Fig. 3: Enhancement mechanisms of enamel-inspired ceramic coated Zr foil.

a Illustration of the deformed region obtained after nanoindentation with a Berkovich indenter at a load of 10,000 μN. b Cross-sectional TEM image of the permanently deformed region of the Zr-EIC. c Enlarged TEM image of the region marked (c) in (b). d Enlarged TEM image of the region marked (d) in (c). Inset: Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) pattern of the amorphous area from the HRTEM image. e Enlarged TEM image of the region marked (e) in (c). Inset: FFT pattern of the amorphous area from the HRTEM image. f Enlarged TEM image of the region marked (f) in (b). g Mechanical behavior of a Zr-EIC associated with three distinct energy dissipation mechanisms, with the yellow spheres referring to the amorphous region and the blue spheres referring to the crystalline region. Meanwhile, (II)-1 indicates that the C-ZrO₂ nanorods undergo lattice distortion, crack propagation and amorphization, while (II)−2 indicates that the C-ZrO₂ nanorods break.