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Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 228101 (2006) [4 pages]

Failure of Viral Shells

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William S. Klug1, Robijn F. Bruinsma2, Jean-Philippe Michel3, and Charles M. Knobler3
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
2Department of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
3Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

Irena L. Ivanovska4, Christoph F. Schmidt4,5, and Gijs J. L. Wuite4
4Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
5III. Physikalisches Institut, Fakultät für Physik, Georg-August Universität, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Received 22 June 2006; published 27 November 2006

We report a combined theoretical and experimental study of the structural failure of viral shells under mechanical stress. We find that discontinuities in the force-indentation curve associated with failure should appear when the so-called Föppl–von Kármán (FvK) number exceeds a critical value. A nanoindentation study of a viral shell subject to a soft-mode instability, where the stiffness of the shell decreases with increasing pH, confirms the predicted onset of failure as a function of the FvK number.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.228101
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.228101
PACS:
87.15.La, 46.32.+x, 87.17.Aa, 87.64.Dz