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Composite Metallic Nanofoam Structures, David Bahr, Matthew Howard, Mohamad Zbib, Raheleh Rahimi, John Balk

Composites at Lake Louise (CALL 2015)

Metallic nanofoams made of metals such as nickel (Ni) or gold (Au) with ligament sizes on the order of 10’s to 100’s of nm’s exhibit several remarkable properties as a consequence of their low relative density and high specific surface area, such as outstanding strength to weight ratios, enhanced plasmonic behavior and size-effect-enhanced catalytic behavior. However, these metallic nanofoams suffer from macroscopically brittle behavior due to plastic deformation in individual ligaments. With little or no barriers for slip, work-hardening is not possible within ligaments and extremely localized plasticity, once initiated, leads to a few ligaments necking and what appears to …