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High density of grain boundaries in solid materials generally leads to high strength because grain boundaries act as strong obstacles to dislocation activity. We find that the flexural strength of nanoporous gold of grain size 206 nm is 33.6% lower than that of grain size 238 μm. We prepared three gold-silver precursor alloys, well-annealed, prestrained, and high-energy ball-milled, from which nanoporous gold samples were obtained by the same free-corrosion dealloying process. Ligaments of the same size are formed regardless of precursor alloys, and microstructural aspects of precursor alloys such as crystallographic orientation and grain size is preserved in the dealloying process. While the nanoindentation hardness of three nanoporous golds is independent of microstructural variation, flexural strength of nanocrystalline nanoporous gold is significantly lower than that of nanoporous golds with much larger grain size. We investigate weakening mechanisms of grain boundaries in nanocrystalline nanoporous gold, leading to weakening of flexural strength.

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Biodegradable electronics are disposable green devices whose constituents decompose into harmless byproducts, leaving no residual waste and minimally invasive medical implants requiring no removal surgery. Stretchable and flexible form factors are essential in biointegrated electronic applications for conformal integration with soft and expandable skins, tissues, and organs. Here a fully biodegradable MgZnCa metallic glass (MG) film is proposed for intrinsically stretchable electrodes with a high yield limit exploiting the advantages of amorphous phases with no crystalline defects. The irregular dissolution behavior of this amorphous alloy regarding electrical conductivity and morphology is investigated in aqueous solutions with different ion species. The MgZnCa MG nanofilm shows high elastic strain (≈2.6% in the nano-tensile test) and offers enhanced stretchability (≈115% when combined with serpentine geometry). The fatigue resistance in repeatable stretching also improves owing to the wide range of the elastic strain limit. Electronic components including the capacitor, inductor, diode, and transistor using the MgZnCa MG electrode support its integrability to transient electronic devices. The biodegradable triboelectric nanogenerator of MgZnCa MG operates stably over 50 000 cycles and its fatigue resistant applications in mechanical energy harvesting are verified. In vitro cell toxicity and in vivo inflammation tests demonstrate the biocompatibility in biointegrated use.