Structural materials articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    In high entropy alloys a mix of a large number of five or more principal atomic elements is used to tune the properties. Here, the authors present a solution to the problem of predicting the properties of the huge number of potential alloys by developing an efficient screening approach based on automated calculations.

    • O.N. Senkov
    • , J.D. Miller
    •  & C. Woodward

  • Article |

    Breaking chemical bonds with mechanical force can be a useful route to modify chemical species, but studying the process in detail can be challenging. Here, the authors use atomic force microscopy to apply pressure and monitor bond cleavage on chemically modified graphene.

    • Jonathan R. Felts
    • , Andrew J. Oyer
    •  & Paul E. Sheehan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The long term durability of silicate glasses is of significant importance, not least due to applications in nuclear waste repositories. Here, the authors study glass corrosion and show that its rate drops as a passivating layer forms via a self-healing mechanism.

    • Stéphane Gin
    • , Patrick Jollivet
    •  & Thibault Charpentier

  • Article |

    When exposed to hydrogen, alloys may lose their ductility and fracture unexpectedly, a phenomenon known as hydrogen embrittlement. Here, the authors investigate hydrogen embrittlement in a Ni-based superalloy and find that coherent twin boundaries are susceptible to crack initiation.

    • Matteo Seita
    • , John P. Hanson
    •  & Michael J. Demkowicz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of magnetism in metallic atomic chains is a widely debated phenomenon, of relevance to atomic-scale spintronics. Here, Strigl et al. measure the magneto-conductance of platinum break junctions stretched over sub-atomic distances, evidencing the evolution of distinct magnetic order.

    • Florian Strigl
    • , Christopher Espy
    •  & Torsten Pietsch

  • Article |

    Type-II glass-like carbon is a widely used material with desirable physical properties for industrial applications. Here, the authors investigate its structure-property performance under compression, and propose a model to explain its unusual, and pressure-tunable, elastic and mechanical properties.

    • Zhisheng Zhao
    • , Erik F. Wang
    •  & Guoyin Shen

  • Article |

    Lithium dendrite growth is a serious hazard in battery operations. Here, the authors report an ion-conducting membrane based on aramid nanofibers, and demonstrate effective suppression of copper and lithium dendrites.

    • Siu-On Tung
    • , Szushen Ho
    •  & Nicholas A. Kotov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One mystery of glass transition from supercooled liquid is the lack of apparent change in structure, which is in contrast to a large change in dynamics. Here Dunleavy et al. provide a possible solution to this discrepancy by simulating dynamic correlation using a mutual information approach.

    • Andrew J. Dunleavy
    • , Karoline Wiesner
    •  & C. Patrick Royall

  • Article |

    High nucleation density has thus far limited the quality and grain size of CVD-grown hexagonal boron nitride. Here, by optimizing the Ni ratio in Cu–Ni substrates, the authors successfully reduce nucleation density and report single-crystal hexagonal boron nitride grains up to 7500 μm2.

    • Guangyuan Lu
    • , Tianru Wu
    •  & Mianheng Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Size-affected dislocation-mediated plasticity is important in a wide range of materials and technologies. Here, El-Awady develops a validated generalized size-dependent dislocation-based model that can predict strength as a function of crystal/grain size and dislocation density.

    • Jaafar A. El-Awady

  • Article |

    The use of chalcogenide glasses in simple electronic devices, such as a p-n junction, is hindered by the lack of n-type material. Here, Hughes et al.demonstrate n-type doping of GeTe and GaLaSO amorphous films using bismuth-ion implantation.

    • Mark A. Hughes
    • , Yanina Fedorenko
    •  & Richard J. Curry

  • Article |

    Understanding the atomic-scale processes by which deformation occurs in a metallic glass remains a challenge. Here, the authors apply atomic-scale simulations to study the mechanism by which thermally activated deformation initiates in a model binary metallic glass.

    • Yue Fan
    • , Takuya Iwashita
    •  & Takeshi Egami

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Concrete is a vital material in meeting present day construction demands. Here, the authors report a computational combinatorial approach to understand how molecular level characteristics influence the mechanical properties of cement hydrates, via screening against distinct defect types.

    • M.J. Abdolhosseini Qomi
    • , K.J. Krakowiak
    •  & R.J-.M. Pellenq

  • Article |

    There has been a great deal of interest in single-atom heterogeneous catalysis recently. Here, the authors show that industrially relevant lanthanum oxide-doped alumina supports are capable of stabilizing atomically dispersed palladium species, which are evaluated for low-temperature carbon monoxide oxidation.

    • Eric J. Peterson
    • , Andrew T. DeLaRiva
    •  & Abhaya K. Datye

  • Article |

    Three-dimensional Dirac semimetals are a recently discovered state of condensed matter considered as the 3D analogue of graphene. Here, Yang et al. propose a general framework to classify stable 3D Dirac semimetals in systems with time-reversal, inversion and uniaxial rotational symmetries.

    • Bohm-Jung Yang
    •  & Naoto Nagaosa

  • Article |

    Although defect-free graphene is a promising membrane that is impermeable to all gases and liquids, it is difficult to produce large area films for practical applications. Su et al.show that multilayer graphitic films based on reduced graphene oxide can achieve the same goal but on larger scales.

    • Y. Su
    • , V. G. Kravets
    •  & R. R. Nair

  • Article |

    Nanotwinned metals containing a high density of coherent twin boundaries have the potential to exhibit high strength and ductility. Here, the authors study the effect that incoherent twin boundaries have on mechanical properties of nanotwinned aluminium with high stacking-fault energy, observing substantial work hardening and plasticity.

    • D. Bufford
    • , Y. Liu
    •  & X. Zhang

  • Article |

    Auxetic materials display a negative Poisson’s ratio and are usually observed in engineered structures. Here, the authors observe intrinsic auxetic behaviour in unmodified two-dimensional black phosphorous by first-principles calculations, with the auxetic behaviour resulting from its puckered structure.

    • Jin-Wu Jiang
    •  & Harold S. Park

  • Article |

    Reproducing complex surface geometries for high-performance composite materials is very desirable, although current synthesis methods are limited. Here, the authors present a technique to produce large-area freeform microstructures via strain-engineered growth of patterned vertically aligned carbon nanotubes.

    • M. De Volder
    • , S. Park
    •  & A. J. Hart

  • Article |

    Wall–fluid interactions are known to have a large influence on the physics of confined glasses. Here, the authors observe a multiple re-entrant glass transition for a polydisperse hard-sphere system confined between two surfaces, when the wall separation distance is of the order of a few particle diameters.

    • Suvendu Mandal
    • , Simon Lang
    •  & Fathollah Varnik

  • Article |

    There is strong interest in carbon nanotube assemblies for a variety of applications, many of which require combined high mechanical and electrical properties. Here, the authors demonstrate a rolling technique for performance improvement, reporting tensile strength of 4.34 GPa, ductility of 10% and electrical conductivity of 2.0 × 104 S cm−1.

    • J. N. Wang
    • , X. G. Luo
    •  & Y. Chen

  • Article |

    The mechanical properties of small volumes are often studied but rarely are the effects of surface oxidation considered. Here, the authors perform a simulation of an aluminium nanowire with an oxide shell deforming in oxygen, finding that the oxide demonstrates superplastic deformation under load.

    • Fatih G. Sen
    • , Ahmet T. Alpas
    •  & Yue Qi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fangs are segments of the spider mouthparts, which are used to inject venom into prey and are required to sustain large mechanical loads. Here, the authors perform experiment-driven simulations, so to understand the correlation between the multiscale structural gradients and the biomechanical function of the fang.

    • Benny Bar-On
    • , Friedrich G. Barth
    •  & Yael Politi

  • Article |

    Studying relaxation in network-forming glasses on the atomic scale is experimentally challenging. Here, the authors perform X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy to study relaxation in sodium silicate at 297–762 K and show that fast atomic rearrangements occur even in the deep glassy state.

    • B. Ruta
    • , G. Baldi
    •  & F. Nazzani

  • Article |

    While the intrinsic strength of graphene has previously been demonstrated to be high, the fracture toughness remains unknown. Here, the authors perform in situtesting of graphene in a scanning electron microscope and report a critical stress intensity factor of ~4.0 MPa√m.

    • Peng Zhang
    • , Lulu Ma
    •  & Jun Lou

  • Article |

    Potential energy landscape models are often used to describe transitions in the glassy state. Here, the authors report that the landscape is much rougher than usually assumed, and demonstrate that it undergoes a transition to fractal basins before the jamming point is reached.

    • Patrick Charbonneau
    • , Jorge Kurchan
    •  & Francesco Zamponi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural phase transitions are known to accommodate plastic deformation in some metals and ceramics. Here, the authors observe the in situtransformation of body-centred cubic molybdenum to face-centred cubic, and finally to body-centred cubic, allowing for 15.4% tensile strain accommodation.

    • S. J. Wang
    • , H. Wang
    •  & S. X. Mao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical synthesis of chiral materials with enantioselective properties is an ongoing challenge. Here, the authors fabricate a chirally imprinted mesoporous metal from the electrochemical reduction of platinum salts in the presence of a liquid crystal phase and chiral templating molecules.

    • Chularat Wattanakit
    • , Yémima Bon Saint Côme
    •  & Alexander Kuhn

  • Article |

    The mechanisms by which Johari-Goldstein relaxation is accommodated in metallic glasses are difficult to clarify. Here, the authors elucidate the mechanism in an ultra-quenched metallic glass with a cooling rate of ~1010 K s−1, by extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy.

    • Y. H. Liu
    • , T. Fujita
    •  & M. W. Chen

  • Article |

    The raptorial appendages of stomatopods are known to inflict large impact forces at high speeds, while exhibiting large damage tolerance. Here, the authors study the structure, distribution and nanomechanical properties of mineral phases in stomatopod's clubs, finding that calcium sulphate is co-localized with crystalline fluorapatite.

    • Shahrouz Amini
    • , Admir Masic
    •  & Ali Miserez

  • Article |

    Glass is well known to be a brittle material, with fracture occurring soon after crack nucleation. Here, inspired by natural architectures, the authors report the laser patterning of features within an oxide glass, leading to a two order of magnitude improvement in fracture toughness.

    • M. Mirkhalaf
    • , A. Khayer Dastjerdi
    •  & F. Barthelat

  • Article |

    In situstudies of deformation in metal nanowires have yielded interesting results. Here, the authors perform cyclic loading on gold nanowires and observe twinning and detwinning phenomena, respectively caused by tensile and compressive loading, and elucidate the underpinning mechanism by molecular dynamics simulations.

    • Subin Lee
    • , Jiseong Im
    •  & Sang Ho Oh

  • Article |

    Phase separation in nickel-based superalloys is known to be complex and to determine the resulting microstructure and mechanical properties. Here, the authors use atom probe tomography to study phase development, finding that nickel concentration is critical in driving the formation of the γ phase from γ′.

    • Florian Vogel
    • , Nelia Wanderka
    •  & John Banhart

  • Article |

    Protein-based hydrogels are of great interest for many biomedical applications. Here, the authors demonstrate the use of mechanical labile proteins to initiate large-scale forced unfolding in order to engineer the mechanical properties of protein-based biomaterials.

    • Jie Fang
    • , Alexander Mehlich
    •  & Hongbin Li

  • Article |

    Coal is widely used for energy generation, but has not been considered for possible functional materials. Here, the authors report the one-step formation of graphene quantum dots from coal at yields of up to 20%, which is advantageous when compared with their syntheses from sp2-type carbon structures.

    • Ruquan Ye
    • , Changsheng Xiang
    •  & James M. Tour

  • Article |

    The electrostatic response of materials to macroscopic deformations is crucial for the operation of sensors and actuators. Here, the author combines ideas from transformation optics and density-functional perturbation theory to achieve a general description of surface flexoelectric effects.

    • Massimiliano Stengel

  • Article |

    The scales of Arapaima gigas, a fresh water fish found in the Amazon Basin, act as effective armour against predators. Here, Zimmermann et al. elucidate the deformation mechanisms that allow for this resistance, concluding that lamellae in the scales reorient under an applied load, preventing fracture.

    • Elizabeth A. Zimmermann
    • , Bernd Gludovatz
    •  & Robert O. Ritchie

  • Article |

    The mechanical testing of thin films is non-trivial, due to their very fine dimensions. Kim et al. use the inherent surface tension of water as a platform for the frictionless tensile testing of gold films, with a thickness as fine as 55 nm.

    • Jae-Han Kim
    • , Adeel Nizami
    •  & Taek-Soo Kim

  • Article |

    Boron carbide is known to deform and fail via the formation of amorphous shear bands, but the atomic-scale events by which this occurs are unknown. Reddy et al.study the atomic structure of these shear bands and find that they form via the disassembly of icosahedra.

    • K. Madhav Reddy
    • , P. Liu
    •  & M.W. Chen

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