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Title: Near-ideal theoretical strength in gold nanowires containing angstrom scale twins

Abstract

Although nanoscale twinning is an effective means to enhance yield strength and tensile ductility in metals, nanotwinned metals generally fail well below their theoretical strength limit due to heterogeneous dislocation nucleation from boundaries or surface imperfections. Here we show that Au nanowires containing angstrom-scaled twins (0.7 nm in thickness) exhibit tensile strengths up to 3.12 GPa, near the ideal limit, with a remarkable ductile-to-brittle transition with decreasing twin size. This is opposite to the behaviour of metallic nanowires with lower-density twins reported thus far. Ultrahigh-density twins (twin thicknesso2.8 nm) are shown to give rise to homogeneous dislocation nucleation and plastic shear localization, contrasting with the heterogeneous slip mechanism observed in single crystalline or low-density-twinned nanowires. The twin size dependent dislocation nucleation and deformation represent a new type of size effect distinct from the sample size effects described previously.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
  2. Univ. of Vermont, Burlington, VT (United States). School of Engineering. Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Programs
  3. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
  4. Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  5. Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China). State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
OSTI Identifier:
1623906
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC04-94AL85000
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 4; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Science & Technology - Other Topics

Citation Formats

Wang, Jiangwei, Sansoz, Frederic, Huang, Jianyu, Liu, Yi, Sun, Shouheng, Zhang, Ze, and Mao, Scott X. Near-ideal theoretical strength in gold nanowires containing angstrom scale twins. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms2768.
Wang, Jiangwei, Sansoz, Frederic, Huang, Jianyu, Liu, Yi, Sun, Shouheng, Zhang, Ze, & Mao, Scott X. Near-ideal theoretical strength in gold nanowires containing angstrom scale twins. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2768
Wang, Jiangwei, Sansoz, Frederic, Huang, Jianyu, Liu, Yi, Sun, Shouheng, Zhang, Ze, and Mao, Scott X. Tue . "Near-ideal theoretical strength in gold nanowires containing angstrom scale twins". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2768. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1623906.
@article{osti_1623906,
title = {Near-ideal theoretical strength in gold nanowires containing angstrom scale twins},
author = {Wang, Jiangwei and Sansoz, Frederic and Huang, Jianyu and Liu, Yi and Sun, Shouheng and Zhang, Ze and Mao, Scott X.},
abstractNote = {Although nanoscale twinning is an effective means to enhance yield strength and tensile ductility in metals, nanotwinned metals generally fail well below their theoretical strength limit due to heterogeneous dislocation nucleation from boundaries or surface imperfections. Here we show that Au nanowires containing angstrom-scaled twins (0.7 nm in thickness) exhibit tensile strengths up to 3.12 GPa, near the ideal limit, with a remarkable ductile-to-brittle transition with decreasing twin size. This is opposite to the behaviour of metallic nanowires with lower-density twins reported thus far. Ultrahigh-density twins (twin thicknesso2.8 nm) are shown to give rise to homogeneous dislocation nucleation and plastic shear localization, contrasting with the heterogeneous slip mechanism observed in single crystalline or low-density-twinned nanowires. The twin size dependent dislocation nucleation and deformation represent a new type of size effect distinct from the sample size effects described previously.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms2768},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 4,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2013},
month = {Tue Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2013}
}

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