Exploring Deformation Mechanisms in Nanostructured Materials

Useful properties of structural materials generally depend on their bulk microstructure. For centuries, improvements in structural materials relied heavily on processing, which in turn determined the resulting microstructure and properties. Materials sciences are entering an era in which specific properties of a material are obtained not only from its processing but also by controlling of the architecture of its constituents, often with sub-micron dimensions. To utilize this newly achievable nanoscale engineering precision in structural applications, it is imperative to quantify the deformation processes at each relevant scale, with special attention focusing on the importance of internal and external heterogeneities, for example grain boundaries, bi-material interfaces, phase boundaries, etc., on mechanical loading. It has been shown for single crystals that yield (and fracture) strengths increase with power-law dependence on sample size reduction when the micron scale is reached, and therefore, can no longer be inferred from bulk response or from the literature. Although these studies provide a powerful foundation for fundamental deformation processes operating at small scales, they are far from representing real materials used in structural applications, whose microstructure is often complex, containing boundaries and interfaces. Both homogeneous (i.e. grain and twin boundaries) and heterogeneous (i.e. phase and precipitate-matrix boundaries) interfaces in size-limited features are crucial aspects of the structural reliability of most modern materials. They are also of particular importance to damage initiation. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art experimental and computational methods used to investigate mechanical behavior and microstructural evolution in small-scale metallic systems, deformation of which depends on intricate interactions of defects with internal interfaces and with free surfaces. Attention is focused on the effects of multiple grain boundaries spanning the sample volume (nanocrystalline and polycrystalline metals). This overview sheds light on the relative importance of intrinsic versus extrinsic length scale limitations on deformation mechanisms in nanostructured metals, which has significant implications for the development of new materials with tunable mechanical properties.