Why Griffith's Law of fracture does not hold at the nanoscale
We know from fracture mechanics theories that fracture instability in a perfectly brittle material occurs when energy release rate (G) becomes equal or more than two times the surface energy (γ) of that material. The value of G = 2γ is known as fracture toughness Gc. This is the classical Griffith criteria of brittle fracture. Experimentally, however, we know that plasticity becomes eminent for most materials and this criteria does not work.