IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms11001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nucleation of amorphous shear bands at nanotwins in boron suboxide

Author

Listed:
  • Qi An

    (Materials and Process Simulation Center, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard)

  • K. Madhav Reddy

    (WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University
    Johns Hopkins University)

  • Jin Qian

    (Materials and Process Simulation Center, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard)

  • Kevin J. Hemker

    (Johns Hopkins University)

  • Ming-Wei Chen

    (WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University)

  • William A. Goddard III

    (Materials and Process Simulation Center, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard)

Abstract

The roles of grain boundaries and twin boundaries in mechanical properties are well understood for metals and alloys. However, for covalent solids, their roles in deformation response to applied stress are not established. Here we characterize the nanotwins in boron suboxide (B6O) with twin boundaries along the planes using both scanning transmission electron microscopy and quantum mechanics. Then, we use quantum mechanics to determine the deformation mechanism for perfect and twinned B6O crystals for both pure shear and biaxial shear deformations. Quantum mechanics suggests that amorphous bands nucleate preferentially at the twin boundaries in B6O because the twinned structure has a lower maximum shear strength by 7.5% compared with perfect structure. These results, which are supported by experimental observations of the coordinated existence of nanotwins and amorphous shear bands in B6O, provide a plausible atomistic explanation for the influence of nanotwins on the deformation behaviour of superhard ceramics.

Suggested Citation

  • Qi An & K. Madhav Reddy & Jin Qian & Kevin J. Hemker & Ming-Wei Chen & William A. Goddard III, 2016. "Nucleation of amorphous shear bands at nanotwins in boron suboxide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11001
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11001
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms11001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.