Abstract
Metallic nanoparticles are usually polyhedrons instead of perfect spheres, which presents a challenge to characterize their elastic response. In the present paper, the elastic compression of truncated octahedral nanoparticles is investigated through finite element calculations and atomic simulations. An analytical expression of load is obtained for octahedral particles, which is linearly proportional to indent depth, instead of the 3/2 power law relation predicted by Hertzian model for elastic sphere. Comparisons with molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the obtained relation can predict the elastic response of polyhedral nanoparticles. This study is helpful to measure the elastic properties of polyhedral nanoparticles, and characterize their elastic response.
Highlights
Nanoparticles have attracted intensive scientific attention, due to their distinctive properties and promising applications in many fields, e.g. nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS), biomedicines, catalysts, sensors and environment protections.1–4 it is of critical importance to characterize the mechanical properties of nanoparticles, to understand the underlying physical mechanisms, and to provide guidelines for reliable design of NEMS.The compression technique has been used to measure the mechanical properties of nanoparticles
An analytical expression of load is obtained for octahedral particles, which is linearly proportional to indent depth, instead of the 3/2 power law relation predicted by Hertzian model for elastic sphere
Comparisons with molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that the obtained relation can predict the elastic response of polyhedral nanoparticles
Summary
Nanoparticles have attracted intensive scientific attention, due to their distinctive properties and promising applications in many fields, e.g. nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS), biomedicines, catalysts, sensors and environment protections. it is of critical importance to characterize the mechanical properties of nanoparticles, to understand the underlying physical mechanisms, and to provide guidelines for reliable design of NEMS. Through continuous stiffness measurement method, Ramos et al. observed the hardness and elastic modulus of Au nanoparticles decreasing with the increase of indent depth. No matter in experiments or atomic simulations, an accurate and proper relation between load and indent depth is necessary to extract the elastic modulus from the load-depth curves. Through finite element simulations with the incorporation of surface energy, Ding et al. analyzed the elastic compression of nanospheres and presented the analytical load-depth relation. Elaborate experiments observed that truncated octahedron is one typical structure of crystalline nanoparticles.. Elaborate experiments observed that truncated octahedron is one typical structure of crystalline nanoparticles.12–17 For such a complex polyhedral structure, it is a challenge to describe its elastic compression analytically. Comparisons with directly atomic simulations prove the applicability of this relation to metallic polyhedral nanoparticles
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