corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 101 » Issue 5
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 055501 (2008) [4 pages]

Three-Dimensional Coherent X-Ray Diffraction Imaging of a Ceramic Nanofoam: Determination of Structural Deformation Mechanisms

Download: PDF (301 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

A. Barty1, S. Marchesini1,2,3,*, H. N. Chapman1,3, C. Cui2, M. R. Howells2, D. A. Shapiro2, A. M. Minor2, J. C. H. Spence4, U. Weierstall4, J. Ilavsky5, A. Noy1, S. P. Hau-Riege1, A. B. Artyukhin1, T. Baumann1, T. Willey1, J. Stolken1, T. van Buuren1, and J. H. Kinney6
1Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, California 94550, USA
2Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
3Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, 2700 Stockton Boulevard, Suite 1400, Sacramento, California 95817, USA
4Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1504, USA
5Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
6Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143, USA

Received 31 August 2007; revised 29 April 2008; published 28 July 2008

Ultralow density polymers, metals, and ceramic nanofoams are valued for their high strength-to-weight ratio, high surface area, and insulating properties ascribed to their structural geometry. We obtain the labrynthine internal structure of a tantalum oxide nanofoam by x-ray diffractive imaging. Finite-element analysis from the structure reveals mechanical properties consistent with bulk samples and with a diffusion-limited cluster aggregation model, while excess mass on the nodes discounts the dangling fragments hypothesis of percolation theory.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.055501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.055501
PACS:
61.05.cf, 42.30.Rx, 68.37.Yz, 82.70.Rr

*Corresponding author.

smarchesini@lbl.gov

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >