(July 13, 2015) At
the nanoscale, familiar materials often take on unexpected properties.
Researchers from Brown and NC State have shown that zinc oxide nanowires are
highly anelastic, meaning they return to shape slowly after being bent, rather
than snapping right back. Anelastic materials are good at dissipating of
kinetic energy. This new finding suggest nanowires could be useful in absorbing
shocks and vibrations.
Researchers from Brown University and North Carolina State
University have found that nanowires made of zinc oxide are highly anelastic,
meaning they return to shape slowly after being bent, rather that snapping
right back. The findings, published in the journal Nature Nantechnology, add
one more to the growing list of interesting properties found in nanoscale
wires, tiny strands thousands of times thinner than a human hair.
“What’s surprising here is the magnitude of the effect,”
said Huajian Gao, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering and a
coauthor of a new paper describing the research. “Anelasticity is present but
negligible in many macroscale materials, but becomes prominent at the
nanoscale. We show an anelastic effect in nanowires that is four orders of
magnitude larger than what is observed in even the most anelastic bulk
materials.”