Enhanced mechanical properties of porcelain ceramic tile/Kevlar fabric composite with bio‐inspired shell‐like structure

Abstract Ceramic materials with high strength, toughness, and excellent impact resistance are urgently required for many structural applications, but these mechanical properties are difficult to achieve in traditional ceramic tiles due to their inherent brittleness. Inspired by the specific structure of shells, the multilayered ceramic tile/Kevlar fabric composite with a bio‐inspired shell structure was successfully fabricated via a surface hydroxylation followed by simple hot press process. It is found that the composites have representative step‐like fracture behaviors rather than brittle fracture, which has been proven to possess a better ability of mechanical performance and noncatastrophic failure behavior compared to same‐thickness ceramic tile. Specifically, the bending strength, fracture toughness, and fracture work of the composite with a 15‐tier structure come to 836.5 ± 12.5 MPa, 14.6 ± .2 MPa·m 1/2 , and 7228.8 ± 108.4 J·m 1/2 , which are even better than those of reported advanced materials. Such fracture‐resistant behaviors are correspondent to the strengthening effects of the crack deflection, interfacial debonding, and fiber pull out, accompanied by bio‐inspired structure and appropriate bonding state between brittle or ductile layers. This resin or fabric content can be used as well as the slip systems to transfer the internal stress in time to consume more fracture energy per unit length and prevent risky brittle fracture, while carrying loads. We expect these findings to provide vital guidance for promoting the applications of traditional ceramics in bio‐inspired high‐performance composites for actual ceramic manufacturers.