Revealing nanoscale plasticity of metallic nanosponges with correlative and scale-bridging 3D microscopy and modelling

作者：Thomas Przybilla, Zhuocheng Xie, Aruna Prakash, Erich Thiess, Florian Niekiel, Benjamin Apeleo Zubiri, Mirza Mačković, Peter Schweizer, Julien Guénolé, Stephen T. Kelly, Hrishikesh Bale, Dong Wang, Stefan Sandfeld, Erik Bitzek, Erdmann Spiecker · 发表于：Communications Materials · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s43246-025-00914-z · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Nanoporous metals and alloys、Anodic Oxide Films and Nanostructures、Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion

Abstract Metallic nanosponges are well known to exhibit distinct mechanical properties that are considered to originate from the interwoven mechanics of the nanoscale ligaments as individual units and as a network. A comprehensive understanding of the physical mechanisms behind these properties spanning over several length scales is to date lacking. Here, by employing a correlative and scale-bridging workflow combining non-destructive 3D electron and X-ray tomography, in situ mechanics and experimentally-informed real-size modelling, we reveal the atomic origins of size dependent deformation mechanisms of nanoporous gold ranging from sub-ten to hundreds of nanometers. A realistic distribution of geometries and sizes of the ligaments appears to be crucial to accurately capture the mechanical response of nanoporous gold, including deformation gradients and plasticity. Our workflow demonstrates the potential for exploring the atomistic mechanisms of material plasticity with geometrical complexity.