Under loading ceramics self-heal cracks by forming kink-bands

Ceramics are resilient to heat and extreme environments but they are fragile and crack easily. Researchers have discovered a self-healing mechanism within a type of ceramics, called MAX phases. They have shown that these engineered ceramics form natural faults or kink-bands during loading that can not only effectively stop cracks from growing, but can also close and heal them, thereby preventing catastrophic failure.