Engineering Science and Materials Commons^™

Strengthening Mechanisms In Nanocrystalline Silver-Nickel Nanolayered Materials, Malcolm Ryan Pringle

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Among all metals, silver has the highest electrical conductivity but also is one of the softest materials under mechanical deformation. Therefore, developing means and methods for strengthening silver without reducing conductivity is critically important for its use as a conductive electrode material in various engineering applications such as solar cells and touchscreen displays. This thesis presents a molecular-dynamics simulation study of strengthening mechanisms by intercalating nanocrystalline silver films with amorphous nickel layers, characterizing the structure of nanolayered material prototypes obtained by sputtering deposition technique. The objectives of the thesis are three-fold: To study the effects of Ni layer thickness and …