Diffusion of water in palm leaf materials.

Diffusion of water into plant materials is known to decrease their mechanical strength and stiffness but improve formability. Here, we characterize water diffusion through areca palm leaf-sheath-a model plant material, with hierarchical structure, used in eco-friendly foodware. The diffusion process is studied using mass gain measurements and imaging of water transport.

Surface-Stress Induced Embrittlement of Metals.

Environment-assisted fracture phenomena in metals are usually associated with surface energy reduction due to an adsorbed film. Here we demonstrate a unique embrittlement effect in Al that is instead mediated by surface stress, induced by an adsorbed organic monolayer. Atomistic simulations show that the adsorbate carbon-chain length controls the surface stress via van der Waals forces, being compressive for < 8 and tensile otherwise.

Organic monolayers disrupt plastic flow in metals.

Adsorbed films often influence mechanical behavior of surfaces, leading to well-known mechanochemical phenomena such as liquid metal embrittlement and environment-assisted cracking. Here, we demonstrate a mechanochemical phenomenon wherein adsorbed long-chain organic monolayers disrupt large-strain plastic deformation in metals. Using high-speed in situ imaging and post facto analysis, we show that the monolayers induce a ductile-to-brittle transition.

The cutting of metals via plastic buckling.

The cutting of metals has long been described as occurring by laminar plastic flow. Here we show that for metals with large strain-hardening capacity, laminar flow mode is unstable and cutting instead occurs by plastic buckling of a thin surface layer. High speed imaging confirms that the buckling results in a small bump on the surface which then evolves into a fold of large amplitude by rotation and stretching.

A framework for studying dynamics and stability of diffusive-reactive interfaces with application to CuSn intermetallic compound growth.

Often during phase growth, the rate of accretion, on the one hand, is determined by a competition between bulk diffusion and surface reaction rate. The morphology of the phase interface, on the other hand, is determined by an interplay between surface diffusivity and surface reaction rate. In this study, a framework to predict the growth and the morphology of an interface by modelling the interplay between bulk diffusion, surface reaction rate and surface diffusion is developed.