Materials become insensitive to flaws at nanoscale: Lessons from nature

AUTOR(ES)

Gao, Huajian

FONTE

The National Academy of Sciences

RESUMO

Natural materials such as bone, tooth, and nacre are nanocomposites of proteins and minerals with superior strength. Why is the nanometer scale so important to such materials? Can we learn from this to produce superior nanomaterials in the laboratory? These questions motivate the present study where we show that the nanocomposites in nature exhibit a generic mechanical structure in which the nanometer size of mineral particles is selected to ensure optimum strength and maximum tolerance of flaws (robustness). We further show that the widely used engineering concept of stress concentration at flaws is no longer valid for nanomaterial design.

Documentos Relacionados

• Pregnant women become insensitive to cold stress
• Fracture initiation from initial spherical flaws in incompressible propellant materials
• Shape insensitive optimal adhesion of nanoscale fibrillar structures
• Cellulose-reinforced composites: from micro-to nanoscale
• The nature and origin of calcium-insensitive miniature end-plate potentials at rodent neuromuscular junctions.