Model of the atomic configuration
of nucleation; ©UPenn
Materials scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science determine the strength of metals at the nanoscale.
The scientists have combined transition state theory, explicit atomistic energy landscape calculation and computer simulation to establish a theoretical framework to predict the strengths of small-volume materials. Unlike previous models, their prediction can be directly compared with experiments performed at realistic temperature and loading rates.
Their study demonstrated that the free, exterior surface of nanosized materials can be fertile breeding grounds of dislocations at high stresses. Dislocations are string-like defects whose movements give rise to plastic flow, or shape change, of solids. In large-volume materials, it is easy for dislocations to multiply and entangle and to maintain a decent population inside; however, in small-volume materials, dislocations could show up and then exit the sample, one at a time. To initiate and sustain plastic flow in this case, dislocations need to be frequently nucleated fresh from the surface.
The scientists modeled tiny bits of gold and copper to investigate the probabilistic nature of surface dislocation nucleation. The study showed that the activation volume associated with surface dislocation nucleation is characteristically in the range of 1–10 times the atomic volume, much smaller than that of many conventional dislocation processes. Small activation volumes will lead to sensitive temperature and strain-rate dependence of the critical stress, providing an upper bound to the size-strength relation.
From this, the team predicted that the "smaller is stronger" trend will saturate at wire diameters 10-50 nanometers for most metals. For comparison, computers now contain microchips with 45 nanometer strained silicon features. Associated with this saturation in strength is a transition in the rate-controlling mechanism, from collective dislocation dynamics to single dislocation nucleation.
COMPAMED.de; Source: University of Pennsylvania