Fracture of Sub-20nm Ultrathin Gold Nanowires

Fracture of metals at the nanoscale and corresponding failure mechanisms have recently attracted considerable interest. However, quantitative in situ fracture experiments of nanoscale metals are rarely reported. Here it is shown that, under uni‐axial tensile loading, single crystalline ultrathin gol...

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Published inAdvanced functional materials Vol. 21; no. 20; pp. 3982 - 3989
Main Authors Lu, Yang, Song, Jun, Huang, Jian Yu, Lou, Jun
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 21.10.2011
WILEY‐VCH Verlag
Subjects
Crack propagation
Dislocations
fracture
Fracture mechanics
gold nanowires
in-situ TEM
Molecular structure
Nanomaterials
Nanostructure
Nanowires
Nucleation
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Summary:Fracture of metals at the nanoscale and corresponding failure mechanisms have recently attracted considerable interest. However, quantitative in situ fracture experiments of nanoscale metals are rarely reported. Here it is shown that, under uni‐axial tensile loading, single crystalline ultrathin gold nanowires may fracture in two modes, displaying distinctively different fracture morphologies and ductility. In situ high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) studies suggest that the unexpected brittle‐like fracture was closely related to the observed twin structures, which is very different from surface dislocation nucleation/propagation mediated mechanism in ductile fracture mode. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations further reveal the processes of shear‐induced twin formation and damage initiation at the twin structure/free surface interface, confirming the experimentally observed differences in fracture morphology and ductility. Finally, a fracture criterion based on competition between twin formation and surface dislocation nucleation/propagation as a function of misalignment angle is discussed. Single crystalline ultrathin gold nanowires may fracture in two modes under tensile loading, displaying distinctively different fracture morphologies and ductility. In the samples that experienced brittle‐like fracture, (111) twin structures were found to form during initial loading stage due to small misalignment and the final failure usually occurs along or near one of the twin regions.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-Q3HBMMVZ-6
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ArticleID:ADFM201101224
ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:1616-301X
1616-3028
1616-3028
DOI:10.1002/adfm.201101224