications. Nevertheless, few studies have explored the dynamic mechanical properties of AlON single crystals. In this study, a series of nanoimpact experiments (representative strain rate ${\dot{\epsilon }}_{\text{r}}\text{≈}{\text{10}}^{\text{2}}{\text{s}}^{-\text{1}}$) were performed on three principal orientations ((010), (101), and (111)) of grains to extract the dynamic mechanical responses of AlON single crystals. Our results reveal that the dynamic plasticity of an AlON single crystal is governed by a combination of mechanisms, including dislocation motion and amorphization. Significantly, the localized amorphization induced by mechanical deformation has a softening effect (a lower dynamic hardness). The crystallographic orientation affects the dynamic hardness similarly to the static hardness. In particular, the (111) orientation results in the highest hardness, whereas the (010) orientation is the softest among the three principal orientations. This dependency aligns with the expectations derived from applying Schmid law. Furthermore, both the dynamic and static hardnesses exhibit typical indentation size effects (ISEs), which can be effectively described via the strain gradient theory associated with the geometrically necessary dislocations. In addition, the size and rate dependencies of the dynamic hardness can be decoupled into two independent terms.

Achieving full densification of some ceramic materials, such as Y₂O₃, without sintering aids by spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a great challenge when plastic deformation contributes limitedly to the densification as the yield stress of the material at an elevated temperature is higher than the applied sintering pressure. Herein, we demonstrate that particle fracture and rearrangement is an effective strategy to promote the densification during the pressure-assisted sintering process. Specifically, Y₂O₃ nanocrystalline powders composed of nanorod and near-spherical particles were synthesized and sintered at various temperatures by the SPS. The results show that the relative density of the ceramics prepared by the nanorod powders is higher than the density of the ceramics from the near-spherical powders after 600 ℃ due to the fracture and rearrangement of the nanorods at low temperatures, which leads to the decrease of particle size and the increase of density and homogeneity. Based on this novel densification mechanism, ultrafine-grained Y₂O₃ transparent ceramics with good optical and mechanical properties were fabricated successfully from the nanorod powders.