Deformation and failure of curved colloidal crystal shells

Designing and controlling particle self-assembly into robust and reliable high-performance smart materials often involves crystalline ordering in curved spaces. Examples include carbon allotropes like graphene, synthetic materials such as colloidosomes, or biological systems like lipid membranes, so...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Negri, Carlotta, Sellerio, Allesandro L., Zapperi, Stefano, Miguel López, María del Carmen
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/125628
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/125628
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Plasticitat
Cristalls
Plasticity
Crystals
Descrição
Resumo:Designing and controlling particle self-assembly into robust and reliable high-performance smart materials often involves crystalline ordering in curved spaces. Examples include carbon allotropes like graphene, synthetic materials such as colloidosomes, or biological systems like lipid membranes, solid domains on vesicles, or viral capsids. Despite the relevance of these structures, the irreversible deformation and failure of curved crystals is still mostly unexplored. Here, we report simulation results of the mechanical deformation of colloidal crystalline shells that illustrate the subtle role played by geometrically necessary topological defects in controlling plastic yielding and failure. We observe plastic deformation attributable to the migration and reorientation of grain boundary scars, a collective process assisted by the intermittent proliferation of disclination pairs or abrupt structural failure induced by crack nucleating at defects. Our results provide general guiding principles to optimize the structural and mechanical stability of curved colloidal crystals.