Influence of three-dimensional nanoparticle branching on the Young’s modulus of nanocomposites: Effect of interface orientation

Journal Article · Wed May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1421644112· OSTI ID:1235179

Raja, Shilpa N. ^[1]; Olson, Andrew C. K. ^[2]; Limaye, Aditya ^[3]; Thorkelsson, Kari ^[1]; Luong, Andrew ^[3]; Lin, Liwei ^[4]; Ritchie, Robert O. ^[5]; Xu, Ting ^[6]; Alivisatos, A. Paul ^[7]

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1. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Departments of bMaterials Science and Engineering,
2. Chemistry,
3. Chemical Engineering, and
4. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, and
5. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Departments of bMaterials Science and Engineering,, Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, and
6. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Departments of bMaterials Science and Engineering,, Chemistry,
7. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720,, Departments of bMaterials Science and Engineering,, Chemical Engineering, and, Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, Berkeley, CA 94720

Significance Currently, the effect of branching of nanoparticles tens of nanometers in size on the mechanical properties of structural composites is not well understood due to the limited availability of branched nanoscale fillers. We report that branched nanofillers have the potential for optimization of nanocomposite Young’s modulus over their linear counterparts. Lattice spring model simulations reveal that the mechanism for this improvement involves the ability of branched nanoparticles to optimize the ratio of both filler and stiff interfacial bonds aligned with the tensile axis, as opposed to linear nanoparticles, which optimize only the filler bond orientation when parallel to the stretching axis. We believe this information could inform the design of nanocomposites with optimized mechanical properties for a variety of structural applications.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1235179
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 112 Journal Issue: 21; ISSN 0027-8424
• Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English