Material objects with micrometer or nanometer dimensions can exhibit much higher strength than macroscopic objects, but this strength rarely approaches the maximum theoretical strength of the material. Here, we demonstrate that faceted single-crystalline nickel (Ni) nanoparticles exhibit an ultrahigh compressive strength (up to 34 GPa) unprecedented for metallic materials. This strength matches the available estimates of Ni theoretical strength. Three factors are responsible for this record-high strength: the large Ni shear modulus, the smooth edges and corners of the nanoparticles, and the thin oxide layer on the particle surface. This finding is supported by molecular dynamics simulations that closely mimic the experimental conditions, which show that the mechanical failure of the strongest particles is triggered by homogeneous nucleation of dislocation loops inside the particle. The nucleation of a stable loop is preceded by multiple nucleation attempts accompanied by unusually large local atomic displacements caused by thermal fluctuations.
Many grain boundaries (GBs) in crystalline materials develop highly disordered, liquid-like structures at high temperatures. In alloys, this premelting effect can be fueled by solute segre-
Molecular dynamics simulations of a quasi-harmonic solid are conducted to elucidate the meaning of temperature fluctuations in canonical systems and validate a well-known but frequently contested equation predicting the mean square of such fluctuations. The simulations implement two virtual and one physical (natural) thermostat and examine the kinetic, potential and total energy correlation functions in the time and frequency domains. The results clearly demonstrate the existence of quasi-equilibrium states in which the system can be characterized by a well-defined temperature that follows the mentioned fluctuation equation. The emergence of such states is due to the wide separation of timescales between thermal relaxation by phonon scattering and slow energy exchanges with the thermostat. The quasi-equilibrium states exist between these two timescales when the system behaves as virtually isolated and equilibrium.
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