We studied solid solution effects on the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline (NC) Pd100−xAux alloys (0 ≤ x < 50 at.%) at the low end of the nanoscale. Concentration has been used as control parameter to tune material properties (elastic moduli, Burgers vector, stacking fault energies) at basically unaltered microstructure (grain size D ≈ 10 nm). In stark contrast to coarse grained fcc alloys, we observe solid solution softening for increasing Au-content. The available predictions from models and theories taking explicitly into account the effect of the nanoscale microstructure on the concentration-dependent shear strength have been disproved without exception. As a consequence, it is implied that dislocation activity contributes only marginally to strength. In fact, we find a linear correlation between shear strength and shear modulus which quantitatively agrees with the universal behavior of metallic glasses discovered by Johnson and Samwer [W.L. Johnson and K. Samwer, PRL 95, 195501 (2005)].

Class II hydrophobins are amphiphilic proteins produced by filamentous fungi. One of their typical features is the tendency to accumulate at the interface between an aqueous phase and a hydrophobic phase, such as the air−water interface. The kinetics of the interfacial self-assembly of wild-type hydrophobins HFBI and HFBII and some of their engineered variants at the air− water interface were measured by monitoring the accumulated mass at the interface via nondestructive ellipsometry measurements. The resulting mass vs time curves revealed unusual kinetics for a monolayer formation that did not follow a typical Langmuir-type of behavior but had a rather coverage-independent rate instead. Typically, the full surface coverage was obtained at masses corresponding to a monolayer. The formation of multilayers was not observed. Atomic force microscopy revealed formation and growth of non-fusing protein clusters at the interface. The mechanism of the adsorption was studied by varying the structure or charges of the protein or the ionic strength of the subphase, revealing that the lateral interactions between the hydrophobins play a role in their interfacial assembly. Additionally, a theoretical model was introduced to identify the underlying mechanism of the unconventional adsorption kinetics.