Toughening glass ceramics nanocomposites via engineering interfaces

• Engineering solid solution nanointerfaces in glass ceramics to enhance their toughness. • We proved that, compared to traditional interface weakening, interface strengthening can significantly enhance the toughness of glass ceramics. • Mg-GC achieved a toughness of 12.4 MPa∙m 1 / 2 , the highest reported glass ceramics. • Segregation of doping elements can both increase and decrease the interfacial bonding strength. Reducing the brittleness of glass ceramics has always been a challenge due to their intrinsic nature. Various toughening strategies have been developed to address this issue. Among these, the solid solution interface between grains and between grain and glass plays a crucial role in strengthening brittle materials. As grain size decreases to the nanoscale, the number of interfaces increases exponentially, making nanointerfaces particularly important for tailoring mechanical properties, especially toughness. In this study, we focused on engineering solid solution nanointerfaces in nanocrystalline glass ceramics to enhance their toughness. Except for the interface weakening strategy, our findings reveal that interface strengthening can lead to even greater improvements in toughness. We introduced ions with varying valence states (+1 to + 5) that segregated at the nanointerfaces within a nanocrystalline zirconia-embedded silica glass matrix. As a result, the Mg-GC achieved a toughness of up to 12.4 MPa∙m 1 / 2 , the highest reported for glassy materials. Finite element simulations demonstrated that interfacial strengthening significantly promotes more diffused cracking, which dissipates more energy and thereby enhances fracture toughness. These findings open up new possibilities for toughening glass ceramics.