基于单片机的AFM纳米机械性能测试系统

为解决采用原子力显微镜(AFM)系统进行纳米机械性能测试中存在的不能够直接获得载荷-压深曲线以及不能够随意改变加载、保载、卸载时间等问题,对AFM系统进行了改造,开发了一套基于单片机的信号输入输出模块。将该模块与AFM控制系统相联,形成新的纳米机械性能测试系统。该系统信号输出精度为0.15 mV,信号采集精度为0.3 mV,工作台的移动灵敏度为1.53 nm,可以动态改变垂直载荷,并实时获得载荷-压深曲线。通过单片机设置模拟信号的输出速率可以实现加载、保载和卸载速率的改变;结合二维微动精密工作台,可以实现较大范围内高精度的点阵压痕测试。通过在聚碳酸酯、聚二甲基硅氧烷等材料表面进行实验测试表明:该系统可以高速高精度地测量样品的纳米机械性能参数,包括对样品进行纳米压痕测试和对样品的纯弹性变形过程进行检测,如聚二甲基硅氧烷或者各种微梁等微小构件。

微观机械性能试验在硬质合金领域应用的新进展

本文总结了近年来在微观尺度上的机械性能试验在硬质合金领域应用的新进展,包括微/纳米压痕、微/纳米摩擦性能、微柱抗压、微悬臂抗弯和抗拉试验等。着重阐述了尺寸效应和取向效应对硬度、压痕模量、断裂强度等性能指标的影响,介绍了微尺度条件下硬质合金发生形变和损伤的物理机理以及该领域今后发展的潜在方向。

Increasing the toughness while reducing the viscosity of carbon nanotube/ polyether imide/polyether ether ketone nanocomposites

Polyether ether ketone(PEEK)has good mechanical properties.However,its high viscosity when molten limits its use because it is hard to process.PEEK nanocomposites containing both carbon nanotubes(CNTs)and polyether imide(PEI)were pre-pared by a direct wet powder blending method using a vertical injection molding machine.The addition of an optimum amount of PEI lowered the viscosity of the molten PEEK by approximately 50%while producing an increase in the toughness of the nanocom-posites,whose strain to failure increased by 129%,and fracture energy increased by 97%.The uniformly dispersed CNT/PEI powder reduced the processing difficulty of PEEK nanocomposites without affecting the thermal resistance.This improvement of the strength and viscosity of PEEK facilitate its use in the preparation of thermoplastic composites.

Mechanical properties of 3D carbon/carbon composites by nanoindentation technique

Nanoindentation tests were conducted to investigate the near-surface mechanical properties of the individual components(fiber and matrix) for three-dimensional reinforced carbon/carbon composites(3D C/C).Optical microscope and polarizing light microscope were used to characterize the microstructure of 3D C/C.The microscopy results show that large number of pores and cracks exist at both bundle/matrix interface and pitch carbon matrix.These defects have important effect on the mechanical behavior of 3D C/C.The in situ properties for components of 3D C/C were acquired by nanoindentation technique.Relative to the matrix sample,the fiber samples have more larger values for modulus,stiffness and hardness.However,there is no significant difference of modulus and stiffness among fiber samples with different directions.

Effect of nanoclay on properties of porous PVdF membranes

The main requirements for battery separators are high porosity which can serve pathways of lithium ion and space for gel electrolytes to impregnate in a membrane and mechanical strength to allow easy handling for battery assembly. Generally, it appears the trade-off relationship between the porosity and mechanical strength of the membrane. PVdF composite membranes containing nano-size clays were used to improve the mechanical strength of the membrane without affecting the membrane porosity. The composite membranes were prepared by phase inversion method controlling the membrane preparation conditions such as retention time. The resultant membranes show increased mechanical properties with similar membrane porosity around 80 % compared to the pristine PVdF membrane. Incorporation of nonoclay can be considered as an effective method to improve the mechanica! strength in porous membrane supports, especially in a separator.

Synthesis of Polymer Nanocomposites for Selective Laser Sintering （SLS）

This paper presents initial development of polymer application. PNC materials containing a polyamide （PA） and nano to improve the mechanical properties. Commercial polyamide 6 nanocomposites （PNC） material for rapid manufacturing （RM） particles （5 wt%） were produced by solution blending with the aim （PA6） was dissolved in formic acid （HCO2H） together with two different types of nano particle materials： yttrium stabilised zirconia （YSZ） and Hectorite clay （Benton 166） and spray-dried to create powder, creating powder with particle sizes in the range of 10-40 μm. The materials were processed on a CO2 selective laser sintering （SLS） experimental machine. Mechanical properties of the PNCs were evaluated and the results were compared with the unfilled base polymer. Good dispersion of additives was achieved by solution blending, however the PA6 was degraded during the material preparation and spray drying process which resulted in the formation of porous structure and low strength. However the addition of 5 （wt%） nano particles in the PA6 has shown to increase strength by an average of 50-60%. Further work on powder preparation is required in order to fully realize these performance benefits.

Design of multi-functional dual hole patterned carbon nanotube composites with superhydrophobicity and durability

Most current research on nanocomposites has focused on their bulk attributes, i.e., electrical, microwave, thermal, and mechanical properties. In practical applications, surface properties such as robustness against environmental contamination are critical design considerations if intrinsic properties are to be maintained. The aim of this research is to combine the bulk properties of nanocomposites with the superhydrophobic surface properties provided by imprinting techniques to create a single multi-functional system with enhanced bulk properties. We report the development of a highly conductive superhydrophobic nanotube composite, which is directly superimposed with a durable dual hole pattern through imprinting techniques. The dual hole pattern avoids the use of high slenderness ratio structures resulting in a surface which is robust against physical damage. Its stable superhydrophobic properties were characterized both theoretically and experimentally. By incorporating high aspect ratio carbon nanotubes （CNTs）, the dual patterned composites can also be effectively used for anti-icing and deicing applications where their superhydrophobic surface suppresses ice formation and their quick electric heating response at low voltage eliminates remaining frost. In addition, superior electromagnetic interference （EMI） shielding effectiveness （SE） was attained, with one of the highest values ever reported in the literature.

Transparent flexible ZnO/MWCNTs/PBMA ternary nanocomposite film with enhanced mechanical properties

Functional organic-inorganic nanocomposites with high transparency show significant potential application in many fields. However, it is still a great challenge to prepare flexible transparent nanocomposites due to the intrinsic stiffness of the nanoparticles and the poor interaction between nanopartieles and organic matrices. In this work, a transparent ternary nanocomposite film with enhanced mechanical performance is fabricated by two-steps. First, the transparent ternary ZnO/MWCNTs/n-butyl methacrylate （BMA） nanodispersion is prepared by mixing the ZnO/BMA and MWCNTs/BMA dispersions directly. Then, the ternary nanocoposites film is fabricated via in-situ bulk polymerization of the above nanodispersions. As a result, the tensile strength of the ZnO/MWCNTs/poly-n-butyl methacrylate （PBMA） ternary film is enhanced by 42% and the elongation at break is three times that of ZnO/PBMA nanocomposite. The hardness of the film increases from 5B to 1H with 40 wt% ZnO. These results indicate that ZnO and MWCNTs can improve the mechanical properties of the composite significantly. Importantly, the ternary nanocomposite film still remains high transparency and exhibit excellent UV-shielding performance. The as-prepared transparent multifunctional nanocomposite films have promising applications in optical materials and devices, such as optical filters, contact lenses and protection packing.

TiO_2 nanoparticles' effects on properties of concrete using ground granulated blast furnace slag as binder

In the present study, compressive strength, pore structure, thermal behavior and microstrncture characteristics of concrete containing ground granulated blast furnace slag and TiO2 nanoparticles as binder were investigated. Portland cement was replaced by different amounts of ground granulated blast furnace slag and the properties of concrete specimens were investigated. Al- though it negatively impacts the properties of concrete at early ages, ground granulated blast furnace slag up to 45 wt% was found to improve the physical and mechanical properties of concrete at later ages. TiO2 nanoparticles with the average particle size of 15 nm were partially added to concrete with the optimum content of ground granulated blast furnace slag and physical and mechanical properties of the specimens were measured. TiO2 nanoparticle as a partial replacement of cement up to 3 wt% could accelerate C-S-H gel formation as a result of increased crystalline Ca（OH）2 amount at the early age of hydration and hence increase compressive strength of concrete. The increased TiO2 nanoparticles＇ content of more than 3 wt% may cause reduced compressive strength because of the decreased crystalline Ca（OH）2 content required for C-S-H gel formation and unsuitable dispersed nanoparticles in the concrete matrix. TiO2 nanoparticles could improve the pore structure of concrete and shift the distributed pores to harmless and less-harm pores.

Recent advances in flexible supercapacitors based on carbon nanotubes and graphene

Owing to the rapidly growing market for flexible electronics, there is an urgent demand to develop flexible energy storage devices. Flexible supercapacitors have received much attention due to their good flexibility, fast charge/discharge rate and long lifecycle times. Carbon nanotubes（CNTs） and graphene have good mechanical properties, which make them suitable for flexible supercapacitors. Based on different nanostructures of CNTs and graphene, we summarized the recent progress in CNTs-and graphene-based flexible supercapacitors with a brief description of the basic principles for evaluating their performance. Special emphasis was given to fabrication methods, capacitive performance and electrode configurations of different flexible supercapacitors.Furthermore, the remaining challenges and future research directions for CNTs-and graphene-based flexible supercapacitors have also been discussed.

Small onion-like BN leads to ultrafine-twinned cubic BN

Nanotwinned cubic boron nitride(nt-cBN) with remarkable hardness, toughness, and stability has attracted widespread attention due to its distinct scientific and industrial importance. The key for nt-cBN synthesis is to adopt an onion-like BN(oBN) nano-precursor and induce phase transition under high pressure. Here, we found that the size change of oBN used greatly affected the mechanical performance of products. With the precursor size decreasing from^320 to 90 nm, the Vickers hardness of nanostructured products improved from 61 to 108 GPa, due to the fact that large oBN nanoparticles possessed more flattened, orderly and graphite-like shell layers, in sharp contrast to the highly wrinkled and imperfect layers in small-diameter nanoparticles, thus resulting in the apparent reduction of ultrafinetwin substructure in the synthetic products. This study reveals that only small oBN precursor could produce complete ultrafine nt-cBN with outstanding performance. A practical route was proposed to further improve the performance of this important material.

Quantitative measurement of the mechanical properties of human antibodies with sub-lO-nm resolution in a liquid environment

The nanomechanical properties of single human immunoglobulin G and M antibodies were measured in a liquid environment using a fast force-volume technique with sub-10-nm spatial resolution. The ultrastructural details of these molecules were resolved in the images. Simultaneously, important physical properties, including elasticity, adhesion, and deformation were measured. The dimensions and adsorption of the immunoglobulin M antibodies onto the substrate indicated that they are highly by a low elastic stiffness （34 ± 10 MPa） flexible. The antibodies were characterized and high deformability （1.5 ± 0.5 nm）.

Preface

With ever-increasing miniaturization and prominence of micro- and nano-scale materials and systems for engineering, func- tional and biological applications, understanding of the mechanical and thermal behavior of the nano- and micro-scale mate- rials/systems becomes critical to the development of technologies. Issues concerning mechanical and thermal response and reliability pervade a wide range of areas, from bulk materials to thin films, from crystalline materials to amorphous materials,

Influence of Intertube Additional Atoms on Sliding Behaviors of Double-Walled Carbon Nanotube

The effects of intertube additional atoms on （DWCNTs） are investigated using molecular dynamics （MD） the sliding behaviors of double-walled carbon nanotubes simulation method. The interaction between carbon atoms is modeled using the second-generation reactive empirical bond-order potential coupled with the Lennard-Jones potential. The simulations indicate that intertube additional atoms of DWCNT can significantly enhance the load transfer between neighboring tubes of DWCNT. The improvement in load transfer is guaranteed by the addition of intertube atoms which are covalently bonded to the inner and outer tubes of DWCNT. The results also show that the sliding behaviors of DWCNT are strongly dependent of additional atom numbers. The results presented here demonstrate that the superior mechanical properties of DWCNT can be realized by controlling intertube coupling. The general conclusions derived from this work may be of importance in devising high-performance CNT composites.