New insights into nanoscale plasticity of metallic nanosponges by correlative and scale-bridging microscopy and modeling

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2. October 2025

Metallic nanosponges are well known to exhibit distinct mechanical properties that are considered to originate from the interwoven mechanics of the nanoscale ligaments as individual units and as a network. A comprehensive understanding of the physical mechanisms behind these properties spanning over several length scales is to date lacking.

In a strong and long-standing international collaboration, IMN/CENEM researchers contribute to shedding light on these mechanisms. They employ a correlative and scale-bridging workflow combining non-destructive 3D electron and X-ray tomography, in situ mechanics and experimentally-informed real-size modelling to reveal the atomic origins of size dependent deformation mechanisms of nanoporous gold ranging from sub-ten to hundreds of nanometers. A realistic distribution of geometries and sizes of the ligaments appears to be crucial to accurately capture the mechanical response of nanoporous gold, including deformation gradients and plasticity. The established workflow demonstrates the potential for exploring the atomistic mechanisms of material plasticity with geometrical complexity.

Correlative defect analysis by TEM and atomistic simulations (MD) on nanoporous gold (ligament size ~ 30 nm), revealing small angel grain boundaries (SAGB), stacking fault tetrahedrons (SFT) and micro-twins.

 

Correlative TEM analysis, finite elemente (FE) modeling and 3D digital volume correlation (DVC) on nanoporous gold (ligament size ~ 300 nm), linking crystal defects and strain gradients.

 

Scale-bridging deformation mechanism landscape, showcasing size effects on dislocation nucleation and interaction in nanoporous gold.

The result of this work has been recently published in Communications Materials and is the fruit of a strong and long-standing international collaboration involving, among others, Prof. Spiecker and Dr. Przybilla from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE) at IMN/CENEM, Prof. Bitzek from Max-Planck-Institute for Sutainable Materials (DE), Prof. Sandfeld and Dr. Xie from RWTH Aachen University (DE), Dr. Prakash from Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (DE), Dr. Bale and Dr. Kelly from Carl Zeiss X-ray Microscopy (USA), and Dr. Guénolé from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (FR).

 

Przybilla, T., Xie, Z., Prakash, A. et al. Revealing nanoscale plasticity of metallic nanosponges with correlative and scale-bridging 3D microscopy and modelling. Commun Mater 6, 204 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-025-00914-z