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Catalyst-free synthesis and mechanical characterization of TaC nanowires

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Abstract

TaC nanowires are expected to be an ideal reinforcing material in ultra-high-temperature ceramics. However, their growth mechanisms and mechanical properties remain unclear, and low-cost large-scale synthesis has not been realised. In this study, bulk synthesis of [100]-oriented TaC nanowires is accomplished by carbothermal synthesis through a direct vapor-solid mechanism. Thermal resonance test results show that the synthesized square TaC nanowires with cross-sectional side-lengths of 65 to 497 nm have a size-independent Young’s modulus of (510.6±12.6) GPa; very close to the corresponding values of their bulk counterparts, but differing considerably from previously published measurements. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations show that TaC nanowires with side-lengths of above 15 nm have a constant Young’s modulus of 517 GPa, and size effects on the modulus values should only occur at side-lengths below 15 nm. During bending tests, the TaC nanowires fracture into several segments in a brittle mode, and exhibit an increasing fracture strain from 1.88% to 4.28% as their side-length decreases from 489 to 90 nm. Weibull statistics analyses and TEM observations indicate that the failure of the nanowires should be primarily dependent on the number and size of surface defects. MD simulations further reveal that the defect-free TaC nanowires fail brittlely at a theoretical strain up to 5.76%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Shiliang Wang & Liang Ma

  2. School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Shiliang Wang, James Lee Mead & Han Huang

  3. Department of Computing Science, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, D-26129, Germany

    James Lee Mead

  4. Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, 804, China

    Shin-Pon Ju

  5. Department of Medicinal and Applied Chemistry, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, 807, China

    Shin-Pon Ju

  6. State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Guodong Li

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  1. Shiliang Wang
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  2. Liang Ma
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shiliang Wang, Shin-Pon Ju or Han Huang.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11674399), the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2020JJ4676), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University, and the Australian Research Council (Grant No. DP160103190). The authors would like to acknowledge the facilities and the technical assistance from the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland, and the Queensland node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).

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Wang, S., Ma, L., Mead, J.L. et al. Catalyst-free synthesis and mechanical characterization of TaC nanowires. Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 64, 254612 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-020-1672-7

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