How to tune the toughness of composites with nano-molecules

Composites engineered at the nanometer-scale are of interest in a variety of applications including energy, electronics and biomedicine. The performance and reliability of such composites are often governed by the integrity of interfaces between dissimilar materials during loading fluctuations triggered by thermal, electrical and mechanical stimuli. Thus, unearthing and understanding nanoscale phenomena at interfaces during dynamic stimuli, and manipulating them, is a key to designing new materials with novel responses for applications. The work published in Nature Communications shows that the use of a layer of molecules called "nanoglue" can facilitate unexpected mechanical hardening depending on the frequency. These results obtained at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are the result of a collaboration of researchers from different fields of materials science, to which Mr. Braccini, CNRS research fellow at the SIMaP laboratory, participated as part of a stay with Professor Ramanath's team.