Engineering Nanoparticles For Maximum Strength

Because they are riddled with defects, bulk crystalline materials never achieve their ideal strength; nanocrystals, on the other hand, are so small there’s no room for defects. Yet while nanocrystalline materials may approach ideal strength in their resistance to stress, most nanostructures have shown only a limited ability to withstand large internal strains before they fail. Overcoming this limitation could lead to great advances in engineered materials on all scales.“Nano” is short for nanometer, a billionth of a meter. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have used in situ transmission electron microscopy to measure hollow spherical nanoparticles that withstand extreme stress and deform without losing strength.
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