Reporting buckling strength and elastic properties of nanowires

Nanocrystalline-nanowires have been incorporated in many micro-/nano-scale applications. To design nanowires-based nano-devices, studies should be conducted on the characterization of the elastic properties and the buckling strengths of nanowires. The challenge associated with detecting the properties of nanowires is that their properties are size-dependent. This motivated us to propose a model for the mechanics of nanocrystalline nanowires. In the context of this model, new measures are incorportated to account for the nanowire material structure and size effects and to reflect the experimental observations of nanomaterials-nanowires. This model is then harnessed to report the ranges of the buckling strength and the elastic properties of nanowires made of nanocrystalline diamond, Si, Al, Cu, Ag, Au, and Pt, for the first time. First, we report the range of the grain boundary Young's modulus for the various nanocrystalline materials. Depending on the contents of the grain boundary and the amount of impurities, the grain boundary Young's modulus is likely to be within the reported ranges. Second, for each grain size (from 200 nm to 2 nm), we report the range of Young's modulus, shear modulus, bulk modulus, and mass density of the aforementioned nanocrystalline nanomaterials. Third, we report the buckling strength and the equivalent Young's modulus of nanowires with different sizes accounting for the nanowire surface effects. The reported ranges of the buckling strength and the elastic properties of nanowires are experimentally validated.