New Deformation Mechanisms in Nanocrystalline Nano-porous Small Scale Metals as Defined by Kinetically-driven Microstructures

Technical Report · Mon Jul 07 04:00:00 EDT 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2571089· OSTI ID:2571089

Greer, Julia ^[1]; Zhang, Wenxin ^[2]; Tran, Thomas ^[3]; Gallivan, Rebecca ^[4]; Li, Zhi ^[5]; Dang, Ruoqi ^[6]; Gao, Huajian ^[7]

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1. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Kavli Nanoscience Institute, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA
2. Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, Berkeley, CA (United States)
3. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
4. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich (Switzerland)
5. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) (Singapore). Institute of High Performance Computing
6. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) (Singapore). Institute of High Performance Computing; School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
7. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) (Singapore). Institute of High Performance Computing; School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

This report describes recent advances in the design and fabrication of nanostructured metallic pillars with hierarchical microstructures using a novel nanoscale additive manufacturing approach. Through a hydrogel-infusion-based two-photon lithography (TPL) method, we successfully fabricated 3D nickel nanopillars exhibiting both nanocrystalline and nanoporous features. The resulting “bamboo-like” internal architecture comprises 30–50 nm grains and voids with similarly scaled pores. These geometrically tunable pillars, with diameters ranging from ~130 to 550 nm, serve as an ideal platform for probing deformation mechanisms in structurally heterogeneous metals at the nanoscale.

• Research Organization: California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0016945
• OSTI ID: 2571089
• Report Number(s): DOE-Caltech--16945
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY