Nanomaterials show unexpected strength under stress

NIST scientists Pradeep Namboodiri and Doo-In Kim and colleagues first demonstrated* the latest incongruity between the macro and micro worlds this past fall with direct experimental evidence for nanoscale ductility. In a new paper** presented today at the March Meeting of the American Physical Society, NIST researchers Takumi Hawa and Michael Zachariah and guest researcher Brian Henz shared the insights they gained into the phenomenon through their computer simulations of nanoparticle aggregates.

At the macroscale, the point at which a material will fail or break depends on its ability to maintain its shape when stressed. The atoms of ductile substances are able to shuffle around and remain cohesive for much longer than their brittle cousins, which contain faint structural flaws that act as failure points under stress.

At the nanoscale, these structural flaws do not exist, and hence the materials are nearly “perfect.” In addition, these objects are so small that most of the atoms that comprise them reside on the surface. According to Namboodiri and Kim, the properties of the surface atoms, which are more mobile because they are not bounded on all sides, dominate at the nanoscale. This dominance gives an otherwise brittle material such as silica its counterintuitive fracture characteristics.

“The terms ‘brittle’ and ‘ductile’ are macroscopic terminology,” Kim says. “It seems that these terms don’t apply at the nanoscale.”

Using an atomic force microscope (AFM), Kim and Namboodiri were able to look more closely at interfacial fracture than had been done before at the nanoscale. They found that the silica will stretch as much as gold or silver and will continue to deform beyond the point that would be predicted using its bulk-scale properties.

Hawa, Henz and Zachariah’s simulations reaffirmed their study and added some additional details. They showed that both nanoparticle size and morphology—whether the material is basically crystalline or amorphous, for example—have an effect on the observed ductility and tensile strength because those factors influence the mobility of surface atoms. In the simulations, the smaller the particles in the aggregate the more ductile the material behaved. Crystalline structures exhibited greater strength when stressed and deformed long after the critical yield point observed macroscopically.

Namboodiri explained that although the work is very basic, these findings might one day inform the design of microelectronic mechanical devices.

Media Contact

Mark Esser EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.nist.gov

All latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy

This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.

innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors