Materials become insensitive to flaws at nanoscale: Lessons from nature, Gao, Ji, Jger, Arzt, Fratzl, PNAS, 2003
Novelty/impact/significance:
It is firstly/ingeniously demonstrated that the biological nanocomposites’ generic structure is mechanically advantageous: the nanometer size of mineral reinforcements is selected to ensure optimum strength and maximum tolerance of flaws. The derivations are simple and effective.
Scientific question:
Hierarchical toughening of bioinspired nacre-like hybrid carbon composite, Jiao, Zhang, Liu, Liu, Zhang, Tang, Liu, Zhang, Carbon, 2021
Novelty/impact/significance:
An all-natural bioinspired structural material for plastic replacement, Guan, Yang, Han, Ling, Yu, Nature Communications, 2020
Novelty/impact/significance:
A strong (stiffness 20 GPa and strength 281 MPa), tough (11.5 MPa m1/2), lightweight (1.7 g/cm3), and thermal-resistant (thermal expansion coefficient 7x10-6K-1) composite material is created, using all-natural raw materials through a mass-producible method.
Is the Bouligand architecture tougher than regular cross-ply laminates? Adiscrete element method study, Pro and Barthelat, Extreme Mechanics Letters, 2020
Novelty/impact/significance:
With capturing the main mechanisms, it is revealed that the Bouligand structure outperforms the cross-ply (0°/90°) for any crack orientation, while the former is more isotropic in-plane in stiffness and toughness.
Scientific question:
Is the Bouligand architecture tougher than regular cross-plies, given the same fibers and interfaces?
Processing, structure and properties of polyacrylonitrile fibers with 15 weight percent single wall carbon nanotubes, Arias-Monje, Lu, Ramachandran, Kirmani, Kumar, Polymer, 2020
Novelty/impact/significance:
Dual-phase nanostructuring as a route to high-strength magnesium alloys, Wu, Chan, Zhu, Sun, Lu, Science, 2017
Novelty/impact/significance:
Create a magnesium-based supra-nanometer-sized dual-phase glass-crystal (SNDP-GC) material that approaches the near-ideal strength, 3.3 GPa and a Young’s modulus of 65 GPa. The fabrication is easy to scale up (magnetron sputtering) and the material is 10cm x 10cm with 10 µm in thickness, which is promising for various industrial applications.
Scientific question:
Heterogeneous lamella structure unites ultrafine-grain strength with coarse-grain ductility, Wu, Yang, Yuan, Wu Wei, Huang, Zhu, PNAS, 2015
Novelty/impact/significance:
A novel heterogeneous lamella structure in Ti is created, which is as strong as the ultrafine-grained Ti and simultaneously as ductile as the coarse-grained Ti, with higher strain hardening than the coarse-grained Ti.
Ultrastrong and stiff layered polymer nanocomposites, Podsiadlo, Kaushik, et al., Kotov, Science, 2007
Novelty/impact/significance:
Based on a traditional layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly, multilayered clay/poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA) nanocomposites with highly ordered and uniformly distributed planar nanosheets are fabricated. The nanocomposites show exceptionally high stiffness and tensile strength (one order of magnitude greater than those of analogous nanocomposites), comparable to the modulus of Kevlar.
Scientific question:
