doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2013.03.033engPastor, J.Y.Martín, A.Molina-Aldareguía, J.M.LLorca, J.Oliete, P.B.Larrea, A.Peña, J.I.Orera, V.M.Arenal, R.Superplastic deformation of directionally solidified nanofibrillar Al2O3-Y3Al5O12-Zr O2 eutecticsART-2013-82811Nanofibrillar Al2O3–Y3Al5O12–ZrO2 eutectic rods were manufactured by directional solidification from the melt at high growth rates in an inert atmosphere using the laser-heated floating zone method. Under conditions of cooperative growth, the ternary eutectic presented a homogeneous microstructure, formed by bundles of single-crystal c-oriented Al2O3 and Y3Al5O12 (YAG) whiskers of ˜100 nm in width with smaller Y2O3-doped ZrO2 (YSZ) whiskers between them. Owing to the anisotropic fibrillar microstructure, Al2O3–YAG–YSZ ternary eutectics present high strength and toughness at ambient temperature while they exhibit superplastic behavior at 1600 K and above. Careful examination of the deformed samples by transmission electron microscopy did not show any evidence of dislocation activity and superplastic deformation was attributed to mass-transport by diffusion within the nanometric domains. This combination of high strength and toughness at ambient temperature together with the ability to support large deformations without failure above 1600 K is unique and shows a large potential to develop new structural materials for very high temperature structural applications.2013http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/6090310.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2013.03.033http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/60903oai:zaguan.unizar.es:60903info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/MAT2009-13979info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EUR/NMP4-SL-2008-213669-ENSEMBLEJOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN CERAMIC SOCIETY 33, 13-14 (2013), 2579-2586by-nc-ndhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess