determining-the-mechanical-strength-of-ultra-fine-grained-metals

Determining the Mechanical Strength of Ultra-Fine-Grained Metals

The mechanical strengthening of metals is the long-standing challenge and popular topic of materials science in industries and academia. The size ...

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

The size of nanocrystals provides a limitation on dislocation activity and associated stress-induced deformation. Dislocation-mediated plastic deformation is expected to become inactive below a critical particle size, which has been proposed to be between 10 and 30 nanometers according to computer simulations and transmission electron microscopy analysis. However, deformation experiments at high pressure on polycrystalline nickel suggest that dislocation activity is still operative in 3-nanometer crystals. Substantial texturing is observed at pressures above 3.0 gigapascals for 500-nanometer nickel and at greater than 11.0 gigapascals for 20-nanometer nickel. Surprisingly, texturing is also seen in 3-nanometer nickel when compressed above 18.5 gigapascals. The observations of pressure-promoted texturing indicate that under high external pressures, dislocation activity can be extended down to a few-nanometers-length scale.

Texture of nanocrystalline nickel: probing the lower size limit of dislocation activity.

We report an unprecedented surface doping-driven anomaly in the compression behaviors of nanocrystals demonstrating that the change of surface chemistry can lead to an interior bulk structure change in nanoparticles. In the synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction experiments, titania nanocrystals with low concentration yttrium dopants at the surface are found to be less compressible than undoped titania nanocrystals. More surprisingly, an unexpected TiO2(ii) phase (α-PbO2 type) is induced and obvious anisotropy is observed in the compression of yttrium-doped TiO2, in sharp contrast to the compression behavior of undoped TiO2. In addition, the undoped brookite nanocrystals remain with the same structure up to 30 GPa, whereas the yttrium-doped brookite amorphizes above 20 GPa. The abnormal structural evolution observed in yttrium-doped TiO2 does not agree with the reported phase stability of nano titania polymorphs, thus suggesting that the physical properties of the interior of nanocrystals can be controlled by the surface, providing an unconventional and new degree of freedom in search for nanocrystals with novel tunable properties that can trigger applications in multiple areas of industry and provoke more related basic science research. 

Nanocrystals in compression: unexpected structural phase transition and amorphization due to surface impurities.

The conventional belief, based on the Read-Shockley model for the grain rotation mechanism, has been that smaller grains rotate more under stress due to the motion of grain boundary dislocations. However, in our high-pressure synchrotron Laue x-ray microdiffraction experiments, 70 nm nickel particles are found to rotate more than any other grain size. We infer that the reversal in the size dependence of the grain rotation arises from the crossover between the grain boundary dislocation-mediated and grain interior dislocation-mediated deformation mechanisms. The dislocation activities in the grain interiors are evidenced by the deformation texture of nickel nanocrystals. This new finding reshapes our view on the mechanism of grain rotation and helps us to better understand the plastic deformation of nanomaterials, particularly of the competing effects of grain boundary and grain interior dislocations.

Reversal in the Size Dependence of Grain Rotation.

Rhenium diboride is an established superhard compound that can scratch diamond and can be readily synthesized under ambient pressure. Here, we demonstrate two synergistic ways to further enhance the already high yield strength of ReB. The first approach builds on previous reports where tungsten is doped into ReB at concentrations up to 48 at. %, forming a rhenium/tungsten diboride solid solution (ReWB). In the second approach, the composition of both materials is maintained, but the particle size is reduced to the nanoscale (40-150 nm). Bulk samples were synthesized by arc melting above 2500 °C, and salt flux growth at ∼850 °C was used to create nanoscale materials.  radial X-ray diffraction was then performed under high pressures up to ∼60 GPa in a diamond anvil cell to study mechanical properties including bulk modulus, lattice strain, and strength anisotropy. The differential stress for both ReWB and nano ReB (n-ReB) was increased compared to bulk ReB. In addition, the lattice-preferred orientation of n-ReB was experimentally measured. Under non-hydrostatic compression, n-ReB exhibits texture characterized by a maximum along the [001] direction, confirming that plastic deformation is primarily controlled by the basal slip system. At higher pressures, a range of other slip systems become active. Finally, both size and solid-solution effects were combined in nanoscale ReWB. This material showed the highest differential stress and bulk modulus, combined with suppression of the new slip planes that opened at high pressure in n-ReB.

Jinyuan Yan

Advanced Light Source

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Determining the Mechanical Strength of Ultra-Fine-Grained Metals