TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanotube fracture during the failure of carbon nanotube/alumina composites
AU - Yamamoto, Go
AU - Shirasu, Keiichi
AU - Hashida, Toshiyuki
AU - Takagi, Toshiyuki
AU - Suk, Ji Won
AU - An, Jinho
AU - Piner, Richard D.
AU - Ruoff, Rodney S.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Mr. T. Miyazaki of Technical Division, School of Engineering, Tohoku University, for technical assistance in the TEM analysis. This research was partially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 08J09683 and by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) 21226004. This work was performed under the inter-university cooperative research program of the Advanced Research Center of Metallic Glasses, Institute for materials Research, Tohoku University. Ruoff group members (J.W.S., J.H.A., R.D.P., R.S.R.) were supported by the NSF #0802247, Fracture Mechanics of Nanowires and Nanostructures, D. Kouris program manager, and the DARPAN/MEMS S&T Fundamentals Program, D. Polla program manager.
PY - 2011/10
Y1 - 2011/10
N2 - Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) underwent failure during crack opening in a MWCNT/alumina composite. Transmission electron microscope observations and single nanotube pullout tests revealed that the MWCNTs, rather than pulling out from the alumina matrix, broke in the outer shells and then the inner core was pulled away, leaving fragments of the outer shells in the matrix (i.e., they underwent failure in a "sword-in-sheath" fracture mode, as observed for MWCNTs under tensile loading). Some MWCNTs failed leaving either a very short sword-in-sheath failure or a clean break. Theoretical predictions based on the MWCNT failure and pullout models suggested that the use of MWCNTs having a much higher load carrying capacity may lead to composites with a higher fracture toughness. These results may provide new insight into the fracture mechanisms and suggest a new design methodology for MWCNT-based ceramic composites, leading to improved fracture toughness.
AB - Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) underwent failure during crack opening in a MWCNT/alumina composite. Transmission electron microscope observations and single nanotube pullout tests revealed that the MWCNTs, rather than pulling out from the alumina matrix, broke in the outer shells and then the inner core was pulled away, leaving fragments of the outer shells in the matrix (i.e., they underwent failure in a "sword-in-sheath" fracture mode, as observed for MWCNTs under tensile loading). Some MWCNTs failed leaving either a very short sword-in-sheath failure or a clean break. Theoretical predictions based on the MWCNT failure and pullout models suggested that the use of MWCNTs having a much higher load carrying capacity may lead to composites with a higher fracture toughness. These results may provide new insight into the fracture mechanisms and suggest a new design methodology for MWCNT-based ceramic composites, leading to improved fracture toughness.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.carbon.2011.04.022
DO - 10.1016/j.carbon.2011.04.022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79959968562
SN - 0008-6223
VL - 49
SP - 3709
EP - 3716
JO - Carbon
JF - Carbon
IS - 12
ER -