Mechanical properties of highly textured porous Ni–YSZ and Co–YSZ cermets produced from directionally solidified eutectics

It is well known that several ceramic materials develop an usual; and sometimes unique; combination of properties as a result of mixing different phases with similar expansion coefficients. Sometimes they are elastically stiff, have low thermal expansion coefficients, and are resistant to chemical attack. As this paper will show, their mechanical properties are also enhanced. Nanoindentation is used to measure the mechanical properties for each phase of NiO–YSZ and CoO–YSZ eutectics produced by the laser floating zone technique, and also the analogues Ni–YSZ and Co–YSZ cermets produced by reduction from the eutectic precursors. The different tests have been performed at 100 nm, in order to obtain an imprint lower than the size of the secondary phase and extract the hardness and Youngʹs modulus. Moreover, several tests have been performed at 2000 nm of indentation range to obtain the response of each material. The different imprints have been visualized by Atomic Force Microscopy.