Size Effects on the Stiffness of Silica Nanowires

Abstract

Small but stiff: Results in the literature display an unexplained elastic weakening of silica nanowires with diameters between 43 and 98 nm. However, our new direct mechanical tests using a scanning probe microscope (see schematic) show that silica wires with diameters as small as 280 nm still exhibit the stiffness of bulk silica, while classical molecular dynamics simulations for diameters up to 6 nm predict a small increase in stiffness.