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Optimizing fatigue performance of nacre-mimetic PE/TiO2 nanolayered composites by tailoring thickness ratio

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Abstract

Nacre-mimetic (PE/TiO2)4 nanolayered composites (NLCs) with the nanocrystalline TiO2 layer thickness less than 30 nm and different thickness ratios of inorganic/organic layers were successfully prepared by using layer-by-layer self-assembly and chemical bath deposition method. Mechanical properties, especially fatigue properties of the NLCs with different thickness ratios were evaluated. The elastic modulus, hardness and fracture toughness, strain amplitude to fatigue limits of the NLCs reached 27.78 ± 5.69 GPa, 1.33 ± 0.31 GPa, and 4.16 ± 0.20 MPa m1/2, respectively. Fatigue performance of the NLCs in the high and low cycle fatigue regimes was optimized by tailoring the thickness ratio of the TiO2/PE layers. The PE/TiO2 NLCs with the larger thickness ratio of ∼3 has the high fatigue limit (the critical strain amplitude of 0.0853%) in the high-cycle fatigue regime, while that with the smaller thickness ratio of ∼1 and ∼0.5 are of the good fatigue strength in the low-cycle fatigue regime. The basic mechanism for the enhanced fatigue performance is elucidated.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant Nos. 51671050 and 51571199).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, People’s Republic of China

    Yu-Jia Yang & Bin Zhang

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Yu-Jia Yang & Bin Zhang

  3. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Hong-Yuan Wan & Guang-Ping Zhang

Authors
  1. Yu-Jia Yang
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  2. Bin Zhang
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  3. Hong-Yuan Wan
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  4. Guang-Ping Zhang
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Correspondence to Bin Zhang or Guang-Ping Zhang.

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Yang, YJ., Zhang, B., Wan, HY. et al. Optimizing fatigue performance of nacre-mimetic PE/TiO2 nanolayered composites by tailoring thickness ratio. Journal of Materials Research 33, 1543–1552 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.134

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.134

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