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On the impact of capillarity for strength at the nanoscale
Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.1622
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2017-12-07
Sprache
English
Author(s)
TORE-DOI
Journal
Volume
8
Issue
1
Start Page
Article number: 1976
Citation
Nature communications 1 (8): art. no. 1976 (2017)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK
The interior of nanoscale crystals experiences stress that compensates for the capillary forces and that can be large, in the order of 1 GPa. Various studies have speculated on whether and how this surface-induced stress affects the stability and plasticity of small crystals. Yet, experiments have so far failed to discriminate between the surface contribution and other, bulk-related size effects. To clarify the issue, here we study the variation of the flow stress of a nanomaterial while distinctly different variations of the two capillary parameters, surface tension, and surface stress, are imposed under control of an applied electric potential. Our theory qualifies the suggested impact of surface stress as not forceful and instead predicts a significant contribution of the surface energy, as measured by the surface tension. The predictions for the combined potential-dependence and size-dependence of the flow stress are quantitatively supported by the experiment. Previous suggestions, favoring the surface stress as the relevant capillary parameter, are not consistent with our experiment.
DDC Class
530: Physik
Publication version
publishedVersion
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s41467-017-01434-2.pdf
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1.61 MB
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