Xi-Qiao Feng

The effect of nanotube waviness and agglomeration on the elastic property of carbon nanotube-reinforced composites

Owing to their superior mechanical and physical properties, carbon nanotubes seem to hold a great promise as an ideal reinforcing material for composites of high-strength and low-density. In most of the experimental results up to date, however, only modest improvements in the strength and stiffness have been achieved by incorporating carbon nanotubes in polymers. In the present paper, the stiffening effect of carbon nanotubes is quantitatively investigated by micromechanics methods. Especially, the effects of the extensively observed waviness and agglomeration of carbon nanotubes are examined theoretically. The Mori-Tanaka effective-field method is first employed to calculate the effective elastic moduli of composites with aligned or randomly oriented straight nanotubes. Then, a novel micromechanics model is developed to consider the waviness or curviness effect of nanotubes, which are assumed to have a helical shape. Finally, the influence of nanotube agglomeration on the effective stiffness is analyzed. Analytical expressions are derived for the effective elastic stiffness of carbon nanotube-reinforced composites with the effects of waviness and agglomeration. It is found that these two mechanisms may reduce the stiffening effect of nanotubes significantly. The present study not only provides the relationship between the effective properties and the morphology of carbon nanotubereinforced composites, but also may be useful for improving and tailoring the mechanical properties of nanotube composites. @DOI: 10.1115/1.1751182#

Effects of surface elasticity and residual surface tension on the natural frequency of microbeams

Surface effects often play a significant role in the physical properties of micro- and nanosized materials and structures. In this letter, the authors presented a theoretical model directed towards investigation of the effects of both surface elasticity and residual surface tension on the natural frequency of microbeams. A thin surface layer was introduced on the upper and lower surfaces to rationalize the near-surface material properties that are different from the bulk material. An explicit solution is derived for the natural frequency of microbeams with surface effects. This study might be helpful for the design of microbeam-based sensors and some related measurement techniques.

Mechanics of morphological instabilities and surface wrinkling in soft materials: a review

Morphological instabilities and surface wrinkling of soft materials such as gels and biological tissues are of growing interest to a number of academic disciplines including soft lithography, metrology, flexible electronics, and biomedical engineering. In this paper, we review some of the recent progresses in experimental and theoretical investigations of instabilities that lead to the emergence and evolution of surface wrinkling, folding and creasing under various geometrical constraints (e.g., thin films, sheets, fibers, particles, tubes, cavities, vesicles and capsules) and loading stimuli (e.g., mechanical forces, growth, atrophy, swelling, shrinkage, van der Waals interactions). Some representative theoretical and numerical approaches aimed at modelling the onset of instabilities as well as the postbuckling evolution involving multiple bifurcations and symmetry-breakings are discussed along with the main characteristics and some possible applications of this rich phenomenon.

SURFACE EFFECTS ON BUCKLING OF NANOWIRES UNDER UNIAXIAL COMPRESSION

Based on the conventional Euler buckling model, uniaxial compression tests have been utilized recently to measure the mechanical properties of nanowires. However, owing to the increasing ratio of surface area to bulk at nanoscale, the influence of surface energy becomes prominent and should be taken into consideration. In this letter, an analytical relation is given for the critical force of axial buckling of a nanowire by accounting for both the effects of surface elasticity and residual surface tension. This study might be helpful to characterize the mechanical properties of nanowires or design nanobeam-based devices in a wide range of applications.

Timoshenko beam model for buckling and vibration of nanowires with surface effects

In this paper, surface effects on the axial buckling and the transverse vibration of nanowires are examined by using the refined Timoshenko beam theory. The critical compression force of axial buckling and the natural frequency of nanowires are obtained analytically, in which the impacts of surface elasticity, residual surface stress, transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia have been included. The buckling and vibration behaviour of a nanowire is demonstrated to be size dependent, especially when its cross-sectional dimension reduces to nanometres. The surface effects with positive elastic constants tend to increase the critical compression force and the natural frequency, especially for slender nanowires, while the shear deformation lowers these values for stubby nanowires. This study may be helpful to accurately measure the mechanical properties of nanowires and to design nanowire-based devices and systems.

Integrin activation and internalization on soft ECM as a mechanism of induction of stem cell differentiation by ECM elasticity

The mechanism by which ECM elasticity induces lineage specification of stem cells has not been clearly understood. Integrins are well-documented mechanosensors that are positioned at the beginning of the sensing pathway. By using an antibody specifically recognizing the active conformation of β1 integrin, we observed that β1 integrin activation in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) was induced by soft substrate to a significantly greater degree than by stiff substrate. In contrast, however, the level of cell surface integrin on soft substrate was significantly lower than that on stiff substrate. Soft substrate markedly enhanced the internalization of integrin, and this internalization was mediated mainly through caveolae/raft-dependent endocytosis. The inhibition of integrin internalization blocked the neural lineage specification of BMMSCs on soft substrate. Furthermore, soft substrate also repressed the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)/Smad pathway at least partially through integrin-regulated BMP receptor endocytosis. A theoretical analysis based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) data indicated that integrin–ligand complexes are more easily ruptured on soft substrate; this outcome may contribute to the enhancement of integrin internalization on soft substrate. Taken together, our results suggest that ECM elasticity affects integrin activity and trafficking to modulate integrin BMP receptor internalization, thus contributing to stem cell lineage specification.

Surface stress effect in mechanics of nanostructured materials

This review article summarizes the advances in the surface stress effect in mechanics of nanostructured elements, including nanoparticles, nanowires, nanobeams, and nanofilms, and heterogeneous materials containing nanoscale inhomogeneities. It begins with the fundamental formulations of surface mechanics of solids, including the definition of surface stress as a surface excess quantity, the surface constitutive relations, and the surface equilibrium equations. Then, it depicts some theoretical and experimental studies of the mechanical properties of nanostructured elements, as well as the static and dynamic behaviour of cantilever sensors caused by the surface stress which is influenced by adsorption. Afterwards, the article gives a summary of the analytical elasto-static and dynamic solutions of a single as well as multiple inhomogeneities embedded in a matrix with the interface stress prevailing. The effect of surface elasticity on the diffraction of elastic waves is elucidated. Due to the difficulties in the analytical solution of inhomogeneities of complex shapes and configurations, finite element approaches have been developed for heterogeneous materials with the surface stress. Surface stress and surface energy are inherently related to crack propagation and the stress field in the vicinity of crack tips. The solutions of crack problems taking into account surface stress effects are also included. Predicting the effective elastic and plastic responses of heterogeneous materials while taking into account surface and interface stresses has received much attention. The advances in this topic are inevitably delineated. Mechanics of rough surfaces appears to deserve special attention due to its theoretical and practical implications. Some most recent work is reviewed. Finally, some challenges are pointed out. They include the characterization of surfaces and interfaces of real nanomaterials, experimental measurements and verification of mechanical parameters of complex surfaces, and the effects of the physical and chemical processes on the surface properties, etc.

Ultrasonic technique for extracting nanofibers from nature materials

This letter reports a simple and versatile approach for extracting bionanofibers from natural materials using the ultrasonic technique. Bionanofibers have been fabricated from various materials, e.g., spider and silkworm silks, chitin fibers, collagen, cotton, bamboo, and ramee and hemp fibers. The obtained nanofibers have uniform diameters in the range of 25–120nm and possess the optimized hierarchical structures and superior properties of natural materials which have formed after the evolution of many millions of years. This methodology might be valuable to provide a convenient, versatile, and environmentally benign fabrication method for producing bionanofibers at an industrial scale.

On the Stoney Formula for a Thin Film/Substrate System With Nonuniform Substrate Thickness

Current methodologies used for the inference of thin film stress through system curvature measurements are strictly restricted to stress and curvature states which are assumed to remain uniform over the entire film/substrate system. Recently Huang, Rosakis, and co-workers [Acta Mech. Sinica, 21, pp. 362–370 (2005); J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 53, 2483–2500 (2005); Thin Solid Films, 515, pp. 2220–2229 (2006); J. Appl. Mech., in press; J. Mech. Mater. Struct., in press] established methods for the film/substrate system subject to nonuniform misfit strain and temperature changes. The film stresses were found to depend nonlocally on system curvatures (i.e., depend on the full-field curvatures). These methods, however, all assume uniform substrate thickness, which is sometimes violated in the thin film/substrate system. Using the perturbation analysis, we extend the methods to nonuniform substrate thickness for the thin film/substrate system subject to nonuniform misfit strain.

Mechanisms of superhydrophobicity on hydrophilic substrates

Surface microstructures of solids play a significant role in producing superhydrophobic surfaces. In the present paper, the Cassie?Baxter and Wenzel models on a rough substrate are examined from the viewpoints of geometry and energy. The result shows that if the air beneath a droplet on a sinusoidal substrate is open to the atmosphere, the superhydrophobic state can exist only when the substrate is hydrophobic, and that the geometric parameters of the microstructure have a great influence on the wetting behavior. Two mechanisms that may lead to a superhydrophobic property from a hydrophilic substrate are addressed. Firstly, for closed or airproof microstructures (e.g.?honeycomb structures), a negative Laplace pressure difference caused by the trapped air under the drop can keep the balance of the liquid/vapor interface. Secondly, some special topologies of surface structures satisfying a certain geometric condition may also lead to the formation of a Cassie?Baxter state even if the microstructures are open to the air. Therefore, some surface morphologies may be designed to obtain superhydrophobic properties on hydrophilic surfaces. The present study is also helpful to understand some superhydrophobic phenomena observed in experiments and in nature.