Component dependence of mechanical properties of helical Ni-Al alloy nanowires

¹  Physics Department, Ocean University of China - Qingdao, China
²  Key Laboratory of Liquid Structure and Heredity of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Material Science and Engineering, Shandong University - Shandong, China

Corresponding author: lihuilmy@hotmail.com

Received: 18 April 2008
Accepted: 4 July 2008

Abstract

Using molecular-dynamics simulation with tight-binding potentials, we have studied the deformation and stretching mechanism of Ni-Al alloy nanowires (NWs) with different component contents. These NWs encapsulated into carbon nanotube (CNT) form the novel multi-walled helical structures. It is found that, during the stretching process, some surface atoms slip into the point-defect of the inner layer of NWs. As the cross-section area becomes necking, this bond rearrangement results in the abrupt variation of the potential curves. Furthermore, the simulation results show that the force-strain curve is linear before a certain point Y1 (at about ) and non-linear after Y1. In addition, the Young modulus characteristic is variable during the stretching and dependent upon the component content of alloy NWs.