HOME > Profile > VASYLKIV, Oleg
- Address
- 305-0047 1-2-1 Sengen Tsukuba Ibaraki JAPAN [Access]
Research
- Keywords
materials science, ceramic engineering, nano-engineering, nano-composites, electric current assisted sintering techniques (ECAST: SPS, reaction-driven spark plasma sintering (RD-SPS), 'flash sintering, 'flash'-SPS), nano-powders, nano-ceramic & composites, hard ceramic, tough ceramic, flexural strength behavior, ultra-high temperature ceramic (UHTC), ultra-high elevated temperature strength, superplasticity of brittle hard ceramics, dynamic toughness, highly ordered nano-scale structures, self-assembled magnetite-chitosan nanostructures, boron carbide, boron suboxide, titanium diboride, tantalum boride, tantalum carbide, niobium boride, niobium carbide, zirconium boride, hafnium boride, silicon carbide,vanadium diboride, zirconium oxide, energetic materials, nano-explosive synthesis, multication nanopowders, etc.
The next generation of aerospace, energy, and high-velocity transport systems will operate in regimes where conventional materials simply no longer function as usable matter. Advancing hypersonic, high-efficiency turbines, solar-thermal receivers, and plasma-facing components depends on ceramics that not only withstand extreme conditions but also maintain their integrity and function in environments that push beyond the limits of known materials. My research over the past twenty years has been driven by this challenge. I aim to establish the scientific basis for deformation-resistant ceramic materials that act not as brittle solids but as engineered systems capable of adapting, stabilizing, and maintaining performance where all existing equivalents fail. Through chemistry, microstructure design, defect engineering, and advanced processing, I investigate how transition-metal carbides, borides, and nitrides can be directed into deformation regimes once thought unreachable for ceramics. A central pillar of my work is the discovery of high-temperature strengthening pathways in classical UHTCs. These materials exhibit a level of mechanical resilience that fundamentally exceeds the performance envelopes of modern structural ceramics and composites, revealing deformation modes that redefine what is possible at ultrahigh temperatures. A second pillar involves hierarchical and architected ceramics. By designing controlled mesoscale architectures and phase networks, I have developed multiboride and carbide systems that retain structural integrity and load-bearing capacity under conditions in which traditional materials lose their solid-state identity. These architectures demonstrate that ceramics can be engineered into systems that remain functional well beyond the limits of conventional UHTCs. A third pillar is the exploration of high entropy ceramics as a discovery platform. These materials exhibit unique combinations of stability, adaptability, and deformation resistance that are unavailable in any binary or ternary ceramic system, opening a new domain of high-temperature materials science. My earlier work (2000–2015) laid the conceptual foundation for this program. Through nanoscale design, advanced densification routes, and early breakthroughs in toughened oxide ceramics, I developed the methodological tools and mechanistic intuition that now enable the creation of materials that operate in regimes previously considered unreachable. Across these directions, my long-term vision is to establish a framework for designing ceramics that remain stable, deformable, and strong at temperatures at which conventional materials fail. This framework will enable a new generation of UHTCs that expand the technological horizons of aerospace, energy, and extreme-environment systems. As a PI, my mission is not to refine existing materials but to define the next class of matter—materials that quietly, confidently, and irrevocably shift the limits of what technology can withstand.
PublicationsNIMS affiliated publications since 2004.
Research papers
- Petre Badica, Mihai Alexandru Grigoroscuta, Andrei Cristian Kuncser, Oleg Vasylkiv. High‐Entropy Ti, Zr, Hf, Ta Multiphase Diboride with Deformation Resistance up to 2000 °C. Advanced Engineering Materials. 27 [10] (2025) 2402723 10.1002/adem.202402723 Open Access
- Oleg Vasylkiv, Dmytro Demirskyi. High‐temperature strength behavior of tantalum diboride to 2000°C. Journal of the American Ceramic Society. 106 [11] (2023) 6385-6389 10.1111/jace.19307 Open Access
- D. Demirskyi, H. Sepehri-Amin, T.S. Suzuki, K. Yoshimi, O. Vasylkiv. Ultra-high temperature flexure and strain driven amorphization in polycrystalline boron carbide bulks. Scripta Materialia. 210 (2022) 114487 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2021.114487 Open Access
Proceedings
- VASYLKIV, Oleg, SAKKA, Yoshio, Valeriy Skorokhod. Synthesis and Properties of Multimetal Oxide Nanopowders Via Nano-Explosive Technique. MATERIALS SCIENCE FORUM. (2006) 125-128
- VASYLKIV, Oleg, SAKKA, Yoshio, Valeriy V. Skorokhod. HIGH-TOUGHNESS TETRAGONAL ZIRCONIA/ALUMINA NANO-CERAMICS. KEY ENGINEERING MATERIALS. (2006) 615-618
- VASYLKIV, Oleg, SAKKA, Yoshio, Yasuaki Maeda, Valeriy V. Skorokhod. Engineering of Noble Metals – Zirconia Nano-Composites. TRANSACTIONS OF THE MATERIALS RESEARCH SOCIETY OF JAPAN. (2004) 3343-3346
Presentations
- VASYLKIV, Oleg, Badica Petre, Grigoroscuta Mihai-Alexandru, Kuncser Andrei, Borodianska Hanna, Demirskyi Dmytro, MORITA, Koji, SUZUKI, Tohru. High-Temperature Deformation-Resistant Transition Metal Diborides and Carbides. Xth International Samsonov COnference "Materials Science of Refractory Compounds" MSRS-2026. 2026 Invited
- VASYLKIV, Oleg. Deformation-resistant multipurpose ultra-high temperature ceramics with superior hardness, toughness, and flexural strength. World PM2024 Powder Metallurgy World Congress & Exhibition. 2024 Invited Open Access
- VASYLKIV, Oleg. Deformation-resistant UHTC composites with superior hardness, toughness, and flexural strength up to 2000°C. Advanced Materials Research Grand Meeting (MRM2023 IUMRS-ICA2023). 2023 Invited Open Access
Society memberships
日本セラミックス協会
Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials
Deformation-resistant multipurpose ultra-hight temperature ceramics
Ceramic engineering, Deformation-resistance, Ultra-high elevated temperature strength, UHTC, High-entropy boride and carbide ceramics
Overview
We are currently conducting research in the chemical structural engineering of deformation-resistant UHTC carbides, borides, nitrides, and composites with ultra-hardness and ultra-high strength. We have combined the merits of powder synthesis and electric current activated sintering technique for the design of techniques applied on powder body with establishing morpho-structural and compositional features, which lead to the fabrication of bulk ceramics with superior characteristics.
Novelty and originality
• multipurpose deformation-resistant UHTC carbides, borides, nitrides and composites
• sufficient balance between ultra-high hardness, ultra-strength, toughness and modulus
• morpho-structural and compositional features with superior characteristics.
• gas turbine operation in a combined cycle power plants
Details
Deformation-resistant UHTC high-entropy ceramics and composites becoming extremely attractive. Light, ultra-hard bulk B4C-based composites with hierarchical superstructure with deformation resistivity from RT to 2000°C (Fig. 1(a)) exhibit change in the deformation mechanism from brittle fracture to plastic deformation, and flexural strength far exceeding 1000MPa at 1800 - 2000°C (Fig. 1(b, c)). Depending on the loading rate, B4C-based ceramic showed 1000 - 8400MPa strength at 2000°C (Fig. 1(b)). Bulk ultrastrong TiB2-B4C ceramic exhibits a mean flexural strength of 1000MPa up to 1800°C, and further increasing to 1760MPa at 2000°C. Recently produced bulk, ultrahard, tough, deformation-resistant Ta diboride, Ta monoboride, Zr-Ta multiboride, and high-entropy TaB2-ZrB2-TiB2-HfB2.
Summary
The request for new multipurpose deformation-resistant ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTC), able to act as special engine and vehicle protection, ceramic segmented leading edge components for aerospace, plasma-facing, ceramic parts for solar towers used for gas turbine operation in a combined cycle power plants (grids, superheaters, reheaters, evaporators, steam turbines, condensers, and chimneys) cause the worldwide demand in a new class of ceramic composites of incredible high strength, the sufficient balance between high toughness, hardness, and high-modulus.

